Billy Preston had one of the most remarkable musical careers of the twentieth century, joining Little Richard’s band at the age of 16, becoming a favorite of both the Beatles and The Rolling Stones, scoring the #1 hits “Will It Go Round in Circles” and “Nothing from Nothing,” appearing as the very first musical guest (with Janis Ian) on Saturday Night Live in 1975, and so on. Preston was known for his endless good cheer (he is almost always pictured smiling), his eye-popping afro, but most especially his natural musical flow.
 

Preston with June Christy
 
In this un-aired TV pilot hosted by John Scott Trotter that was probably shot in 1958, Preston at the age of 12 appeared alongside four other musically gifted youngsters for a kind of musical quiz show called Chopsticks. It’s hard not to think of “It’s a Wise Child,” the fictional quiz show that J.D. Salinger invented for his short stories involving the precocious Glass family. The spectacle of five talented children playing the piano with virtuosity doesn’t mix well with the requirements of a game show—in an early round, for instance the pianists are invited to come up with tunes that conform to the requests of viewer letters, such as “a tune with a girl’s name in it”—but you can see why they tried to make it work. Preston plays “Mary Had a Little Lamb” early in the show (in response to the above query) and later gets a brief solo appearance on the organ. Singer June Christy comes by an does a brief duet with each of the young soloists.

One of the children—Mark, on the far end—appears to be visually impaired (although nobody says anything about it). Preston was not the only panelist to achieve a significant musical career as an adult; the young lady on the panel, Jane Getz, became a respected jazz pianist and session musician, playing with the likes of Charles Mingus, Pharoah Sanders, and Harry Nilsson.
 

 
via Ken Levine

 
“Basketball Jones” was a song/routine/character from Cheech and Chong’s 1973 Los Cochinos (“The Pigs”) record. The original album cover had a secret compartment where you could see how they smuggled pot, sandwiched in their car door. I bought this LP at a garage sale when I was about ten and just starting to get into comedy albums. I only half understood the idea of “drugs” at the time, I’m pretty sure, so I can’t imagine a Cheech and Chong album made much sense to me at that age. But I loved the routine “Basketball Jones” by Tyrone Shoelaces & Rap Brown Jr. H.S.” and would go around singing the musical part of it like ten-year-olds do.

The song is about teenager Tyrone (as in “tie your own”) Shoelaces and his love of basketball sung in a falsetto voice by Cheech Marin. It’s catchy as hell, but small wonder, dig the backing band: George Harrison, Klaus Voorman, Carole King, Nicky Hopkins, Tom Scott, Billy Preston, Darlene Love, Ronnie Spector and Michelle Phillips. The animation is by Paul Gruwell and was made in 1974.

This cartoon has also made some impressive Hollywood cameos over the years, in Robert Altman’s California Split, Hal Ashby’s Being There and in the 70s underground comedy Tunnel Vision. It was also parodied in a 2011 episode of The Simpsons (”A Midsummer’s Nice Dream”).
 

 
The story is told of a furious George Harrison storming out of a Beatles recording session in 1969 and then going to see a Ray Charles concert in London. Billy Preston (who Harrison had met in 1962 when Preston was playing in Little Richard’s group) was performing with Charles. Harrison invited Preston to come into the studio with The Beatles where his friendly personality and musical talents calmed the rising tensions within the band.

Billy Preston was the only musician the Beatles ever credited alongside them, for his contribution to “Get Back.” The song was also performed in the rooftop concert of the Let It Be film with Preston in tow (see below). John Lennon allegedly proposed the idea of inviting Preston to be the “Fifth Beatle” but Paul supposedly replied that it was bad enough already with four.  (Preston also played on Abbey Road’s “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and “Something.”)

Musical prodigy Preston played with gospel legends Mahalia Jackson, James Cleveland, and Andrae Crouch. In 1963, at the age of sixteen, he played organ on Sam Cooke’s Night Beat. Preston was also a frequently featured performer on ABC’s musical variety series Shindig! and a member of the house band (lots if clips on YouTube). Below, Billy Preston performs “Agent Double O-Soul” with Ray Charles. Check out his moves!
 

 
He recorded a great song in 1965 with a young Sly Stone called ““Can’t She Tell?” that was produced by David Axelrod. Do yourself a favor and hit play:
 

 
His 70s solo career saw his friendship and professional association with George Harrison continue. Preston appeared onstage at the Concert for Bangladesh and his records came out on the Apple label. His first really big solo hit was “Outa Space” which sold a million copies and won the Grammy for “Best Pop Instrumental Performance of 1972”:
 

 
Preston also played on several 70s Rolling Stones albums Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main Street, Goats Head Soup, It’s Only Rock’n Roll and Black and Blue. He toured as a support act on their 1973 European Tour and played with the band as well. Mick Taylor played guitar on Preston’s live album. In 1974 he co-wrote “You Are So Beautiful” with his songwriting partner Bruce Fisher (and an uncredited Dennis Wilson) for Joe Cocker.

More Billy Preston after the jump…

 
Poetry of the Western World Read By Celebrities and Collected by Clare Ann Matz is a fab selection of poems read by Ralf Zotigh, Wim Wenders, Dave Stewart, Billy Preston, Ian Astbury, Dario Fò, Robbie Robertson, Allen Ginsberg and Solveigh Domartain.

The video starts with Ralf Zotigh reading the Ancient Native American fable - “Today is a Good Day”:

This is followed by Wenders reading from Walt Whitman’s Inscriptions (“To A Certain Cantatrice”). Dave Stewart, erstwhile of the Eurhythmics, reads William Blake’s “Sick Rose”, then, the late Billy Preston (first silently, then with soundtrack) reads Dylan Thomas. Ian Astbury, of The Cult (and clearly no fan of Dylan Thomas!) also reads, from the same poem, “Should Lanterns Shine”. Dario Fo, Nobel-prize-winning playwright and theater-director, reads (in Italian) Andre Breton’s “Fata Morgana”. Robbie Robertson, Bob Dylan’s confrere, comes in next, reading a selection from Allen’s “Song”” (“Allen wrote this. huh?”), and has some difficulty following the syntax (“an the soul comes..”? “and the soul comes..”?). Allen himself follows (with the aforementioned reading of “Father Death Blues”). Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire “angel”, actress Solveigh Domartain, concludes the tape, returning once more to Allen’s poem - “the weight of the world is…love”.

 
Elsewhere on DM

Face to Face with Allen Ginsberg

 
Bonus interview with Ginsberg form 1972, after the jump…
 
Via the Allen Ginsberg Project