By the time he achieved his first hit as a solo artist in 1969, Billy Preston had built up an impressive résumé as a keyboardist for some of music's top artists, most notably The Beatles, with whom he collaborated on a number of the Get Back and Abbey Road sessions. His prowess at the organ and ability to successfully combine elements from a myriad of musical styles resulted in several top 100 singles in the early 1970s, including "Outa-Space" and "Will It Go Round in Circles," which placed at #2 and #1 respectively on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Billy's success continued with "Space Race," a catchy and dynamic instrumental somewhat reminiscent in style and theme to its predecessor "Outa-Space." It was the first single from the album Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music. Released in September 1973, it reached a peak position of #4 on the pop chart later that fall, as well as a top placing on the R&B singles chart. After the song had finished its chart run, a portion of it could be heard prior to the mid-show commercial break on American Bandstand each week for much of the remainder of the 1970s.
Although Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music does not appear to be readily available on CD, "Space Race" is contained on several good collections of Billy's hits and best-known album tracks, including Ultimate Collection, released in 2000 on the Hip-O label. Listen to the track on YouTube:
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