AMG Review of Complete Vee-Jay Recordings

William Ruhlmann
All Music Guide

Billy Preston has had many different careers in the music business, and this collection chronicles two of his earliest. Although they were released in 1965, when he was still a teenager, the Vee-Jay Records albums The Most Exciting Organ Ever and Hymns Speak From the Organ were not actually his first recordings; that honor goes to the 1963 set The Sixteen Year Old Soul, released on Sam Cooke's Derby label. But The Most Exciting Organ Ever did earn Preston his first national recognition, with a placing in the ~Billboard LPs chart in June 1965. Of course, this is not the familiar Billy Preston singing "Nothing From Nothing," but rather a showy organist turning in his versions of recent hits like "If I Had a Hammer" and "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" with the backing of a rhythm section. The music is instrumental except for an occasional vocal chorus here and there. Tracks 13-26 comprise the less-well-remembered Hymns Speak From the Organ, a gospel collection of favorites like "Just a Closer Walk With Thee" and "How Great Thou Art," with appropriately reverent pop standards like "You'll Never Walk Alone" and "I Believe" also included. Here, Preston's organ is accompanied by a piano sometimes played in a similarly bravura style, suggesting that the keyboardist is actually playing both instruments through overdubbing. This is an album for fans of organ playing and for anyone curious about the early days of one of popular music's busiest and most distinctive keyboard artists. [Note: Its title notwithstanding, this collection does not contain the material from Preston's 1966 Vee-Jay LP Wildest Organ in Town!, making it somewhat less than complete.]