Initially gaining fame as the drummer for secular rock band Les Variations, Bitton became a baal teshuva through Chabad in the late 1970s and subsequently began a career in contemporary Jewish music.
Les Variations opened for some of the top billed rockers of the day, such as Bachman–Turner Overdrive, Kiss, The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Cream, Taste and Aerosmith.
[citation needed] Bitton met Chabad emissaries (shluchim) who helped him further discover his Orthodox Jewish heritage.
The regular members included Menachem Schmidt[3](snare drum), Tzvi Freeman[4][5][6] (acoustic guitar), Moshe Morgenstern[7] (cello), and business and equipment manager Shlomo Sawilowsky.
Subsequently, Bitton, who had moved to the nearby Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York, joined and completed the group.
A four-song demo was cut in a local studio, but the BSTB disbanded in 1978 as the rabbinical students began to graduate.
He has served as leader and cantor for a Sefardi synagogue in Crown Heights since the early 1980s, where his musical signature is evident in his cantorial renditions.
Bitton has played some shows geared toward an Orthodox Jewish audience, but has not rekindled his music career to his former level of a chart topping rock musician.
[15] The Bittons were removed from the scene by local residents and reporters, including Peter Noel,[16] a West Indian journalist for the Village Voice.