How Billy Preston Became ‘Like a Fifth Beatle,’ Saved the Band’s Let It Be Sessions: ‘They Were Struggling’

The Beatles have long been regarded by fans and rock historians as the Fab Four, but toward the end of their ’60s run as a band, an honorary fifth member arrived to give them a much-needed creative boost.

His name was Billy Preston, and he ended up being the only person other than John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr to receive a co-artist credit on a No. 1 single by the Beatles. The hit: 1969’s “Get Back,” by “The Beatles with Billy Preston.”

The singer-songwriter-keyboardist from Houston receives the full documentary treatment 18 years after his death in 2006 at age 59 via Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It. Directed by Paris Barclay, whose recent work includes Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story, and produced by Stephanie Allain, Jeanne Elfant Festa, Nigel Sinclair and Cheo Hodari Coker, the film premieres at the DOC NYC festival on Nov. 17.

The documentary takes viewers on a journey through Preston’s life, with an extended stopover in London during the 1969 recording sessions for Let It Be, the 12th and final studio album released by the Beatles before their break-up the following year. Before the arrival of Preston, who was already an established session musician and sideman, things weren’t going well for the band creatively.

“Billy just came in and has that great smile — hey ya,” Starr recalls in a voiceover.

“We were recording at the time, and I just went down to say hello,” Preston says in footage from a 1970 interview.

Starr continues: “We’d been stuck in our place, just miserable.”

Also in voiceover, Glyn Johns, who produced the sessions with longtime Beatles producer George Martin, says, “They were struggling to a certain degree to get things together, to get it to sound right.”

Starr adds: “It was the first time ever, Paul didn’t have any songs, and John didn’t have any songs.”

In beautifully restored video of the sessions, we see when Preston shows up at the studio, where the Beatles, various sideman and Yoko Ono are all assembled. The band begins to play “Don’t Let Me Down,” and Lennon starts singing. Soon, Preston is playing a piano line that echoes Lennon’s vocal melody, call-and-response style. In the clip, you can see a look of excitement come over McCartney’s face, like he’s just seen God.

“You’re giving us a lift, Bill,” Lennon says in the clip. “We’ve been doing this for days.”

Says Johns of Preston in voice over: “He made the whole situation nine million percent better.”

At one point during the sessions, Lennon refers to Preston as “kind of like a fifth Beatle.” Preston, who honed his musical chops while growing up in the church, ended up performing electric piano and Hammond organ on seven of the album’s 12 tracks. “Don’t Let Me Down” didn’t appear on Let It Be, but it was released as the B-side to “Get Back.” (Preston also contributed to the Beatles’ 1969 album Abbey Road.)

After the Beatles split, Preston went on to enjoy a string of vocal and instrumental hits on Billboard‘s Hot 100, including “Outa-Space,” “Will It Go Round in Circles,” “Nothing from Nothing” and “With You I’m Born Again.” A two-time Grammy winner, he wrote the wedding classic “You Are So Beautiful,” which became a Top 5 hit for Joe Cocker in the mid ’70s, and he gave Stephen Stills the idea that he turned into the lyrical hook of Stills’ 1970 hit “Love the One You’re With.”

He was also the first musical guest on Saturday Night Live when the now-iconic late-night show premiered in 1975. He sang his 1974 No. 1 hit “Nothing from Nothing.”

In addition to his Beatles collaborations, Preston performed with some of the most iconic performers of all time, including Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin, Patti LaBelle, Sly Stone, Eric Clapton, the Rolling Stones, Luther Vandross, Red Hot Chili Peppers and George Harrison, post-Beatles. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.

The documentary also devotes time to Preston’s personal struggles: coming to terms with being gay, his addiction to drugs and alcohol, his scrapes with the law and his stint in prison.

But for all of Preston’s accomplishments after the Beatles disbanded, it’s his work with the band that immediately secured his spot in rock ‘n’ roll history

“My one line about Billy is he never put his hands in the wrong place,” Starr says in the documentary. “He was so great. He just sort of joined in and we all loved him.”

Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It will premiere at DOC NYC — the largest documentary film festival in the U.S. — on Nov. 17. Tickets to attend the in-person event, or to stream Billy Preston: That’s the Way God Planned It online (from Nov. 21 until Dec. 1) are available here.