"Space Race" is an instrumental track by

Billy Preston William Everett Preston (September 2, 1946 – June 6, 2006) was an American keyboardist, singer and songwriter whose work encompassed R&B, rock, soul, funk, and gospel. Preston was a top session keyboardist in the 1960s, during which he ba ...

, released as a single in 1973 on the A&M label, taken from Preston's 1973 album ''

Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music ''Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music'' is the eighth studio album by American musician Billy Preston. It was released in September 1973 on A&M Records. Songs and musical style The album includes the instrumental "Space Race", which was released ...

''. "Space Race" was a

gold record Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile meta ...

Chart performance

The single, a sequel to his 1972 hit, "

Outa-Space "Outa-Space" is an instrumental recorded by Billy Preston that originally appeared on his 1971 A&M Records-debut album, ''I Wrote a Simple Song''. To create the primary instrumental sound, Preston played a clavinet through a wah wah pedal. The s ...

", reached number one on the

R&B chart The Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart ranks the most popular R&B and hip hop songs in the United States and is published weekly by ''Billboard''. Rankings are based on a measure of radio airplay, sales data, and streaming activity. The chart had 100 p ...

for one week and number four on the

Pop Singles chart The ''Billboard'' Hot 100 is the music industry standard record chart in the United States for songs, published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine. Chart rankings are based on sales (physical and digital), radio play, and online streaming in ...

Personnel

* Billy Preston – vocals, keyboards, bass guitar, producer *

David T. Walker David T. Walker (born June 25, 1941) is an American guitarist, born in Tulsa, Oklahoma. In addition to numerous session musician duties since the early 1970s, Walker has issued fifteen albums in his own name. Career David T. Walker was born to ...

– guitar * Hubert Heard, Kenneth Lupper – keyboards *

Paul Riser Paul Riser (born September 11, 1943) is an American trombonist and Motown musical arranger who was responsible for co-writing and arranging dozens of top ten hit records. His legacy as one of the "Funk Brothers" is similar to that of most of the ...

– string & horn arrangements * Manuel Kellough – drums *

Tommy Vicari Thomas Vicari (born August 24, 1948) is an American recording engineer, mixing engineer, record producer and scoring mixer known for his work with Quincy Jones, Gino Vannelli, Nicholas Britell, Thomas Newman, Prince, George Duke and Barbra Streisan ...

– engineer

Popular culture

*The instrumental proved popular enough that the musical variety show ''

American Bandstand ''American Bandstand'', abbreviated ''AB'', is an American music-performance and dance television program that aired in various versions from 1952 to 1989, and was hosted from 1956 until its final season by Dick Clark, who also served as the pro ...

'' used it as the song for its mid-broadcast break from the mid-1970s until the show completed its run in 1989. *The song can also be heard in a party scene in the 1979 film '' When a Stranger Calls.''

References

1973 singles Billy Preston songs Pop instrumentals A&M Records singles Songs written by Billy Preston 1970s instrumentals {{1970s-R&B-song-stub