This is the story of a friendship that spanned seven years, two continents, and the complete arc of Beatles fame\u2014from unknown Hamburg club band to the biggest group in the world. It\u2019s about a teenager who said \u201cno thanks\u201d when George Harrison <\/strong>first asked him to jam in 1962, and the same young man\u2014now a seasoned pro\u2014who said \u201cyes\u201d in 1969 and literally saved the band\u2019s final recording sessions. 🎹<\/p> Let\u2019s rewind to October 12, 1962. The Beatles are playing their 23rd gig at the Tower Ballroom in New Brighton, England. They\u2019re the opening act on a bill featuring twelve performers, and the whole thing is going to last five and a half hours. The headliner? Little Richard, the architect of scream, one of rock and roll\u2019s founding fathers. And sitting at the organ in Little Richard\u2019s band is a sixteen-year-old prodigy named Billy Preston.<\/p> Preston had been playing piano since he was three years old, sitting on his mother\u2019s lap. By age ten, he was performing with legends like Mahalia Jackson and Nat King Cole. At fifteen, Little Richard hired him as his touring organist for a European tour. Now here he was in England, watching four Liverpool lads who were just starting to make noise beyond their hometown. ⚡<\/p> The show was notable for a few reasons. It was the first time John Lennon<\/strong> played his newly spray-painted black Rickenbacker 325 in public. Pete Best <\/strong>was there too\u2014awkwardly\u2014now drumming for Lee Curtis and the All-Stars after being fired from the Beatles two months earlier. And Little Richard, for his part, found George and John \u201ca bit rude\u201d but was quite taken with Paul McCartney, even trying to seduce him after the show.<\/p> But the real story was the connection forming between the Beatles and Billy.<\/p> A few weeks later, both acts found themselves in Hamburg for a 14-night residency at the legendary Star-Club. This was the Beatles\u2019 fourth trip to Hamburg, though considerably shorter than their previous marathon stints. They performed three and a half hours each night from November 1-14, 1962, sharing the bill with Little Richard and his band.<\/p> During those two weeks, the Beatles befriended the teenage organist. They hung out between sets, traded stories, and discovered Preston was not only incredibly talented but also genuinely cool to be around. Harrison, always the most musically adventurous Beatle, asked Billy to join them onstage for a jam session one night.<\/p> Billy refused. He didn\u2019t want to upset Little Richard. 🎸<\/p> George understood. But he filed that memory away. At the time, Billy was \u201cjust a little lad,\u201d as George would later recall. The Beatles were still unknowns, grinding it out in German clubs. None of them knew that seven years later, that same keyboard player would walk into their studio at the darkest moment of their career and change everything.<\/p> After Hamburg, Billy Preston\u2019s career took off. In 1963, he played organ on Sam Cooke\u2019s seminal Night Beat<\/em> album and recorded his debut, 16 Yr. Old Soul<\/em>, for Cooke\u2019s SAR Records label. By 1965, he\u2019d released The Most Exciting Organ Ever<\/em> and become the organist on the groundbreaking TV show Shindig!<\/em>, accompanying everyone from Jackie Wilson to The Who on his personal white B-3 organ.<\/p> In 1967, Preston joined Ray Charles\u2019 band\u2014a gig that would prove fateful.<\/p> Meanwhile, the Beatles went from Hamburg nobodies to the most famous band on planet Earth. They conquered America, made groundbreaking albums, experimented with studios and sitars and psychedelics, and by early 1969 found themselves exhausted, fractured, and wondering if they even liked each other anymore.<\/p> The Get Back <\/em>sessions\u2014meant to be a return to their roots, playing live without overdubs\u2014had become a cold, miserable slog at Twickenham Studios. Cameras rolled constantly for a documentary. Tensions exploded. And on January 10, 1969, George Harrison had enough. After a bitter fight with John Lennon, George quit the band.<\/p> He came back less than two weeks later. But he came back with a plan. 💡<\/p> Before returning to the band, George went to see Ray Charles perform at the Royal Festival Hall in London. He brought Eric Clapton along. Before Ray came on, there was an opening act\u2014a guy on stage playing the organ, dancing about, singing \u201cDouble-O Soul.\u201d<\/p> George thought, That guy looks familiar.<\/em><\/p> Then Ray Charles took the stage and said something that made George sit up straight: \u201cSince I heard Billy play I don\u2019t play the organ any more\u2014I leave it to him.\u201d<\/p> George\u2019s eyes went wide. It\u2019s Billy!