Billy Preston

Billy Preston could lay claim to a great many achievements over the course of his life; he inspired Stephen Stills’ 1970 hit ‘Love the One You’re With’ by coining the phrase “if you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with”, he is one of only two people to be credited on a song by The Beatles alongside the band, on ‘Get Back’, and he also had one of the greatest afros in recorded history. In his own right, though, he had a sterling reputation as a peddler of R&B and funk, with hits like ‘Outa-Space’, ‘Space Race’ and ‘Will It Go Round in Circles’ cementing his reputation as a pop star in his own right and proving beyond doubt that he became much more than the session musician he began as. On stage, too, he was an irrepressible presence, with the loudness of some of his stage get-ups mirroring smartly the vibrancy of his performances. He’d typically stand front and centre, behind a keyboard, and bounce frantically as he delivered vocals that were the antithesis of his presence - cool and controlled. He wasn’t afraid of experimentation, either, with one of his major hits, ‘Nothing from Nothing’, frequently jammed out and reinterpreted. He passed in 2006 after a battle with kidney disease, but his legacy is long since assured - he was one of R&B’s most colourful characters.