Reviewed by Phil Thomson

Billy, of course, catapulted to fame on 30th January 1969 on the roof of the Apple Building as keyboard maestro to John, Paul, George and Ringo (that's him on the "Get Back" clip). But this man has a history. Preston put himself about so much he racked up movie parts with Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald and Pearl Bailey by the age of 10 years old. Yes, there was a piano-playing, God-fearing mother behind him and yes, it was the potent mix of faith and an early start in gospel. But you'd have to be good to keep up with Little Richard, tease out a Sam Cooke melody and keep top gospel choir legend James Cleveland happy. And this was still only 1962 on a UK tour. The fact is, he spent a lot of time making the likes of Ray Charles sound good - until one day he himself phoned Apple Music, and the world began to hear him in his own right. What we have here is the voice and the keyboard with his own name on it, leading us through his repertoire, including "Morning Star", "Let Us All Get Together Right Now", "This Is It". The story and the statistics speak for themselves. Look them up. From behind Mahalia Jackson, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and a veritable roll call of the great and the good, Preston's name emerges as the supreme instrumentalist who kept his counsel and eventually found his voice and his own audience without losing his soul. This album, a reissue of his Apple debut from 1969, comes with bonus tracks and a pristine remastered sound. So even if you're a long time fan of the Fab Four or Billy you may well want to purchase 'That's The Way God Planned It' particularly as the title track hit is as engagingly tuneful today as it was when it stormed up the British charts. Billy was a musical genius though, in truth, a spiritually flawed one. To finish with a great little fax'n'info nugget: when the single of "Get Back" was released in April 1969, the label carried the unprecedented credit 'The Beatles with Billy Preston'. Get that!

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