Preston was a keyboardist, singer, and songwriter whose work encompassed many genres of music. He was R&B, rock, soul, funk, and even gospel.
Preston started off at the age of 10 playing keyboards for gospel legend Mahalia Jackson. Later he joined Ray Charles’ touring band before recording with The Beatles on several of their tracks including “Get Back” and “Let It Be” (The Beatles considered him to be the fifth Beatle). He also played on a number of Sly & The Family Stone recordings and went on to have a successful solo career with five Top 10 US hits.
He was a top session keyboardist in the 1960s, backing artists like Little Richard, Sam Cooke, the Everly Brothers, the Rolling Stones! He also made a name for himself as a solo artist. Today let’s look at two of his hits.
Will It Go Round in Circles
This funky soul number was Billy Preston’s first #1 solo single. The virtuoso keyboardist, who was credited on the Beatles’ “Get Back” and joined them for their iconic 1966 rooftop concert, was briefly signed to the Fab Four’s Apple Records but found success with a switch to A&M Records. Music Is My Life was Preston’s second album on the LA-based label; his first, I Wrote A Simple Song, yielded the Grammy Award-winning instrumental “Outa-Space, which narrowly missed the #1 slot.
This was born out of a joke Preston made to his songwriting partner, Bruce Fisher, about having a song but no melody. The comment inspired the opening refrain, “I got a song that ain’t got no melody, I’m gonna sing it to my friends,” and set up similar proclamations, such as having a story with no moral and having a dance with no steps.
Nothing From Nothing
Billy Preston started writing this one night in the dressing room of an Atlanta nightclub where he was performing. He wanted to write a song based on the saying, “Nothing from nothing leaves nothing,” a variation on Bob Dylan line: “When you’ve got nothing, you’ve got nothing to lose.”
“The saloon piano gave it character,” Preston explained, “and I had a feeling it would be a hit because it was a singalong kind of thing.”
Bruce Fisher, who was Preston’s songwriting partner (he co-wrote “Will It Go Round In Circles”), added a second verse.
Fun Fact: The B-side of the single was another song Preston wrote with Fisher: “You Are So Beautiful,” which was later a hit for Joe Cocker.
Bonus Fun Fact: “Nothing From Nothing” was the first song performed on Saturday Night Live. Preston and Janis Ian were the musical guests on the October 11, 1975 debut of the show.
The later years of his life were plagued by substance abuse, health issues and legal issues. In 1997 he was sent to prison on drug charges. He suffered from kidney disease and hypertension. In 2005, he voluntarily entered a drug rehab center where pericarditis led to respiratory failure. He was in a coma from November of 2004 until he died in June of 2006 at age 59.
As I celebrate birthday 54, I am borrowing (ok, stealing) an idea from another blogger. I have altered the idea a bit, and may decide to change it up after a few posts …
I am calling the feature “The Music of My Life.” I plan on starting with the year I was born and picking 10 favorites from that year. I will move on through the years one by one. I doubt I will go too deep in the more modern years, so I’m not sure how long this will go on.
Right now, I am hoping to do this once a week. That’s a bit adventurous of me, but I am really hoping to be able to work ahead on these.
So what sources am I using to choose my songs? First, I am looking at the Billboard Year-End Top 100. This can be a problem as some of the songs from the list may have been released the year before. Next, I am looking a lists from various sources with all the songs released as singles for each year. Finally, my buddy Max (who may or may not be the blogger I stole this idea from), gave me a cool website to check out. It is acclaimedmusic.net
With that being said, let’s take a look at some of my favorites from the year I was born…
1970
I may as well start with the song that was number one on my birthday – American Woman by The Guess Who. It was released in January of 1970 and was the third biggest song of the year. A cool thing about this song – the whole thing was improvised on stage during a concert after Randy Bachman was tuning his guitar after breaking a string!
American Woman – The Guess Who
Next, a group that never had a number one song. That has always baffled me. CCR had a few hits in 1970. Travelin’ Band was released in January of 1970 and has a very 1950’s sort of sound to it. John Fogerty has been said to have channeled a bit of Little Richard in the vocal delivery of this song. Coincidentally, CCR was sued by the publishing company that had the rights to Little Richard’s “Good Golly Miss Molly,” because they sounded so much alike. The case was settled out of court.
