California, his family's roots are in Missouri's Ozark Mountains. Bettis was introduced to country music at a very early age. Bettis began singing and playing trumpet when he was eight. In high school, he took up the guitar, was a member of the choir, and was active in theater. He attended San Pedro High School and graduated in 1964, At age 16, he auditioned and landed the lead role in a high-school production of Carousel where he first discovered the craft of songwriting. Shortly after, Bettis and his understudy formed a folk duo and began performing and touring on the folk circuit, opening for acts like Hoyt Axton, Ian & Sylvia and The Dillards. After graduation, he attended Long Beach State College. At CSULB, Bettis was writing songs for his college choir (conducted by Frank Pooler) when he met fellow student Richard Carpenter and his sister Karen. The three of them formed a band called Spectrum in 1966. In order to make money for equipment, Bettis and Richard Carpenter formed a duo with Bettis on banjo and Carpenter on piano and regularly performed a golden oldies set at Disneyland. Songwriting career In 1969, Richard and Karen Carpenter signed a contract with A&M Records. Their debut album Offering had 11 songs co-written by Bettis but was not a commercial success. At the request of label owner Herb Alpert, the team recorded "Close to You", a Bacharach/David composition, in 1970 which became the Carpenters first hit, with the Bettis/Carpenter-penned "Goodbye to Love" and "Yesterday Once More" finding equal success in 1972 and 1973. During this time Bettis was spending half the year in Nashville slowly getting acquainted with the songwriting community. After hearing the Carpenter/Bettis song "Top of the World", country star Lynn Anderson recorded the song, earning Bettis his first success in country music. Anderson was the first to release the song as a single and make it a hit in 1973. The success of Anderson's recording prompted the Carpenters to release their version as a single that same year. The Carpenters' version peaked at #1 for two weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in December 1973. While the Carpenters rose to fame with co-written hits like "Only Yesterday", "I Need to Be in Love" and their own version of "Top of the World", Bettis continued working in Nashville. In 1978, Ronnie Milsap had a number one hit with Bettis'