The Beatles' Houston connection that you probably never knew

September 16, 2025

Houston-born musician Billy Preston, left, poses with former Beatles drummer Ringo Starr at a documentary screening at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, Calif., on Oct. 19, 2005.

The Houston connection to the Beatles that you probably never knew

Before Houston was known for Beyoncé, chopped-and-screwed rap or ZZ Top, the city gave the world a kid named Billy Preston.

Preston, who died in 2006, grew up in church pews and behind a keyboard, a musical prodigy whose talents were already recognized by the time his age hit double digits.

His career carried him across the globe, touring with pioneering rockers and soul singers. But perhaps his biggest claim to fame is his time playing with the Beatles, an era that earned him the honorary title of the “fifth Beatle.”

That’s right, one of the only non-Beatles ever credited on one of the British band’s singles was a Houston native.

Who was Billy Preston?

Preston was born in Houston on Sept. 2, 1946.

He moved with his mother to Los Angeles when he was young, but those Houston roots mattered, exposing him early to gospel music and church organs.

It was obvious early on that he was a prodigy. By the time he was a teenager, he was playing keyboards and backing gospel singers like Mahalia Jackson, and he appeared on television with the legendary Nat King Cole.

His adolescence brought only more success. He toured with Little Richard, worked with Sam Cooke and, by the ’60s, was already one of the most in-demand keyboard players in rock, soul and gospel.

The 'fifth Beatle'

He met the Fab Four back in the late 1960s, when the Beatles were working on a new project that would become “Let It Be.”

It was a volatile era for the Beatles, a time when creative differences were boiling over (that’s when George Harrison famously, albeit briefly, quit the band) and recording sessions were filled with tension.

Into that atmosphere walked Preston, who had met the band while touring in Europe. The Beatles thought Preston’s easygoing nature might help lighten the mood.

Preston melded well with the beefing Brits, with John Lennon at one point suggesting he join the band. His gospel-infused organ and piano riffs colored songs like “Don’t Let Me Down” and, most famously, “Get Back.” (Preston appears in Peter Jackson’s 2021 Beatles docuseries that details the making of “Let it Be.”)

He was playing alongside them when, in January 1969, the Beatles played the band’s final public performance atop a London rooftop.

When the Beatles released “Get Back” in April 1969, the single was credited to “The Beatles with Billy Preston.” That credit cemented his place in Beatles lore as the “fifth Beatle,” but the story goes on.

He also slipped onto “Abbey Road,” adding organ to “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and “Something.” Preston even played Sgt. Pepper in the 1978 Beatles-inspired film “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band,” belting out “Get Back” once more.

On his own

After his time with the Beatles, Preston carved out a career that proved he was more than just a sideman.

In the 1970s, he scored No. 1 hits with “Will It Go Round in Circles” and “Nothing from Nothing.” He also won a Grammy for the 1972 instrumental “Outa-Space.”

Preston went on to become a fixture with the Rolling Stones, touring and recording with them throughout the ’70s, and also collaborated with Aretha Franklin, Luther Vandross, Eric Clapton, Patti LaBelle and Whitney Houston.

In August 1995, Preston came back home to Houston, joining Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band at the Arena Theatre on August 11. As cheesy as it sounds, it was a full-circle moment.

Here was a Houston native, once a child prodigy but now middle-aged, standing center stage among rock royalty in the town he was born in.