Travelin’ Band – CCR
I always loved the sound of Dave Edmunds I Hear You Knocking. In 1970, he was getting ready to cut a version of Wilbert Harrison’s Let’s Work Together, when he heard that the group Canned Heat had just cut it. As he was driving in his car, a radio station played the Smiley Lewis’ 1955 version of I Hear You Knocking. He realized just how similar it was to Let’s Work Together and knew he wouldn’t have to change much and recorded it. He played all the instruments on the song (except maybe the bass guitar).
I Hear You Knockin’ – Dave Edmunds
Another group I have always liked is Badfinger. The song was recorded in May of 1970 and released in October. The band loved this song, but some of the folks at Apple records had no interest in releasing it. In August, the American director at Apple in New York heard the tape and liked it. The song was remixed and released as a single. It was a Top 10 single.
No Matter What – Badfinger
Released in January of 1970, Norman Greenbaum had a Top 5 Hit with Spirit in the Sky. Jesus is mentioned many times throughout the song, so I remember being surprised to read that Norman was Jewish! In a 2006 interview, he said that he was inspired to write the song after watching country singer Porter Wagoner singing a gospel song on TV. He said that he thought, “I can do that,” and wrote “my own gospel song.”
As far as the unique sound of the opening guitar lick? Normal used a Fender Telecaster with a fuzz-tone circuit built into the body to generate the song’s characteristic guitar sound. Because of the song’s length and religious tone of the lyrics, the record company was initially reluctant to issue the song. They came to their senses and finally released as a single after two other singles from the album had poor sales. The rest … is history.
Spirit in the Sky – Norman Greenbaum
Edwin Starr is one of my favorite Motown singers. In 1970, he released a song co-written by another Motown artist, Barrett Strong. The song is basically a protest song as the Vietnam War was still going on. The song was recorded originally with the Temptations singing it, however, the label decided to withhold the Temptations’ version from single release so as not to alienate that group’s more conservative fans, and had Edwin Starr record and release it.
War – Edwin Starr
By the time I was born, the Beatles were getting ready to call it quits. However, in March of 1970, they released Let It Be. At the time, the song became the highest debut ever on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. It entered the chart at number 6 and went straight to the top. This was the final single released before Paul announced he was leaving the band.
Let It Be – The Beatles
One of the great song intros in classic rock belongs to All Right Now by Free. The song was recorded in January of 1970 and released on my birthday in the UK (May 15). Drummer Simon Kirke said: “‘All Right Now’ was created after a bad gig in Durham. We finished our show and walked off the stage to the sound of our own footsteps. The applause had died before I had even left the drum riser. It was obvious that we needed a rocker to close our shows. All of a sudden the inspiration struck (Bass Player Andy) Fraser and he started bopping around singing ‘All Right Now’. He sat down and wrote it right there in the dressing room. It couldn’t have taken more than ten minutes.” It’s a great jam!
All Right Now – Free
This song fits exactly what many blogger friends and I do often – Turn Back the Hands of Time through music, movies, and nostalgia. One of R&B’s greatest was released in February of 1970 by Tyrone Davis. The song was Davis’ second big hit. It went to number one on the Billboard R&B Chart and went to number three on the Pop Singles Chart.
I’ve always loved the way the intro starts with drum and bass, then adds guitar and keyboard (xylophone?) and finally the strings before Tyrone’s smooth vocal. And who doesn’t sing along with the background singers when they come in? I know I do.
Turn Back the Hands of Time – Tyrone Davis
Finally, we grab a cut from Van Morrison’s 1970 album, Moondance. Into the Mystic is just such a cool song. I guess this would fall into the category of “Yacht Rock” today. It has a spiritual feel to it. One article compared it to Yesterday by the Beatles describing it as “another song where the music and the words seem to have been born together, at the same time, to make one perfectly formed, complete artistic element.”
Van said the use of homophones really lent the song to have alternate meanings. He states: “Originally I wrote it as ‘Into the Misty’. But later I thought that it had something of an ethereal feeling to it so I called it ‘Into the Mystic’. That song is kind of funny because when it came time to send the lyrics in WB Music, I couldn’t figure out what to send them. Because really the song has two sets of lyrics. For example, there’s ‘I was born before the wind’ and ‘I was borne before the wind’, and also ‘Also younger than the sun, Ere the bonny boat was one’ and ‘All so younger than the son, Ere the bonny boat was won’ … I guess the song is just about being part of the universe.”
