Billy Butler is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 soul

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 singer and songwriter

Songwriter

A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...

 active principally in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Butler is Jerry Butler

Jerry Butler (singer)

Jerry Butler is an American soul singer and songwriter. He is also noted as being the original lead singer of the R&B vocal group, The Impressions, as well as a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.Butler is also an American politician...

's younger brother. He formed the vocal group The Enchanters while at high school. He first recorded for Okeh Records

Okeh Records

Okeh Records began as an independent record label based in the United States of America in 1918. From 1926 on, it was a subsidiary of Columbia Records.-History:...

 in 1963, and was produced initially by Curtis Mayfield

Curtis Mayfield

Curtis Lee Mayfield was an American soul, R&B, and funk singer, songwriter, and record producer.He is best known for his anthemic music with The Impressions during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's and for composing the soundtrack to the blaxploitation film Super Fly, Mayfield is highly...

 and later by Carl Davis

Carl Davis (record producer)

Carl H. Davis is an American record producer and music executive, who was particularly active in Chicago in the 1960s and 1970s when he was responsible for hit R&B records by Gene Chandler, Major Lance, Jackie Wilson, The Chi-Lites, Barbara Acklin, Tyrone Davis and others.-Life and career:He was...

. 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

Hit record

A hit record is a sound recording, usually in the form of a single or album, that sells a large number of copies or otherwise becomes broadly popular or well-known, through airplay, club play, inclusion in a film or stage play soundtrack, causing it to have "hit" one of the popular chart listings...

 was 1965's "I Can't Work No Longer", which reached #6 on the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

Black Singles

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs

Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, is a chart released weekly by Billboard in the United States.The chart, initiated in 1942, is used to track the success of popular music songs in urban, or primarily African American, venues. Dominated over the years at various times by jazz, rhythm and blues, doo-wop, soul,...

 chart

Record chart

A record chart is a ranking of recorded music according to popularity during a given period of time. Examples of music charts are the Hit parade, Hot 100 or Top 40....

 and #60 on the Billboard Hot 100

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

. The group disbanded in 1966, and after a minor solo hit with "The Right Track" he left Okeh.

He later formed a new group, Infinity, with Batts, Larry Wade and Phyllis Knox. They had three minor R&B hits: "Get on the Case" (#41 R&B, Fountain Records, 1969), "I Don't Want To Lose You" (Memphis Records, #38 R&B, 1971), and "Hung Up On You" (Pride Records, #48 R&B, 1973). He also wrote songs for his brother, as well as for musicians such as Major Lance

Major Lance

Major Lance was an American R&B singer. After a number of US hits in the 1960s, including "The Monkey Time" and "Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um", he became an iconic figure in Britain in the 1970s among followers of Northern soul.-Life:Major Lance was born in Winterville, Mississippi...

 and Gene Chandler

Gene Chandler

Gene Chandler also known as "The Duke of Earl" or simply "The Duke", is an American R&B and soul singer-songwriter, producer and record executive. He is one of the leading exponents of the 1960s Chicago soul scene...

.

Today, Butler plays the guitar in his brother, Jerry's, band.

Singles

• "Can't Live Without Her" (1964)
• "I Can't Work No Longer" (1965)
• "The Right Track" (1966)
• "Get on the Case" (1969)
• "Free Yourself" (1971)
• "I Don't Want To Lose You" (1971)
• "Hung Up On You" (1973)
• "Boston Monkey" (?)