You Are So Beautiful
"You Are So Beautiful" is a song written by Billy Preston and Bruce Fisher that was first released in 1974 on Preston's ninth studio album, "The Kids & Me". It was also the B-side of his single "Struttin'". Later that same year, English singer Joe Cocker released a slower version of the song on his album "I Can Stand a Little Rain". Cocker's version was produced by Jim Price, and released as a single in November 1974. It became Cocker's highest charting solo hit, peaking at number five on the United States' "Billboard  Hot 100 (Cocker's biggest hit on the pop chart was Up Where We Belong", a duet with Jennifer Warnes from the 1982 film "An Officer And A Gentleman", which reached number 1), and at number four on Canada's Top Singles chart. Some sources credit Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys with contributing to the song's genesis. Wilson performed the song live with the Beach Boys from the late 1970s onwards. Kenny Rankin, Ray Stevens, Kenny Rogers, Bonnie Tyler and Brian Kennedy are also among the artists who have covered "You Are So Beautiful". The song has also  been featured in numerous movies, television shows, and ads. Background. Billy Preston wrote "You Are So Beautiful" with one of his regular collaborators, Bruce Fisher.<ref name="Tobler/BGO"></ref> Preston's inspiration was his mother, who worked as a stage actress. According to his friend Sam Moore (who had assumed it was a standard love song), Preston was appalled to learn that Moore was using the song as a means to attract young women each time he sang it in concert. In Moore's description, Preston told him: "That song's about my mother!" The composition incorporates part of Preston's  1969 song "Let Us All Get Together (Right Now)", which he wrote with soul singer Doris Troy. According to Beach Boys biographer Jon Stebbins, although Dennis Wilson is not credited as a writer, he helped Preston finish writing "You Are So Beautiful". Preston and Wilson are said to have collaborated on the song while attending a party where they discussed the concept of beauty. In the opinion of Craig Hlavaty, writing for "Houston Press", while Wilson never sought to claim a share of the song's authorship, "If you check out Wilson's solo work, you can hear where Wilson 's mind took over 'Beautiful.'" Billy Hinsche, close friend of and sideman with the Beach Boys, stated that he was at the party and witnessed Preston and Wilson working on the song "out of the corner of my ear and the corner of my eye". He said that he was unaware of how much of the song Preston had already written prior to Wilson's involvement. "Maybe it was just his [Wilson's] interpretation of the song. Later Dennis said to me, 'Well, you know, I helped write that song.'" In a 2004 interview, when asked whether his brother Dennis  was "one of the uncredited writers" of "You Are So Beautiful", Brian Wilson said: "He did not write that song." Dennis sang "You Are So Beautiful" as an encore at Beach Boys shows intermittently from 1975 until his death in 1983. A live rendition, circa 1978, and an edited 1983 live rendition both appear in the film "" (1985). A live version was released on the group's album "" in 2002. Composition. "You Are So Beautiful" was originally published in the key of A♭ major in common time with a tempo of 70 beats per minute. Cocker's vocals span  from B♭ to E♭. The song is unusual in that the chord progression does not include the "V" chord. Critical reception. Marc Lee of "The Daily Telegraph" noted the song's contemplative beginning, accompanied only by piano, followed by "lush strings" which "sweep in and carry [Cocker] off into passionate ecstasies". Lee commented that the song, one of Cocker's best-known works, was a good example of Cocker's ability to be both gentle and "gloriously stirring". Live performances. Cocker performed the song along with Ray Charles in a 1983 television tribute to Charles, "A Man and  his Soul".