Into the Mystic – Van Morrison
I hope you enjoyed giving these songs a listen. Picking just 10 was harder than I thought. What about your favorites from 1970??
Recently, I did a blog based on a writing prompt that suggested finding a photo and blogging about the memories that it brings back to you. I enjoyed doing it and thought I would try to do one every Friday. I’m not sure I’ll have enough photos to post, but we’ll see.
The above photo is on my brother (left) and me (right) in our old house in Sterling Heights. The photo is probably taken around 1976. If I had to guess it is probably shortly after Christmas.
It is very easy to focus on the main action in the picture. We are obviously pulling on Stretch Armstrong. I remember seeing ads for Stretch as a kid and asked for it for Christmas or my birthday. It was one of my favorite toys. What I found interesting was looking at the things outside of the center of the picture.
At the bottom is a yellow airplane. I recognized it immediately. In one of my early blogs I talked about the Fisher Price “Adventure People.” The plane is from one of those sets.
What I remember about those “Adventure People” is that eventually, their heads wouldn’t stay up. They always fell down to the chest.
To the right of the plane are some boxes. I wish I could make out what they are. They certainly look like they may be from toys or gifts, which is why I think this might be around Christmas.
Behind me in the picture is yet another “Adventure People” set. It was hard to make out, but I remembered it once I realized what it was. It is the FP Rescue Truck. If you look carefully, you can see the red “bucket” ladder in the picture.
Behind my brother is a book case. On the bottom shelf, it looks like there might be some of my dad’s school books to the right. To the left of those is some series of books with white covers. I’m not really sure what those are.
On the next shelf up is a series of blue books which I remember well. I cannot remember if they were from Reader’s Digest or World Book or some company like that, but they had all kinds of historical stuff in them. Some were about cars, some where about movies and TV, and others were about politics. I loved looking through those and looking at pictures of old movie stars.
On the shelves above that one I can see book bindings from some of my mom’s “beauty” books, cook books, a three ring binder, a couple Bibles, and paperbacks. I’m not sure why there is a green teapot on there!
On the bottom left there was a cabinet. I want to say that is where you could find some of the family photo albums. One of them probably held the picture that is the subject of this blog.
Above the cabinet door is a shelf that is loaded up with 12 inch Vinyl records. Even though I can’t see them, I can name albums that are on this shelf! They were the ones my dad played often. The Beatles Let It Be, Roy Orbison’s Greatest Hits, Elvis In Concert, The Best of Lenny Dee, and about 20 compilation albums.
On top of the albums, there are some loose gloves (suggesting winter time), and what seems to be VHS tape holder. I know that is not what it is, because we didn’t even have VCR’s at this time. If I had to wager a guess, those drawers are probably holding 8-track tapes. (My dad used to record his own for us to listen to in the car.) The Phonograph turntable is probably on the shelf just above those albums with two speakers sitting next to it.
As I look at this picture I wish I could walk through it! While I don’t recall the layout completely, I do remember that my room was all the way at the end of the hall. I know behind me in the picture is the hall closet, my parents room would be at the end on the right, the bathroom is also on the right (you can kind of see the counter with a bottle of what looks like hairspray on it), and on the left across from the closet – my brother’s room.
I vaguely remember things about that house, as I was only there for 6 years of my life. I would love to be able to walk back through it and just take it all in. I’ve probably forgotten so much about it.
It’s actually neat to look beyond what was being captured on film. I wish that these old photos were clearer, so I could really dive into the things in the background.
This blog is part of Turntable Talk, a feature created by Dave at A Sound Day.
Since I started this blog four years ago, I have wanted to write a blog about The Beatles. Outside of a few “mentions” and a couple guest blogs from my buddy Max, I have just never tackled a Beatle Blog. So let me tell you how I was finally “forced” to write about the boys from Liverpool.
Of the many blogs I follow, many of them are musically oriented. One of those is A Sound Day. Dave is the author, and you can follow Dave’s blog here: https://soundday.wordpress.com/
Dave reached out to a few of us and had an idea for a monthly blog topic. The topic would be music oriented and geared toward something that we’d all be familiar with. Each of us will write on that and it will be featured on his blog. The first topic suggested was “The Beatles – why are we talking about them 50 (+) years on?”
