That's The Way God Planned It

I wanted to play this Billy Preston song on one of my upcoming Hopscasts but I was really worried that it would come off as a bit cheesy. So instead I have decided to post a video of Billy performing the tune below. Now before you listen you have to know a bit of background for you to understand why I wanted to play it.

Billy Preston is a famous organ and piano player who also sings vocals. When he was younger he was considered a prodigy and had a nice career as a musician. However, he really made his name in the late Sixties when he became forever known as “The Fifth Beatle”. During the Abbey Road sessions Preston played keyboards on the famous Beatles song “Get Back”. In fact, he is the only non-Beatle to ever be given a credit on a Beatles song. Even more impressive is that there was actually discussion about him joining the band full time but the band was not really on solid ground at that point.

After the Beatles broke up soon afterwards he went on the have a successful solo career recording both solo albums and with other musicians. Sadly, he passed away in June of due to kidney disease. One of his last appearances was on my favorite music show of all-time, Later…with Jools Holland (which you can see in America on Rave HD) where he performed “That’s the Way God Planned It”. Now I don’t know how sick he was when he filmed this but you can see from his passion that he believed in what he was signing. I love the spirit of the man and the spirit of the song. And because of that I really wanted to play it on the show – however, I wasn’t sure if all of that emotion would come through on the original studio version or without a long introduction explaining why it moved me. Hopefully it does now.

Here is the performance from Later…with Jools Holland in 2005 - that's Jools jamming with him on piano:

BONUS: You can see Billy playing with the Beatles at their final live gig - filmed on top of Abbey Road Studios in 1969: