He later wrote hits for other artists including: Madonna ("Crazy for You"), Michael Jackson ("Human Nature"), the Pointer Sisters ("Slow Hand"), Conway Twitty ("Slow Hand"), Diana Ross, Westlife ("When You Tell Me That You Love Me"),[2] Jennifer Warnes ("Nights Are Forever"), Peabo Bryson ("Can You Stop the Rain"), Maria Vidal ("Body Rock") , George Strait ("Heartland"), Juice Newton ("Heart of the Night"), Ronnie Milsap ("Only One Love in My Life"), Barbara Mandrell ("One of a Kind Pair of Fools"),[3] Louise Mandrell ("Too Hot to Sleep"), 38 Special ("Like No Other Night"), New Kids on the Block ("If You Go Away"), Donna Summer ("The Woman in Me"), Barbra Streisand ("Sweet Forgiveness"), Eric Clapton (“One Woman”) and Whitney Houston ("One Moment in Time").

His first Emmy was for the theme to the 1988 Summer Olympics ("One Moment in Time") co-written with Albert Hammond, and his second win was for "Where There Is Hope" from Guiding Light.

His work in film also includes Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Body Rock, The Last Boy Scout, Twilight Zone: The Movie, The Lonely Guy, Legend, Vision Quest, Supergirl, The Men's Club, Pure Country, Nothing in Common, Cocktail, 8 Seconds, Cobra, Back to the Beach,[5] Oh, God!

He attended San Pedro High School and graduated in 1964,[10] 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.

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.

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.

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.

Clark and Bettis also co-wrote Juice Newton's "Heart of the Night" and Donna Summer's "The Woman in Me".

In 1983, Bettis gained his biggest achievement with "Human Nature", a ballad penned for Michael Jackson's multi-platinum album Thriller.

It has also been sampled by SWV, Ne-Yo, 2Pac, Lil Wayne, Nas, Jason Nevins and Chris Brown.

The end result was "Crazy for You", a song not originally written for, but recorded by Madonna, who also performs it in the film.

In 1988, he co-wrote "One Moment in Time" with Albert Hammond which was recorded by Whitney Houston as the theme for the Summer Olympics.