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International News Title: Billy Preston the fifth Beatle has died at the age of 59 -was the former child movie star in St. Louis Blues Posted June 6, 2006 – He was considered “the fifth Beatle” by the quartet’s legendary late guitarist George Harrison, because of his invaluable contributions to the Beatle’s Let it Be, The White Album and Abbey Road LPs. But even before that huge accolade, Billy Preston made indelible marks on the gospel and soul scenes as an organist and keyboardist. In 1956, when he was only 10, he played behind the “Queen of Gospel,” Mahalia Jackson. Two years later, he played a youthful W.C. Handy in the bio-pic, St. Louis Blues. The following decade saw Preston playing with R&B pioneers Little Richard and Ray Charles. With early-’70s solo hits such as “Outa-Space,” “I Wrote a Simple Song,” and “With You I’m Born Again,” his immortal duet with the late Syreeta Wright, Preston became a bona fide superstar, renowned for achieving pop crossover success without sacrificing the blues-based bristle of his roots. On Tuesday, June 6, after battling chronic kidney failure, which led to him being in a coma since November 2005, Preston died in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 59. According to his longtime manager, Joyce Moore, Preston received a kidney transplant in 2002 but it failed, forcing him to be on dialysis. Born William Everett Preston on Sept. 9, 1946 in Houston, Preston made his big splash as a solo artist in the early ’70s, but he recorded a string of albums a decade prior for Vee-Jay, Buddha, Soul City and Capitol Records. Those LPs, including titles such as The Wildest Organ in Town! and The Most Exciting Organ Ever, displayed Preston’s prowess on the organ, something that would even garner comparisons to Jimi Hendrix’s virtuosity on guitar. But it was after his work with the Beatles that Preston began gaining more commercial success. The Beatles signed him to their boutique label, Apple, and issued That’s the Way God Planned It in 1969. It’s follow-up, Encouraging Words, also came out on Apple, and both featured contributions from Harrison. It was I Wrote a Simple Song, released on A&M Records, in 1971 that really propelled Preston into superstardom. Other albums on A&M Records, such as Music is My Life and Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music, afforded him chart-topping hits like “Space Race” and “Will it Go Round in Circles.” Even during his heyday as a solo artist, Preston continued doing session work, lending his incredible keyboard talents to landmark albums, such as Aretha Franklin’s Young Gifted & Black, Sly & Family Stone’s A Riot is Goin’ On, and Quincy Jones’ I Heard That!, among a slew of others. More recent recordings featuring Preston include the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ new disc, Stadium Arcadium and the Starbuck’s Coffee compilation, Believe to My Soul.
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