Rick Wakeman is premiering the video for his piano cover of The Beatles’ Help exclusively with TeamRock.
The track is taken from Wakeman’s upcoming album Piano Portraits, due for release on January 13, 2017.
The album was prompted by the reaction to his performance of David Bowie’s Life on Mars on BBC Radio 2 earlier this year. He has since recorded a full solo piano album featuring a varied selection of music, including classic songs that he originally performed on.
Wakeman says: “I’ve been wanting to do a piano album for years and I spent quite a bit of time looking at everything from straight classical pieces to stuff that I’d played on in the past like Morning Has Broken and Life On Mars.
“Plus pieces of music that I thought would work really well like Stairway To Heaven and classics like Clair De Lune. Nearly all of the tracks have a memory for me somewhere down the line and it just seemed to work.”
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Piano Portraits was recorded at The Old Granary in South Norfolk. The 15-track collection ranges from landmark Bowie hits Life On Mars, which Wakeman recorded the original piano parts for, and Space Oddity, to which he contributed mellotron, through The Beatles, Yes and Led Zeppelin. It also features to classical pieces composed by Debussy and Tchaikovsky.
Piano Portraits is available for pre-order on CD, 2LP and a bundle which includes a signed canvas now, with all pre-orders including an instant digital download of Help, the video for which can be viewed below.
Rick Wakeman Piano Portraits tracklist
- Help
- Stairway to Heaven
- Life on Mars
- I’m Not In Love
- Wondrous Stories
- Berceuse
- Amazing Grace
- Swan Lake
- Morning Has Broken
- Summertime
- Space Oddity
- Dance of the Damselflies
- Clair de Lune
- Vow To Thee My Country
- Eleanor Rigby
