You Gotta Have Somethin'

If you're any kind of music fan, I'm guessing you have at least one of these albums in your collection:

The Beatles: Let It Be
The Beatles: Abbey Road
The Rolling Stones: Exile on Main Street
The Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers
Bob Dylan: Blood on the Tracks
Sly & the Family Stone: There's a Riot Goin' On
George Harrison: All Things Must Pass
John Lennon: Plastic Ono Band

These are all classic albums and important milestones in the development of rock & roll. The common denominator among them? Billy Preston performed on all of them.

Aside from his musical talents, Preston was also the guy who managed to hold the Beatles together for their final two albums, and was also the only artist to ever share a label credit with the band. He's also the only musician to ever play with both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. Preston continued to show up on other important albums throughout his career, though you might be hard pressed to recall the title of any of his albums. He did have a number of hits of his own, but his most important contribution to music was perhaps as a sideman, one of the preeminent studio musicians in rock history. Preston continued to work until he fell into a coma late last year. Among his recent work, he appeared on the latest albums from Neil Diamond and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as on the final album from Ray Charles.

My favorite of Preston's performances are his keyboard solo on "Get Back," a break that brought McCartney's song back to life when he was close to abandoning it, and Preston's song from 1973, "Will It Go Round in Circles," which I used to hear on the school bus radio and was one of the first R&B numbers I was exposed to as a kid.

You can read more about Preston's accomplishments here and here and here. Preston deserves more widespread recognition. He was a truly joyous performer, inflecting the songs he played with a distinctive and vital touch. The variety of performers he has worked with is a testament to Preston's versatility and personality. Who else could manage to work with each of the Beatles in the wake of their acrimonious split? Who else has played on so many classic albums, yet remains largely unrecognized by the general public? Preston was an important and influential musician, and rock & roll will be poorer without him.