Games People Play - Engelbert Humperdinck / Tom Jones & Billy Preston

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• published: 10 Sep 2014
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Billy Preston was an American musician whose work included R&B;, rock, soul, funk and gospel. Preston became famous first as a session musician with artists including Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and The Beatles, and was later successful as a solo artist with hit pop singles including "Outa-Space", its sequel, "Space Race", "Will It Go Round in Circles" and "Nothing from Nothing", and a string of albums and guest appearances with Eric Clapton, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and others. In addition, Preston was co-author, with The Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson, of "You Are So Beautiful," recorded by Preston and later a #5 hit for Joe Cocker. In 1967, Preston joined Ray Charles' band. Following his exposure with Charles, several musicians began asking him to come to sessions, most notably the Beatles, who asked him to contribute to two of their albums, Abbey Road and Let It Be and the "Apple Records" rooftop concert. Alongside Tony Sheridan, Billy Preston was the only other musician to be credited on a Beatles recording: the artists on the number-one hit "Get Back" are given as "The Beatles with Billy Preston". Since Sheridan was labelled alongside "The Beat Brothers", Preston is, strictly speaking, the only artist to be labelled explicitly with "The Beatles". Stephen Stills asked Preston if he could use Preston's phrase "if you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with" and created the hit song. Preston is one of several people sometimes referred to by outsiders as a "Fifth Beatle". At one point during the "Get Back" sessions, John Lennon even proposed the idea of having him as the "Fifth Beatle" (to which Paul McCartney countered that it was difficult enough reaching agreements with four). Preston received two Grammy awards: Album of the Year for "Concert for Bagladesh" and Best Pop Instrumental Performance for "Outa-Space" Engelbert Humperdinck (born Arnold George Dorsey) is an English pop singer, best known for his UK number-one hits "Release Me" and "The Last Waltz", as well as "After the Lovin'" and "A Man Without Love". Humperdinck enjoyed his first real success in 1966 in Belgium, where he and four others represented England in the annual Knokke song contest. In early 1967 Humperdinck's version of "Release Me", recorded in a smooth ballad style, made the top ten on both sides of the Atlantic and number one in Britain, keeping The Beatles' "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane" from the top slot in the UK. "Release Me" spent 56 weeks in the Top 50 in a single chart run. In 1968 his album "A Man Without Love" reached number three in the UK Chart. By the middle of the 70, with his style of balladry less popular on the singles charts, Humperdinck concentrated instead on selling albums and on live performances. As his career moved on, and Humperdinck became more creative and his latter-day albums included genres of song other than the love ballad. Nevertheless, he has kept romance at the core of his music, and his fans have long tagged him "the King of Romance" Humperdinck was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1989 and won a Golden Globe Award as entertainer of the year, while also beginning major involvement in charitable causes such as the Leukemia Research Fund, the American Red Cross, the American Lung Association, and several AIDS relief organisations. Ever since, Humperdinck has continued producing music, to varying critical and commercial success. He represented the United Kingdom in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 Tom Jones, Is a Welsh singer. Since the mid 1960s, Jones has sung many styles of popular music – pop, rock, R&B;, show tunes, country, dance, soul and gospel – and sold over 100 million records. Jones has had thirty-six Top 40 hits in the UK and 19 in the US. Some of his notable songs include, "What's New Pussycat", "Delilah", "Green, Green Grass of Home", "She's a Lady" and "Kiss." Having been awarded an OBE in 1999, Jones received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II for "services to music" in 2006. Jones has received numerous other awards throughout his career, including the Grammy Award for Best New Artist in 1966, two Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 2000, and an MTV Video Music Award