Billy Butler (June 7, 1945 – March 31, 2015) was an American soul singer and songwriter active in the 1960s and 1970s. Butler was Jerry Butler’s younger brother. He formed the vocal group the Enchanters while at high school. He first recorded for Okeh Records in 1963, and was produced initially by Curtis Mayfield and later by Carl Davis. On early recordings he was backed by the Chanters, a renamed version of the Enchanters; other members were Errol Batts and Jesse Tillman. His first and biggest hit was 1965’s “I Can’t Work No Longer”, which reached #6 on the U.S. Billboard Black Singles chart and #60 on the Billboard Hot 100. The group disbanded in 1966, and after a minor solo hit with “The Right Track” he left Okeh. “The Right Track” is placed at number 11 in the Northern Soul Top 500. Butler played the guitar in the band of his brother, Jerry. (More from Wikipedia)
Mikki Farrow moved to Chicago in the late 1980’s; she began dating Billy Butler (the brother of her one-time mentor, Jerry Butler) and later married him. Long before they married, Mikki Farrow and Billy Butler wrote a song, “Ever Since I Can Remember” that appears on Jerry Butler’s 1973 album, The Love We Have, The Love We Had.
Though not nearly so well known as Jerry Butler, Billy Butler was also a professional musician who was mainly active in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Curtis Mayfield supervised his first session at Okeh Records, and that label released his first album, Right Track (1966). He later formed a vocal group called Infinity, which released a 1973 album called Hung up on You.
In 2007, Kent Records put together a CD called The Right Tracks, covering 29 of the recordings that Billy Butler made at Okeh Records. Writing for Allmusic, Richie Unterberger gives the CD 4½ stars and says: “First and foremost, [Billy] Butler, though far less celebrated than his older brother Jerry Butler, was a fine singer and songwriter in his own right, producing consistently good pop-soul discs that were rather reminiscent of the Impressions (and, at times, Major Lance, another Chicago soul artist with strong connections to Curtis Mayfield). In addition, if you are a fan of Mayfield’s mid-’60s work with the Impressions and as a songwriter/producer, this has some of his best overlooked work in the latter capacity.”
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Mikki Farrow started an evangelical ministry and pursued her love of gospel music. Apparently she never released any other recordings. She died on February 10, 2002 after she and Billy Butler had two daughters, Ebony and Dawn.
(July 2014)
