Happy birthday to late great William Everett Billy Preston (September 2, 1946 – June 6, 2006) an American musician whose work included R&B, rock, soul, funk and gospel. Preston became famous first as a session musician with artists including Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and The Beatles, and was later successful as a solo artist with hit pop singles including Outa-Space, its sequel, Space Race, Will It Go Round in Circles and Nothing from Nothing, and a string of albums and guest appearances with Eric Clapton, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and others. In addition, Preston was co-author, with The Beach Boys Dennis Wilson, of You Are So Beautiful, recorded by Preston and later a #5 hit for Joe Cocker. Alongside Tony Sheridan, Billy Preston was the only other musician to be credited on a Beatles recording: the artists on the number-one hit Get Back are given as The Beatles with Billy Preston. Stephen Stills asked Preston if he could use Prestons phrase if you cant be with the one you love, love the one youre with and created the hit song. Preston was born on September 2, 1946, in Houston, Texas. When he was three, the family moved to Los Angeles where Preston began playing piano while sitting on his mother Robbies lap.[citation needed] Noted as a child prodigy, by the age of ten, Preston was playing organ onstage backing several gospel singers such as Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland and Andrae Crouch.[citation needed] At twelve, he appeared in the W.C. Handy biopic starring Nat King Cole entitled, St. Louis Blues, playing W.C. Handy at a younger age. A year prior, Preston appeared on Coles national TV show singing the Fats Domino hit, Blueberry Hill. In 1962, Preston joined Little Richards band as an organist and it was while performing in Hamburg that Preston met the Beatles. In 1963, he played the organ on Sam Cookes Night Beat album and released his debut album, 16 Yr Old Soul, that same year for Cookes SAR Records label. In 1965, he released the album The Most Exciting Organ Ever, and that same year performed on the rock and roll show, Shindig!. In 1967, he joined Ray Charles band. Following his exposure with Charles, several musicians began asking Preston to come to sessions, most notably the Beatles, who asked him to contribute to two of their albums, Abbey Road and Let It Be and the Apple Records rooftop concert. Preston is one of several people sometimes referred to by outsiders as a Fifth Beatle. At one point during the Get Back sessions, John Lennon even proposed the idea of having him as the Fifth Beatle (to which Paul McCartney countered that it was difficult enough reaching agreements with four). Prestons solo career began to decline after 1976. After years with A&M Records, he switched labels, moving to Motown Records where, in 1980, he had a top-ten hit duet with Syreeta Wright with the ballad With You Im Born Again, which reached number four on the charts in the US. Failing thereafter to match its success, Preston left the label in 1984 and focused on session work. Preston had battled kidney disease in his later years, brought on by his hypertension. He received a kidney transplant in 2002, but his health continued to deteriorate. He died on June 6, 2006, in Scottsdale, Arizona, of complications of malignant hypertension that resulted in kidney failure and other complications. He had voluntarily entered a drug rehabilitation clinic in Malibu, California, at the suggestion of guitarist Isreal Benton, and suffered pericarditis there, leading to respiratory failure that left him in a coma from November 21, 2005. His funeral was held on June 20 at the Faithful Central Bible Church in Inglewood, California, where his remains were interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery.
Posted on: Tue, 02 Sep 2014 05:00:11 +0000
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