Keyboard player Billy Preston is another excellent candidate to be called the Fifth Beatle. In April 1969 the Get Back single was credited to "The Beatles with Billy Preston", as was its b-side, Don’t Let Me Down. Along with Tony Sheridan, he was one of just two non-members to receive top billing on a Beatles single.
On the Beatles albums ‘Let It Be’ and ‘Abbey Road’ we can listen to Preston’s keyboard playing. Here in the Cellar, for the first time ever, we have a recording of Preston singing, accompanied by the Beatles. He really makes ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ his own!
Billy Preston is also associated with the history of the Beatles in many ways over the years. Billy Preston first met the Beatles in Hamburg in 1962. Preston was playing keyboards for Little Richard, and the Beatles were huge fans. Harrison, the youngest of the Beatles, bonded with the 15-year-old Preston, and they remained life-long friends. They met again in 1969, during the sessions for the Let It Be album and film. According to George Harrison, George had walked out of the studio and gone to a Ray Charles concert in London, where he saw Preston playing the organ. George brought Billy in to play keyboards on some of the Let It Be tracks, as the original idea of Let It Be was to be a "live" recording with no overdubbing, which left none of them to add things like a keyboard part. According to others, George invited Billy to say hello to the Beatles when they were recording in the Apple studios, and Paul invited him to jam along. Anyway, they probably all felt that bringing in an outsider would make the others behave nicer and make the Let It Be set a happier place to be, and it worked, albeit temporarily.
Billy worked with The Beatles from 22-31 January 1969, playing Fender Rhodes electric piano and a Lowrey DSO Heritage organ (not Hammond organ!). The Beatles were happy to have Billy in the studio, and after 2 days John suddenly said that he’d like to see Billy join The Beatles. Feeling that two days involvement is rather too short an apprenticeship for membership in the world’s most influential band, Paul half-jokingly stated that it’s bad enough with four of them. George settled the matter by saying that he then would invite Bob Dylan to join The Beatles! If only………..
Preston performed with The Beatles during their 42-minute performance on the rooftop of Apple, on 30 January 1969, which was the band's final public performance.
Billy Preston also played on the Abbey Road album. He performed on the songs I Want You (She's So Heavy) and Something, though was not credited.
Billy's relationship with the Beatles continued even after their breakup. George Harrison co-produced two albums for Apple with Billy. His greatest hit single, That's The Way God Planned It, was produced by George Harrison.
Billy performed with George at the Concert for Bangla Desh at Madison Square Garden, and played on these George Harrison albums: All Things Must Pass, Extra Texture, Dark Horse and 33 1/3. He also played on John's Plastic Ono Band and Sometime in New York City albums (and is reputed to play on Instant Karma!), and with Ringo on the ‘Ringo’ and ‘Goodnight Vienna’ albums. Billy Preston performed at the Concert For George, the 2002 tribute concert for Harrison at the Royal Albert Hall, where he played My Sweet Lord and Isn't It A Pity.
In 2003 he was heard on Let It Be... Naked, the de-Spectored version of the 1969 Let It Be sessions.
His final public appearance was at a 2005 in Los Angeles, for the re-release of the Concert for Bangladesh film. Afterwards he performed Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth), My Sweet Lord and Isn't It A Pity with Ringo Starr and George's son Dhani.
Preston was the first to record My Sweet Lord, for his 1970 album Encouraging Words, and this would come to haunt poor Harrison; Harrison wrote “My Sweet Lord” in 1969, while he, Eric Clapton, and Billy Preston were on a European tour backing Delaney & Bonnie and Friends. Harrison had been listening a lot to the chart hit “Oh, Happy Day,” a gospel recording by the Edwin Hawkins Singers. George continued to develop the composition over the next few days, including a recording session during which Billy Preston recorded “My Sweet Lord,” featuring backing vocals from the Edwin Hawkins Singers. Billy Preston’s version was issued on Apple just prior to George's.
Preston's version didn’t chart, but George took his version all the way to the top, becoming a major smash over Christmas of 1970. It remains his biggest chart hit to date.
Unfortunately, My Sweet Lord sounds rather similar to another song: the Chiffons' 1963 hit 'He's So Fine'. A liability trial over “My Sweet Lord” began on February 23, 1976 in Manhattan. District Judge Richard Owen was also a trained pianist who composed publicly performed operas, sometimes sung by his soprano wife, Lynn. Harrison was accused that the songs were so similar that Harrison could have only written his by copying “He’s So Fine.”
In court, the Judge had both versions (Harrison and Preston’s) played, to compare with ‘He’s So Fine’. Surprisingly, the Judge found that Preston’s version included a few notes that made it more similar to He’s So Fine than Harrison’s own! This probably contributed to the Judge’s ruling: My Sweet Lord was copied from He’s So Fine.
In a strange twist, the legal battle over financial compensation continued for decades, and saw Harrison opposed by his former manager, Alan Klein (who had bought the rights to He’s So Fine). The matter was finally settled in 1998. A few notes can have big consequences!
Preston passed away in 2006. Intriguingly, in the years preceding his death Billy worked on a collection of Beatles cover versions, which remains unreleased……….
With thanks to P.R. Lee for the idea.