<\/em><\/p> The sixteen-year-old kid from Hamburg had grown six feet tall and become one of the hottest keyboard players in the world. George couldn\u2019t believe their luck. Billy was in London for TV appearances with Ray Charles, which meant he was available. And George knew exactly what to do with him. 🎹<\/p> On January 22, 1969\u2014the eleventh day of the Get Back sessions and the second day at their new Apple Studios location\u2014Billy Preston walked through the door.<\/p> Mal Evans, the Beatles\u2019 roadie and friend, had already warned Billy that the band was \u201cgoing through a lot of depression\u201d and that his arrival might help. Billy had no idea what he was walking into. He didn\u2019t know about the fights, the resentments, the barely-concealed contempt that had been poisoning the sessions. He just knew his old friends from Hamburg wanted him to play some piano.<\/p> John Lennon greeted him enthusiastically: \u201cEvery number\u2019s got a piano part. And normally we overdub it. But this time we wanna do it live… And then you\u2019d be on the album.\u201d<\/p> Billy: \u201cYou\u2019re kidding.\u201d<\/p> John: \u201cWell, that\u2019s good then.\u201d<\/p> Billy got on the electric piano. And just like that, everything changed.<\/p> Harrison described it best: \u201cHe got on the electric piano, and straight away there was 100 percent improvement in the vibe in the room.\u201d<\/strong><\/p> It wasn\u2019t just that Billy was talented\u2014though he absolutely was. It was that he brought an innocence the Beatles had lost somewhere between Hamburg and global superstardom.<\/p> \u201cHaving this fifth person was just enough to cut the ice that we\u2019d created among ourselves,\u201d George said. \u201cBilly didn\u2019t know all the politics and the games that had been going on, so in his innocence he got stuck in and gave an extra little kick to the band. Everybody was happier to have somebody else playing and it made what we were doing more enjoyable. We all played better, and it was a great session.\u201d ✨<\/strong> (From <\/em>‘The Beatles Anthology’ book, 2000.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote> Producer George Martin<\/strong> observed that Billy \u201chelped to lubricate the friction\u201d among the Beatles. Derek Taylor,<\/strong> their press officer, was even more blunt: \u201cI think Billy saved the Let It Be<\/em> album and film because he put all The Beatles on their best behavior. To be difficult with each other after that would have been to abuse their guest. That Liverpool slagging off would not have been OK in front of Billy.\u201d<\/p> The band got to work. They focused on three songs: \u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Down,\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve Got A Feeling,\u201d and \u201cDig A Pony.\u201d Billy\u2019s Fender Rhodes electric piano wove through the tracks, adding a soulful layer the Beatles had been missing. His playing was intuitive, perfectly complementing the band without overwhelming them.<\/p> On January 27, they recorded what Harrison called the best take yet\u2014Take 11 of \u201cGet Back.\u201d It was musically tight and punchy, though it finished without the planned ending. \u201cWe missed that end,\u201d George commented on the session tape. (This version would later appear on Let It Be… Naked<\/em>.) The next day, they recorded several more takes with the coda ending.<\/p> And then came January 30, 1969: the Rooftop Concert. 🏢<\/p> The Beatles\u2019 final public performance took place on the roof of their Apple Corps headquarters on Savile Row. Billy Preston was right there with them on electric piano, playing \u201cGet Back,\u201d \u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Down,\u201d \u201cI\u2019ve Got A Feeling,\u201d \u201cOne After 909,\u201d and \u201cDig a Pony\u201d as London traffic stopped below and police eventually shut them down for noise complaints.<\/p> After a particularly fun run-through of \u201cI\u2019ve Got A Feeling,\u201d John Lennon looked at Billy and said: \u201cYou\u2019re in the group.\u201d<\/strong><\/p> It wasn\u2019t a throwaway compliment. John seriously proposed making Billy Preston the fifth Beatle. Paul McCartney countered\u2014gently but firmly\u2014that it was \u201cdifficult enough reaching agreements with four.\u201d The offer was never officially made. But the sentiment was real.<\/p> On April 11, 1969, Apple Records released \u201cGet Back\u201d as a single. The label read: \u201cThe Beatles with Billy Preston.\u201d<\/strong><\/p> It was unprecedented. The only other time a performer received billing on a Beatles record was Tony Sheridan on their pre-fame Hamburg recordings, which hardly counted. This was different. This was the Beatles at their peak, crediting a session musician as a co-performer because\u2014as they put it\u2014his contribution was essential to the track.<\/p> Billy\u2019s electric piano is prominent throughout \u201cGet Back.