Musician Billy Preston, sometimes called the Fifth Beatle or the Sixth Rolling Stone… No, never the Sixth Rolling Stone, it was always the Fifth Beatle, though he often played with the Stones. Preston died yesterday at a healthcare facility in Scottsdale, Arizona, after a long illness that led to kidney failure and a comatose state. He was 59. Though he is famed for contributing soul helpings to the likes of the Beatles and Stones, as his own man he had hits with “Will It Go Round In Circles” and “Nothing from Nothing” and he wrote the Joe Cocker hit “You Are So Beautiful.” “He was one of my true inspirations,” said Elton John, “one of the greatest keyboard players of all time and not too shabby a vocalist either.”

(Musicians shout out)

(Other Fifth Beatles)