[6] His maternal great-great grandfather, Ta Ramón Gundo Paredes (later changed to Ta Ramón Gundo Moré),[6] was said to be the son of the king of a tribe in the Kingdom of Kongo who was captured by slave traders and sold to a Cuban plantation owner named Ramon Paredes and subsequently to another Cuban landowner named Conde Moré[6][7] (Paredes/Moré was later liberated and died as a freeman at age 94.)

As a child, Moré learned to play the guitar, making his first instrument at the age of six, according to his mother, from "a stick and a sardine can that served as the sound box".

[1] In 1936, at the age of 17, he left Las Lajas for Havana, where he made a living by selling bruised and damaged fruits and vegetables and medicinal herbs.

In the early 1940s, radio station CMQ had a program called The Supreme Court of Art, in which a wide variety of artists participated.

In 1941, Moré made his debut on Radio Mil Diez, performing with the Conjunto Cauto, directed by Mozo Borgella.

[7] Ciro Rodríguez, of the famed Trío Matamoros, heard Moré singing in the bar El Temple and was greatly impressed.

[11] In Mexico City, Moré made recordings for RCA Victor, with Perez Prado: "Anabacoa", "Bonito y Sabroso", "Mucho Corazón", "Pachito Eché", "La Múcura", "Rabo y Oreja" and other numbers.

He also recorded with Mexican orchestras, specially with the one directed by Rafael de Paz; they recorded "Yiri Yiri Bon", "La Culebra", "Mata Siguaraya", "Solamente Una Vez" and "Bonito y Sabroso", a mambo song where he praises the dancing skills of the Mexicans and claims that Mexico City and La Habana are sister cities.

His first Cuban recordings were with Mariano Mercerón & his Orchestra, including songs such as "Fiesta de Tambores", "Salomón", "La Chola", among others.

Moré began alternating between performances in the Cadena Oriental radio station and trips to Havana to record at the RCA studios in CMQ Radiocentro.

In Havana, Moré worked for the radio station RHC-Cadena Azul, with the orchestra of Bebo Valdés, who introduced the new style called "batanga".

[17] The original lineup featured Ignacio Cabrera "Cabrerita" (piano); Miguel Franca, Santiago Peñalver, Roberto Barreto, Celso Gómez and Virgilio Vixama (saxophones); Alfredo "Chocolate" Armenteros, Rigoberto "Rabanito" Jiménez and Domingo Corbacho (trumpets); José Miguel Gómez (trombone); Alberto Limonta (double bass); Tabaquito (congas); Clemente Piquero "Chicho" (bongos); Rolando Laserie (drums), and Fernando Álvarez and Enrique Benitez (vocals).

Other hits followed, including self-penned songs such as "Mi saoco", "Santa Isabel de las Lajas", "Cienfuegos" and "Dolor y perdón".

[12] In 1956 and 1957, they toured Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Jamaica, Haiti, Colombia, Panama, Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United States, where the group played at the Academy Awards.

[24] On 11 June 2006, Moré was honored with a star on the Walk of Fame at Celia Cruz Park in Union City, New Jersey, a heavily Cuban-American community[25][26][27][28] that has hosted musical presentations and multimedia lectures on the singer.

[29] Beny Moré appears as a character in the novel The Island of Eternal Love (Penguin Random House, 2008), by Cuban-American writer Daína Chaviano, who also concludes her novel with a chapter titled "Today as Yesterday", one of the best interpretations of this singer.

Numerous tribute albums consisting of cover versions of Moré's songs have been released by artists such as Tito Puente (1978, 1979 and 1985), Charanga de la 4 (1981), Bobby Carcassés (1985), Tropicana All-Stars (2004) and Jon Secada (2017).