Billy Vera & Judy Clay

Billy Vera & Judy Clay were less notable for their music than for their historical importance: certainly the first interracial recording duo in soul music, this late-'60s team may have been the first interracial recording duo of any sort. Vera was a New York songwriter with some minor successes (Ricky Nelson's "Mean Old World," Barbara Lewis' "Make Me Belong to You") when he brought his composition "Storybook Children" to Atlantic executive Jerry Wexler. Vera initially tried to record it with Nona Hendryx (then with Patti LaBelle & the Bluebelles), but when that idea didn't pa...