Billy Preston was an American keyboardist and singer-songwriter who had hits and won Grammy awards as a solo artist.
But he is best known as one of pop music's great session musicians - working with some of the biggest names in music history.
Billy Preston Photo: [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Billy_Preston_perforning_in_1971.jpg/CC]
He was even unofficially the ‘Fifth Beatle’ playing on some of the band's greatest songs and appeared on half a dozen Rolling Stones albums in the 1970s.
His other claim to fame is that he wrote one of Joe Cocker's biggest hits ‘You are So Beautiful’.
Simon Sweetman joined Jesse Mulligan to talk about Preston and share some of the legendary music he helped to create.
Preston was a child prodigy, completely self-taught, who never had a music lesson in his life.
But by the age of 10 he’s playing with gospel great Mahalia Jackson, at 11 he is on TV with Nat King Cole and he even sang with his hero Ray Charles on a TV appearance when he was still a teenager.
A meeting that would change his life happened when he was in Little Richard’s band, which he joined at 15, as an organist.
Richard was playing shows with The Beatles, and Preston struck up a friendship with George Harrison, they were both a similar age.
“They became the tightest of friends, it lasted the span of their lifetime,” Sweetman says.
Preston released a string of albums showcasing his organ work in the 1960s and as well as touring and playing on numerous sessions - Sam Cooke, the Everly Brothers and Ray Charles among the artists he worked with - and then he gets the call to help out The Beatles on the Let It Be sessions.
His soulful playing is a hit with the Beatles and John, George and Ringo wanted him to join the band permanently at one stage – Paul was less keen says Sweetman.
Preston plays a prominent part on the two best solo albums by Beatles members, says Sweetman - John Lennon’s Plastic Ono Band and George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass.
He is also on many of Ringo's albums and became a member of the Ringo Starr All Star band for a while.
During the 1970s Preston hits his stride as a solo artist and a gun session player, Sweetman says.
He plays on the psychedelic soul classic There's A Riot Goin On by Sly and the Family Stone and has a number of hits in his own right.
During this time he also played on six Rolling Stones albums including Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street and Goats Head Soup and also toured with them at their 1970s peak.
Billy Preston performs during the "Jammin for Ray" Post-Grammy Party 2005 Photo: AFP / FILE
But by the ‘80s the hits were drying up and drug, drink, legal and financial problems beset the latter part of his career, Sweetman says.
Preston was a closeted gay man and he wrestled with his sexuality, Sweetman says.
“The times were different, and he felt it wasn't acceptable, only coming out to a few people and very late in life.”
Preston’s addictions eventually caught up with him and he died aged 59 in 2006, a few years after his best friend George Harrison.
Songs played:
‘Uptight (Everything's Alright)’ Billy Preston
Album: The Wildest Organ In Town!
‘Don't Let Me Down’ The Beatles
Album: Let It Be - Naked
‘God’ by John Lennon
Album: Plastic Ono Band
‘My Sweet Lord’ by Billy Preston
Album: Encouraging Words
Harrison gave 'My Sweet Lord' to Preston who recorded it first.
‘Family Affair’ by Sly & The Family Stone
Album: There's a Riot Goin' On
‘I Wrote A Simple Song’ by Billy Preston
Album: I Wrote A Simple Song
‘Will It Go Round In Circles’ by Billy Preston
Album: Music Is My Life
‘You Are So Beautiful’ by Billy Preston
Album: The Kids & Me
‘Nothing From Nothing’ by Billy Preston
Album: The Kids & Me
