"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, backing Little Richa ...

, released as a single in 1973 on the A&M label. It was taken from Preston's 1973 album '' Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music'', and "Space Race" was awarded a

gold record Gold is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol Au (from Latin ) and atomic number 79. In its pure form, it is a brightness, bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile metal. Chemically, gold is a transition metal ...

Chart performance

The single, a sequel to his 1972 hit, " Outa-Space", 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 ...

for one week and number four on the Pop Singles chart.

Personnel

* Billy Preston – vocals, keyboards, bass guitar, producer * David T. Walker – 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 ...

– string and horn arrangements * Manuel Kellough – drums * Tommy Vicari – engineer

Popular culture

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

American Bandstand ''American Bandstand'' (AB) is an American Music television, music performance and dance television series that aired in various iterations from 1952 to 1989. It was hosted by Dick Clark who also served as the program's Television producer, pr ...

'' 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