The Beatles famously helped the Rolling Stones land their first chart-topping hit with “I Wanna Be Your Man,” and 15 years later, an “honorary Beatle” would do the same thing with a disco-inspired bassline that would become the foundation for one of the Stones’ most popular songs.

By 1978, the Beatles were no longer. But their influence and importance to the Rolling Stones persisted well past the Fab Four’s official split, even if only by association.

The “Honorary Beatle” Behind This Rolling Stones Hit

While Keith Richards was busy with his h***** possession and trafficking trial in Toronto, Canada, in the late 1970s, his bandmate, Mick Jagger, was busy workshopping material at the El Mocambo club in town. Jagger, along with the help of Billy Preston, brainstormed what would later become the Rolling Stones’ 1978 track, “Miss You.” 

“Billy had shown me the four-on-the-floor bass-drum part, and I would just play guitar,” Jagger recalled to Rolling Stone in 1995. “I remember playing that in the El Mocambo club while Keith was on trial in Toronto for whatever he was doing. We were supposed to be there making this live record. I was still writing [the song], actually.” 

Bill Wyman, bassist for the Rolling Stones, agreed that the majority of his part in “Miss You” came directly from Preston. “We’d cut a rough demo a year earlier after a recording session,” he later said. “I’d already gone home, and Billy picked up my old bass when they started running through that song. When we finally came to do the tune, the boys said, ‘Why don’t you work around Billy’s ideas?’” 

“I listened to it, heard that basic run, and took it from there,” Wyman continued. “It took some polishing. But the basic idea was Billy’s.”

What Made Billy Preston The Fifth Fab Four

Billy Preston was a prolific musician independent of the Beatles, but his association with the Fab Four makes his contributions to the Rolling Stones that much more interesting, considering all the Beatles did to catalyze the Stones’ career. And if there was any one musician worthy of the title of the “fifth Beatle,” it was undoubtedly Preston.

Preston and the members of the Beatles were friends since the early 1960s, which naturally led to collaborations among the musicians. The keyboardist contributed to the Beatles’ Get Back sessions and to the group’s smash-hit record, Abbey Road. Preston is also the only musician to earn his own credit as a co-performer on a Beatles tune.

Starting in 1973, Preston became a Stone when he picked up a gig touring with the band in support of albums like Sticky Fingers, Exile on Main St., Goats Head Soup, and more. His musical prowess not only kept the Rolling Stones’ touring set solid, but it also helped create one of the band’s biggest hits (and one of the only ones they ever released that someone could reasonably call disco).

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