"Billy Baxter" is a song by Australian rock group Paul Kelly and the Dots, released on 20 October 1980 as the lead single from the album Talk (1981).

The song's subject, Billy Baxter, is an Australian musician and was a long term member of Coodabeens Footy Show on ABC Radio National.

[5] The subject of the song, Billy Baxter, is an Australian vocalist (ex-Ghetto Blasters, Big Fans of Jesus, The Hollow Men and solo).

"[7] The B-side to the single, "Hard Knocks", was featured in the soundtrack[8] of the 1980 AFI Award nominated film of the same name.

[13] According to the lyrics, Billy Baxter's attributes include: lost limitations, imitations, a thousand faces, a lover, a gambler, a lesson for all the crew, a hungry heart, love to burn, in love with abandon but never loses control, walks right through disaster and still whole, plays pantomimes.

[13] Camilleri recommended Kelly to Mushroom Records and put up the money to produce the group's debut album, Talk.

[12] Kelly remembered "I'd done my back badly and couldn't stand or sit for any length of time, so I had to do my vocals lying on the floor...

[13] The B-side, "Hard Knocks", was produced by Trevor Lucas (of United Kingdom folk group Fairport Convention).