\u201d He plays an extended solo he wrote himself. His presence isn\u2019t background; it\u2019s fundamental to the song\u2019s sound. The B-side, \u201cDon\u2019t Let Me Down,\u201d carried the same credit. 🎵<\/p> The single was a monster hit. Number one in the UK for six weeks. Number one in the US for five weeks. It became the Beatles\u2019 17th number-one single on Billboard, tying Elvis Presley\u2019s previous record.<\/p> Despite the tensions that plagued Get Back, the Beatles regrouped one more time for Abbey Road<\/em>\u2014which would become their swansong. Billy Preston was invited back, contributing Hammond organ to George Harrison\u2019s gorgeous \u201cSomething\u201d and John\u2019s \u201cI Want You (She\u2019s So Heavy).\u201d<\/p> After the Beatles broke up in 1970, Billy remained in their orbit. George signed him to Apple Records and produced his album That\u2019s The Way God Planned It<\/em>. Billy recorded the first version of \u201cMy Sweet Lord\u201d before George\u2019s hit rendition. He played on George\u2019s All Things Must Pass<\/em>, performed at the Concert for Bangladesh in 1971, and toured North America with George in 1974.<\/p> He also worked on albums by John Lennon (John Lennon\/Plastic Ono Band<\/em>) and Ringo Starr<\/strong>, and became a member of Ringo\u2019s All-Starr Band in the 1990s. Billy had his own solo success too: Grammy-winning \u201cOuta-Space,\u201d number-one hits \u201cWill It Go Round in Circles\u201d and \u201cNothing from Nothing,\u201d and co-writing \u201cYou Are So Beautiful,\u201d which became a hit for Joe Cocker. 🌟<\/p> In 2002, Billy returned to Royal Albert Hall for the Concert for George, joining Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, and others in a sublime tribute to their departed friend.<\/p> Ringo once called Billy Preston \u201cone of the greatest Hammond organ players of all time,\u201d adding: \u201cBilly never put his hands in the wrong place. Never.\u201d<\/p> Billy Preston died on June 6, 2006, at age 59. His funeral lasted almost three hours. Joe Cocker sang. Little Richard spoke. Paul McCartney, the Rolling Stones, and Eric Clapton sent letters. In 2021, Preston was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with the Musical Excellence Award.<\/p> The debate over who deserves the title \u201cFifth Beatle\u201d will probably never end. George Martin, Brian Epstein, Stuart Sutcliffe, Pete Best, Eric Clapton\u2014all played crucial roles in the Beatles story. But only one person received performance credit on a Beatles single. Only one person was invited to join the band. Only one person walked into the studio at their darkest hour and reminded them why they\u2019d started playing music in the first place.<\/p> That person was Billy Preston.<\/p> The story has a beautiful symmetry: In 1962, George Harrison asked a sixteen-year-old kid to jam with them in Hamburg. Billy said no\u2014he didn\u2019t want to upset Little Richard. Seven years later, George asked again. This time, Billy said yes.<\/p> And he saved the Beatles. 🎹✨<\/p> How a 16-Year-Old Organist Saved the Get Back Sessions Seven Years After They First Met<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"amazonpipp_noncename":"","amazon-product-isactive":"","amazon-product-single-asin":"","amazon-product-content-location":"","amazon-product-content-hook-override":"","amazon-product-excerpt-hook-override":"","amazon-product-singular-only":"","amazon-product-amazon-desc":"","amazon-product-show-gallery":"","amazon-product-show-features":"","amazon-product-newwindow":"","amazon-product-show-list-price":"","amazon-product-show-used-price":"","amazon-product-show-saved-amt":"","amazon-product-timestamp":"","amazon-product-new-title":"","amazon-product-use-cartURL":"","amazon_featured_post_meta_key":"","_amazon_featured_alt":"","amazon-product-template":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[33,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2x2Mt-cupIV","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184564757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184564757"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184564757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":194564240,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184564757\/revisions\/194564240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184564757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184564757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weberbooks.com\/kindle\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184564757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Hamburg, 1962: The First Meeting<\/h2>
The Missing Years: 1963-1968<\/h2>
January 1969: George\u2019s Masterstroke<\/h2>
The Transformation<\/h2>
\u201cThe Beatles with Billy Preston\u201d<\/h2>
Abbey Road and Beyond<\/h2>
The Fifth Beatle<\/h2>
Visit my Beatles Store:<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>
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