#28: That’s The Way God Planned It by Billy Preston
City: Edmonton, AB
Radio Station: CHED
Peak Month: September 1969
Peak Position in Edmonton: #5
Peak position in Vancouver: #16
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100: #62
YouTube: “That’s The Way God Planned It”
Lyrics: “That’s The Way God Planned It”
William Everett Preston was born in Houston, Texas, in 1946. He learned to play the organ by himself and was viewed as a child prodigy. In 1957, Billy Preston appeared on The Nat King Cole Show performing “Blueberry Hill” in a duet with Cole. In 1963, Preston played the organ as a musician in the studio for Sam Cooke’s album Night Beat. That year he released his debut album titled 16 Yr. Old Soul. He was in the recording studio on keyboards for Little Richard in 1965 for “I Don’t Know What You Got (But It’s Got Me)”. In 1967, Preston was again in the studio for Ray Charles recording of his Top 40 hit “In the Heat of the Night”. Meanwhile, Billy Preston released four more studio albums between 1965 and 1967. The Most Exciting Organ Ever! and Wildest Organ in Town both cracked the Top Ten on the R&B album charts in the USA.