Description:
Releasedate: 2004-08-17

It's advantageous to get an early start on your chosen career, but Billy Preston took the concept to extremes. By age ten he was playing keyboards with gospel diva Mahalia Jackson, and two years later, in 1958, he was featured in Hollywood's film bio of W.C. Handy, St. Louis Blues, as young Handy himself. Preston was a prodigy on organ and piano, recording during the early '60s for Vee-Jay and touring with Little Richard. He was a loose-limbed regular on the mid-'60s ABC TV series Shindig, proving his talent as both vocalist and pianist, and he built an enviable reputation as a session musician, even backing the Beatles on their Let It Be album. That impressive Beatles connection led to Preston's big break as a solo artist with his own Apple album, but it was his early-'70s soul smashes "Outa-Space" and the high-flying vocal "Will It Go Round in Circles" for A&M that put Preston on the permanent musical map. Sporting a humongous Afro and an omnipresent gap-toothed grin, Preston showed that his enduring gospel roots were never far removed from his joyous approach. He continued to perform and record throughout the '80s, '90s, and 2000s, until he fell into a coma caused by pericarditis late in 2005; sadly, he never regained consciousness and passed away on June 6, 2006.
- Bill Dahl, All Music Guide

1 IF I HAD A HAMMER
2 LOW DOWN
3 SLIPPIN' AND SLIDIN'
4 DROWN IN MY OWN TEARS
5 I AM COMING THROUGH
6 THE OCTOPUS
7 DON'T LET THE SUN CATCH YOU CRYING
8 SOUL MEETIN'
9 LET ME KNOW
10 BILLY'S BAG
11 THE MASQUERADE IS OVER
12 STEADY GETTIN' IT
13 SOUL DERBY MEDLEY
14 YOU'VE LOST THAT LOVIN' FELLING
15 EIGHT DAYS A WEEK
16 DOWNTOWN
17 GOLDFINGER
18 MY GIRL
19 GO NOW
20 FERRY ACROSS THE MERSEY
21 SHOTGUN
22 STOP IN THE NAME OF LOVE
23 KING OF THE ROAD
24 THE BIRDS AND THE BEES
25 CAN'T YOU HEAR MY HEARTBEAT