Listen: Billy Recce Releases New Single 'Come Out'

Billy Recce - the Billboard-charting and two-time MAC Award-winning songwriter behind the musicals A Musical About Star Wars and the Broadway-bound Little Black Book - has released his effervescent new single "Come Out" on all digital and streaming platforms today Friday, May 12. The accompanying music video will be available on YouTube on Friday, May 19. "Come Out" has music and lyrics by Billy Recce, and orchestrations and production by Lloyd Kikoler. Recce is currently represented on the New York stage as composer of Singfeld! A Musical Parody About Nothing!, now running at Off-Broadway's Theater Center. Listen below!

"Come Out" is a bright and upbeat pop confection with a slightly satirical but good-natured take on the classic breakup song. Billy explains, "I wrote this in the style of coked-out, '80s pop/rock anthems like 'Holding Out for a Hero,' 'Gloria' or 'Mickey' - some of my favorite hits. I wanted to put together a song that begins at a 10 and goes all the way to 99. At its heart, 'Come Out' celebrates both queer longing, and queer joy, but it is first and foremost a true bop. I can't wait for folks to dance along with it this summer!"

"This song was written for a concert of my songs," Billy continues. "It was my first big show back since the pandemic, and I wanted to write something that could double as both an opening number - a re-introduction to my body of work after a period of quarantine - but also as a breakup song. I love writing songs with lyrics that start with a slew of possibilities for their journey, and then deceptively head towards an unexpected ending. That's all a part of the gay, chaotic fun."

Regarding the candy-colored "Come Out" music video, Billy comments: "We wanted the video to be just as fun and over the top as the track. Our director Amanda Whitley had the fantastic idea of staging a 1980s gay wedding. That felt like the perfect setting for a song all about being nostalgic for old times with someone. Our fantasy includes a drag queen officiant, hundreds of pounds of tulle, and a whole bunch of surprises. Special shoutout to the girl in the neck brace - it's not an '80s fever dream without one."

The single "Come Out" features Lloyd Kikoler on guitar and bass, Josh Roberts on drums, Erika Friedman on woodwinds, and Dustin Beardsley on trumpet. Joining forces again after their performances on the Billboard-charting Little Black Book concept album are background vocalists Lauren Robinson, Sarah Kleist, and Amanda Lopez. "Nobody slays like these three voices do when they're put together," says Recce.

The video directed by Amanda Whitley, produced by Recce, Whitley and Danielle Diamond, edited by Daph Levy, and features cinematography by Leo Gallagher, and choreography by Nora Slonim. The cast includes Nancy NoGood, Joey Nasta, and Bryan Munar.

Billy Recce

is an award-winning writer, composer and singer/songwriter living in New York City. One of the most prolific young musical theatre writers of his generation, Billy's career began by making international headlines with Balloon Boy: The Musical, for which he was the youngest writer ever selected for the New York Musical Theater Festival at 17. Its world premiere production was featured on CBS, NBC, NPR, Time, The Los Angeles Times, and even Fox News, and has since been produced across the country.

By the time he was a senior at Fordham University, he had already penned the music and lyrics to a hit Off-Broadway show, A Musical About Star Wars, which transferred to St. Luke's Theatre for a year-long run after opening at Theatre Row. Its cast album is available on Broadway Records. In 2022, it began an open-ended run on the Las Vegas Strip at the V Theatre.

Before he was of legal drinking age, Billy had co-authored songs for Bernadette Peters, Mandy Patinkin, Laura Benanti, and Tituss Burgess on "The Birds and the BS with Jordan Roth," served as the head writer and composer of the BroadwayWorld sitcom "Rachel Unraveled," and sold out 54 Below several times with his traveling "Snowflake Jamboree" concerts.

A five-time MAC Award nominee, Billy won his first award for Comedy Song in 2018, which he repeated in 2020. In 2017, Recce was the recipient of the York Theatre Company NEO Award. In 2018, his debut album The Perks of Being a Snowflake was released. In 2021, Broadway Records released the all-star concept recording of his theatrical rock concert about the life of Heidi Fleiss, Little Black Book, featuring Alice Ripley, Lillias White, Jessica Vosk, Orfeh, Mandy Gonzalez, and more. The album debuted at #11 on the Billboard charts and #6 on the Apple Music charts. His Chick-Fil-A-centered queer musical satire Fowl Play is currently in development with director John Tartaglia and starring "RuPaul's Drag Race" finalist Rosé.

Billy's expansive body of work includes the musicals Dimes (NY Theatre Barn, Fordham), additional songs for NEWSical The Musical (Theatre Row) The Bestest Office Christmas Party Ever (NY Theatre Barn) and its accompanying EP featuring Mary Testa, Duo/Trio (The Motor Company), and The Charlatans (Fordham). His work has been performed at Cadogan Hall, 54 Below, The New Amsterdam, Broadway in Bryant Park, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Signature Theatre, Ars Nova, The York Theatre, and beyond. His work with Theater for Young Audiences was recently singled out in The New York Times. Recently, he has been creating short form musical content on TikTok, amassing over two million views in his first month.

He has been an artist in residence at the Orchard Project Greenhouse, a semi-finalist for the inaugural Relentless Musical Award, a NAMT finalist, a Wallowitch Award finalist and a 2022 Jonathan Larson Grant finalist. Billy is a proud member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild.