I got a chance in the mid 80s to have lunch with Nicky Hopkins when I worked at the Art Institute of Atlanta. Very cool, but I posted anecdotes from that on a thread awhile back.....to quote the Talking Heads, "say something once....why say it again..."

The reason for this thread is just to marvel for a moment at all the incredible songs that feature Nicky's piano. The very best of the Stones, of course, from Beggar's Banquet through IORR (special kudos for "Loving Cup"....."No Expectations"...."Gimme Shelter"......"She's a Rainbow" ...you folks, of all people, know the list).

However, I decided yesterday to throw together an iTunes playlist of Nicky, and some non-Stones oriented music listeners are surprised to learn that, in addition to classic Stones (and the Jamming with Edward lp, Bill Wyman's Stone Alone, etc.), Nicky plays on (and this is the short Cliff's Notes list):

Beatles - Revolution (single)
Lennon - Imagine, Jealous Guy
George Harrison - What is Life
The Who - Gettin' in Tune, the Song is Over
The Kinks - Mr. Pleasant, Sunny Afternoon, Village Green Preservation Society, Session Man (written about Nicky)
Jeff Beck - Blues Deluxe, among other tunes
Jefferson Airplane - Hey Fredrick, Volunteers, performed with them at Woodstock
Joe Cocker - You are so Beautiful (oh well, we all need grocery money, right?)

Throw in sessions with Jerry Garcia, the Strawbs, Ron Wood, Rod Stewart (solo), Ringo Starr, Carly Simon, Joe Satriani, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Martha Reeves, Pretty Things, Graham Parker, Harry Nilsson, Carly Simon, Steve Miller, Donovan, and on and on and on.

(A great historical site of Nicky is [rocksoff.org])

All leads me to the question:

Is Nicky Hopkins the best session player ever?

Quote
Mongoose
All leads me to the question:

Is Nicky Hopkins the best session player ever?

Best based on what? Number of records he played on, technical abilities, success of the records he played on, ... ?

Great pianist, but, of course, there were and are pianists of superior musical ability.

That's a good question, so let's make it the other two:

Number of records played on, and success of records played on

I got three other candidates..

Keith Richards to his sis-in-law
Kenny Håkansson circa 1970-2006 mainly
Jimmy Page, one or two good sessions

Good thought, Baboon Bro.

Great Jimmy Page trivia.....guitarist on Donovan's "Hurdy Gurdy Man" most everyone knows. What would be his other most well known non-Zep/Yardbirds tunes?

(uh oh....new thread coming on!)

Jimmy played on The Kinks "You Really Got Me" so he arguably invented both Heavy Metal and Punk Rock
He also played on Joe Cockers classic version of "With a litle help from friends" and "Baby Pleas Dont Go" by Them.
He also played on I cant explain by the Who, but Pete Townsend played over his part.

Nicky is my favourite session player!

...

There's a lot of myth's and misunderstandings about Jimmy Page's session career...

Page didn't play on Hurdy Gurdy Man, Dave Davies most definitely played the riff and solo's for You Really Got Me and finally, the guitarist with Them, Billy Harrison played all the main licks/solo's on Baby Please Don't Go.

Has to be amongst the best...no doubt about it.

I would say Duane Allman, Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones too.
Still, I love Nock's playing.

"He also played on I cant explain by the Who, but Pete Townsend played over his part."

So doesn't mean a thing?

Nicky also does a GREAT piano solo on a track (don't remember the name right now) on the album Still Got The Blues by Gary Moore.

Greetings DW

Nicky Hopkins is great !
But dont forget these other terrific session guys:

Billy Preston
Jimmy Page
Eric Clapton !
George Harrison !
Dave Mason
Jim Keltner
Willy Weeks
Garth Hudson
Steve Cropper
Duck Dunn

And what about the "Wrecking Crew"...? Hal Blaine, Leon Russell, Glen Campbell,
etc? They played on tons of hits in the 60's-70's...

Quote
Mongoose
Is Nicky Hopkins the best session player ever?

he's certainly up there, but a lot of the great studios and record labels down the years had excellent in-house session musicians who played on even more hit records and just as many classics.

The most obvious which springs to mind would be the Funk Brothers, at Tamla Motown with the late, great bassist James Jamerson probably being the cream of that crop.

Roll call here -
[en.wikipedia.org]

Spector's "Wrecking Crew" werent too shabby either -
[en.wikipedia.org]

Not forgetting Booker T & the MG's and all those great Stax musicians....

Has to be Jimmy Page.

However, as already stated. He was not present at the sessions for Donovan's Hurdy Gurdy Man. He does play the lead on Sunshine Superman though.

About You Really Got Me. According to Ray Davis, there were three takes of the track. The released version features Dave Davis, but one of the other two could 'possibly feature Jimmy Page'

His only two verified contributions to Kinks records are the 12 string acoustic on Bald Headed Woman and tambourine on Long Tall Shorty.

Between the years of 1964 and 1966, he wass the number one session guitarist in London. It dried up quite a bit once he joined The Yardbirds.

did mick taylor really play with the stones on december 15, 1981 for the whole show . how and why would this come about after he left the band. was ronnie taking ill ,was mick taylor in town and he was invited to sit in . i am really in disbelief over this one.

>> did Mick Taylor really play with the stones on december 15, 1981 for the whole show <<

smile: you're right to have doubts, because it was december 14th, not december 15th.
no, not for the whole show; and Ronnie was right up there too - Mick T was a guest, not a stand-in.
i've heard different theories about how it came about, but ... well, there have been several threads about this;
if you search "kansas city" with the parameters set for "exact phrase", "tell me" and "all posts"
you'll find a whole bunch, including some photos.

and this thread can go back to being about the brilliant and beautiful Nicky H (thanks & praises, love & light)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-01-14 22:02 by with sssoul.

thank you ssoul !

If not THE BEST, then Way up there. For my money, no one EVER could play blues/Rock'n'Roll PIE-ANNNEEE better than Nicky...He probably played on More hits by the greatest bands than anyone else in Rock and Roll...and his live performances weren't too shabby, either...I'd put him up there, just for Gimme Shelter, alone.

JR