With that being a “base” to start with, we were given the option to write about (1) why they are still relevant (2) why they remain popular (3) is their popularity justified, etc… The Beatles themselves was the “prompt” and we can veer off how we want to. That being said, the questions that Dave presented are among many “sub” topics that I have in my notebook (Beatles Cover Songs, Songs covered by the Beatles, Favorite album, Top 10 favorites, etc…)
I have to admit, I had a difficult time trying to decide what angle I was going to go with. Then I began to think, “What if someone was unfamiliar with The Beatles? How would I introduce that person to their music? If I could only pick 10 of their songs to give an overall picture of the group, what would they be?” I made a list. This blog will reflect that list.
Before I go on, let me say that I hate my list! I cannot even begin to tell you how much I struggled to narrow it down to 10 songs that encompassed what I felt expressed why the Beatles were so fantastic. Oh, the songs that I cut from my list! There are SO many fantastic songs, and no doubt, you will question why certain ones did not make this list. I found myself questioning that, too.
After editing, re-editing, adding and removing songs, and editing again, I finally said “This is the list. No going back.” Like it or not, here are the 10 songs that I chose to introduce someone to the Fab Four:
I Saw Her Standing There
This has always been one of my favorite tracks. Paul’s “1-2-3-4” count off into the driving guitar grabs me every time. It was the first track of their first album – what a way to start an album! After all the years, I was still playing this at weddings and parties when I was DJing and it always filled the dance floor.
The story goes that Paul saw a teenage gal dancing the Twist at a dance and that event was the basis for this song. It is hard not to tap your foot as you listen to this one. (Side note: I feel the guitar solo in this song is kind of lame. The boys were still quite young at this time. Compare this solo with solos from songs just 3 years later and you can get a feel for just how far they came musically.)
If I Fell
When I think of the Beatles, I think of their harmonies. As I tried to pick songs, I tried to find one that showcased some of those harmonies. In a Playboy interview in 1984, Paul said If I Fell was recorded during “our close-harmony period.”
John called this his “first attempt at a ballad proper.” As a music guy, I love the chord changes in this song. Simple chords, diminished chords, and some ninth chords are all featured in the song. It is simple, yet complex.
On a personal note, after my divorce, I heard this song on the Beatles channel on Sirius XM just as my current wife and I were starting to date. I related to these lyrics. Who isn’t scared about starting a new relationship after being hurt by someone?
Got To Get You Into My Life
Brian Epstein wrote in his 1964 autobiography that the Beatles were turned down by Decca Records. He was told “guitar groups are on their way out.” I chose this song because it shows that they were more than just a guitar group. This was the first time the group ever used a horn section in one of their songs.
Paul admits that the song is an ode to marijuana. That is certainly not why it made my list. I’ll be honest, I never would have guessed that. I always heard it as a guy wanting a girl. I guess I’m just dumb. I chose it because, as a horn player, I loved the brass in it.
I’ll Follow The Sun
As you can see by the photo above, the song is credited to both Lennon and McCartney as writers, but the truth is that Paul wrote it. He remembered, “I wrote that in my front parlour in Forthlin Road. I was about 16. ‘I’ll Follow the Sun’ was one of those very early ones. I seem to remember writing it just after I’d had the flu and I had that cigarette. I remember standing in the parlour, with my guitar, looking out through the lace curtains of the window, and writing that one.”
He said that the group was always ready to sound different. They didn’t want to get into a place where all their songs sounded the same. This one certainly was a very different sound. I love the guitar work in this one. It is beautiful. This is another song that features some good Paul/John harmonies.
Eight Days A Week
This is a song that never left my list. It has always been one of my top Beatles songs. It’s a feel good song. I love the message of this song – There aren’t enough days in a week to show how much he cares about his love.
This was the group’s second #1 song in the US. It is just a solid Beatles pop song. It’s hard NOT to like it. There are varying stories as to how they came up with the title. Some sources say it was a “Ringoism,” something Ringo said that struck a chord with John and Paul. Another source says that Paul was in a car and he asked the chauffeur how he was. The driver supposedly replied, “working hard – working eight days a week.”
It is one of many Beatles songs that features “hand clapping.”
