In Billy’s Band

Among the many astonishing moments in Get Back—the 2021 documentary that Peter Jackson made from rehearsal footage of the Beatles in January 1969, bickering like siblings as they created some of the songs that would find immortality on the albums Let It Be and Abbey Road—one of the most magical involves the underappreciated musician Billy Preston. After a few years of studio wizardry, during which the increasingly estranged band members sometimes laid down separate tracks at separate times, the Beatles had decided to try to recapture some of the fun of their early days by recording together in person. That meant, however, that there was no one left to play the Fender Rhodes, an electric piano that came on the market in 1965 and was a new toy in their studio—and they wanted its sound on the recordings. “We need somebody else,” John Lennon says in the film, “a guy who plays piano all the time.”The next day Preston—in London while touring with Ray Charles—drops by the studio, invited by George Harrison to say hello. When Lennon asks Preston to sit in on the Rhodes, he coolly agrees. Then his delight and disbelief escape in a giggle. The Beatles are working on the gospel-rock song “I’v...