‘You Are So Beautiful’ is a song credited to Billy Preston and Bruce Fisher that was first released in 1974 on Preston's ninth studio album, The Kids & Me. 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 in the United States, peaking at number five on the Billboard Hot 100 (Cocker's biggest hit on the US 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.
Although he remains uncredited by the publisher as of 2023, several sources assert that Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys assisted Preston in completing the song by co-writing the lyrics and modifying part of the melody at a contemporaneous party. Wilson performed the song live with the Beach Boys (often as an encore with minimal accompaniment) from 1975 until his final performances with the group in 1983. 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.
Billy Preston wrote ‘You Are So Beautiful’ with one of his regular collaborators, Bruce Fisher. 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!"
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".
Label – A&M
Songwriters – Billy Preston, Bruce Fisher
Producer – Jim Price
SONG LYRICS
[Chorus]You are so beautiful
To me
You are so beautiful
To me
Can't you see
[Post Chorus]
You're everything I hoped for
You're everything I need
You are so beautiful to me
To me
[Chorus]
You are so beautiful
To me
You are so beautiful
To me
Can't you see
[Post Chorus]
You're everything I hoped for
You're everything I need
You are so beautiful to me