The Beatles shared the performing credits with only two other artists, the first was Tony Sheridan and the second was the funkiest keyboard player ever, Billy Preston. Preston was the man behind the keyboards on the Beatles #1 hit "Get Back".

When Billy struck out on his own, he got his first #1 R&B hit with "Outa-Space" and was able to recreate that magic for his second #1, "Space Race". All you had to do was put Billy in front of the latest in keyboard technology and he could spin gold out of it. "Outa-Space" was his first time using a clavinet, this time it was an aarp synthesizer, a Pro Soloist to be exact. He came up with "Space Race" while he was jamming on the new instrument.

The original title he gave the instrumental song was "Funky Thing In A", but when it came time to put it on the album, he already had "Outa-Space" in the can and felt that since the US space program was such big news, a second space song made sense and changed the title so that there would be some continuity in theme.

He had written lyrics but threw them out as they got in the way of the funk. "Space Race" was released after his #1 Hot100 hit with "Will It Go Round In Circles". The song was chosen by producer of American Bandstand Larry Klein as background music for the series. The song stayed the theme until the program ended in 1989.

When "Carrie", the 1976 horror film with Sissy Spacek came out, there was a scene where the boys went out to shop for prom tuxes at several shops and the music that played used the aarp synthesizer and bore a similarity to "Space Race". I guess it was cheaper than getting the original to write and record something new.

свернуть