Something
While the bulk of the Beatles songs were penned by Lennon and McCartney, George Harrison was responsible for writing some fantastic songs. A perfect example is Something. It is what some call “the perfect love song.” Frank Sinatra (who never really had a lot of nice things to say about the Beatles) even called it “the greatest love song of the past 50 years.”
George says he wrote it “on the piano while we were making The White Album. I had a break while Paul was doing some overdubbing so I went into an empty studio and began to write. That’s really all there is to it, except the middle took some time to sort out.” George actually gave the song to Joe Cocker a year before they cut it.
The song was George’s first single and first number 1. It has been covered by many artists, and George has said that his favorite cover was done by James Brown!
A Hard Day’s Night
This song had to be on my list. Musicologist Alan Pollack says that this song “arguably holds a place within the upper echelon of the Beatles catalog.”
According to A Hard Day’s Write, Ringo is quoted as saying, “I came up with the phrase ‘a hard day’s night.’ It just came out. We went to do a job and we worked all day and we happened to work all night. I came out, still thinking it was day and said, ‘It’s been a hard day…’ looked around, saw that it was dark and added…’ ‘s night.”
There is a lesson in this song – If you work hard, romantic and domestic bliss will follow.
This song gets me from that opening chord! It’s also one of the great cowbell songs of our time!
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
This one is another George Harrison composition. Some have called this his greatest song. To me, this is a great example of just how mature the group had become in 4 years. The guitar work in this song is fantastic (Eric Clapton appears on the song). I love the interplay between the piano and high hat cymbal in the intro.
When I worked in Classic Rock, someone played me a clip of a comedian (can’t remember who) who goes off on classic rock radio. He says that there are more classic rock songs that “Stairway to Heaven,” “Layla,” and “While My Guitar gently Weeps.” This is funny, but it is a good example of just how popular this song is with music fans.
Yesterday
This song has the distinction of being covered by more artists than any other song in history. Paul calls it his “most successful song” and says that it is “amazing that it came to me in a dream.” Paul stated that he had the melody from the dream but didn’t have the words – so he “blocked it out with ‘Scrambled Eggs’.”
The sheer beauty of this song is in the arrangement. It is Paul, a guitar and a string quartet – and it works. It is hard to imagine it any other way (despite the countless covers). When Paul played it for the group, Ringo said it didn’t need any drums and John and George said it didn’t need any more guitar, and from there, it became the first “solo” song.
Fun Fact: The four members of the string quartet had never played together as a group before they played on the session.
Hey Jude
Right up until the time I was ready to start writing, the final question I had was – “Let it Be” or “Hey Jude”? Which one do I include? In the end, Hey Jude won out because it is sort of an anthem. It is a stand alone Beatles song. It’s like none other.
At 7 minutes long, it is what radio people called a “bathroom song.” Before the days of automation, DJ’s had to start a new record when one ended. Today, computers do that for them and they can walk away from the computer or studio for 10 minutes at a time as long as they didn’t have to talk. Back in the day, though, that wasn’t the case.
If you really stop and think about it, the song itself is only 3 minutes long. The last 4 minutes is just a refrain and fade out. The end of the record is longer than the song itself!
The song was written by Paul for John Lennon’s son Julian, who was then 5 years old. He was upset about his father and mother getting a divorce. It was written to help console him. Julian said, “It’s hard to imagine that this man was thinking about me and my life so much that he wrote a song about me…If I’m in a bar and the song comes on the radio, I still get goose pimples.”
I was dead set on Let it Be being the final song, until I listened back to both. Hey Jude is more “Beatles” to me, in that we have great lyrics, great instrumentation, and great harmonies. Let It Be, almost falls into that “solo” status, as it is pretty much Paul.
In Conclusion
After writing on these 10 songs, I looked back over my initial list of like 50 songs. It makes me sad that I didn’t include some of them. Others, I had on the list just because I liked them. Should I have added a Ringo vocal song? There were some good ones, but … no.
So back to Dave’s question: “The Beatles – why are we talking about them 50 (+) years on?”
Their stuff from 1964 still sounds fresh and stands out. People still request their songs, sing along with their songs, and dance to their songs! Movies are being made about them (Yesterday, Get Back). Their albums still sell. They have their own Sirius XM channel. The only answer I can come up with is “Because they are THAT good.”
Thanks, Dave for allowing me to take part in this! I look forward to reading the other posts from you and my music blogger friends.
Various Ramblings of a Nostalgic Italian 