John Lennon's Jealous Guy Pianist Was Almost in Spinal Tap
From Fats Domino and Jerry Lee Lewis to Billy Preston, Elton John and Billy Joel, piano men have made incredible contributions to the history of rock and roll. But as the genre's essential piano men go, one MVP, in particular, generally gets overlooked.
That's all about to change with The Session Man, a 90-minute documentary about the legendary-but-undersung pianist Nicky Hopkins that will premiere Nov. 5 on Amazon Prime. If you haven't heard of Hopkins, you're not alone. But you've definitely heard him.
Once one of the most in-demand session men in the business, Hopkins, who died in 1994 and age 50, played piano on such classics as "She's a Rainbow," "Sympathy of the Devil," "Gimme Shelter" and "Angie" by the Rolling Stones, "Matthew and Son" by Cat Stevens, "You Are So Beautiful" by Joe Cocker, "Photograph" by Ringo Starr and "Jealous Guy" by John Lennon.
Mick Jagger in 'The Session Man'.
In fact, the British pianist contributed to solo albums by all four former Beatles, including Lennon's Imagine, Starr's Ringo, George Harrison's Living in the Material World and Paul McCartney's Flowers in the Dirt.
Source: Jeremy Helligar/people.com
