Will It Go Round in Circles

1973 single by Billy Preston

"Will It Go Round in Circles"

Side A of the US single

Single by Billy Preston
from the album  Music Is My Life
B-side| "Blackbird"
Released| March 1973
Genre| Funk, soul
Length| 3:42 (single version)
4:28 (album version)
Label| A&M
Songwriter(s)| Billy Preston, Bruce Fisher
Producer(s)| Billy Preston
Billy Preston singles chronology
| "Slaughter"
(1972)  | "Will It Go Round in Circles"
(1973)  | "Space Race"
(1974)

|
|

Official audio
"Will It Go Round In Circles" on YouTube

"Will It Go Round in Circles" is a song by American soul musician Billy Preston from his 1972 album Music Is My Life. It was written by Preston and Bruce Fisher and released as a single in March 1973. The record topped the Billboard Hot 100 and sold over a million copies. This was the first of two number one hits for Preston as a solo performer, the other being "Nothing from Nothing", although he is also credited on the Beatles' 1969 hit "Get Back".

## Personnel

[edit]

Source:[1]

* Billy Preston – piano, vocals
* George Johnson – guitar
* Louis Johnson – bass guitar
* Hubert Heard – organ, melodica
* Manuel Kellough – drums
* Tom Scott – saxophone
* Jim Horn – saxophone
* George Bohanon – trombone
* Buck Monari – trumpet
* Paul Hubinon – trumpet

## Chart performance

[edit]

### Weekly charts

[edit]

| Chart (1973)  | Peak
position

|

Australia (Kent Music Report)[2] | 99
Canadian RPM 100[3] | 1
South Africa (Springbok)[4] | 20
US Billboard Hot 100[5] | 1
U.S. Billboard Hot Soul Singles[6] | 10

### Year-end charts

[edit]

| Chart (1973)  | Rank

|

Canadian RPM Year-End[7] | 18
U.S. Billboard Hot 100[8] | 8

### All-time charts

[edit]

Chart (1958–2018)  | Position

|

US Billboard Hot 100[9] | 358

## Certifications

[edit]

Region  | Certification | Certified units/sales

|
|

United States (RIAA)[10] | Gold  | 1,000,000^

^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

## Covers

[edit]

The song was covered by Donny Osmond on his 2009 album Love Songs Of The '70s. Phish did two renditions in 1999, including on 10 September at The Gorge Amphitheatre.[11] Orlando Brown recorded it for the 2006 soundtrack album That's So Raven Too!, for his Disney Channel series That's So Raven; his version was also featured in the Disney Channel original film Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior.[12] The song was performed in Hebrew by Yehonatan Geffen and Dani Litani in their 1974 live show That's All for Now - For Now That's All.[13]

## In popular culture

[edit]

* Appearance in the soundtrack of the 1996 Matt Dillon film Beautiful Girls.[14]
* Featured as the opening theme in the 1997 HBO Sports documentary Long Shots: The life and times of the American Basketball Association.[15]

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Adapted from Music Is My Life: A&M Records (1971_, AMLS 63516
2. ^ Kent, David (1993). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992 (illustrated ed.). St Ives, N.S.W.: Australian Chart Book. p. 238\. ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
3. ^ "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
4. ^ "SA Charts 1965–March 1989". Retrieved 5 September 2018.
5. ^ "Billy Preston Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved 8 May 2020.
6. ^ Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 468.
7. ^ "Best of 1973 songs and music, on MusicAndYears.com!". Archived from the original on 2015-02-24. Retrieved 2015-05-25.`{{cite web}}`: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
8. ^ "Top 100 Hits of 1973/Top 100 Songs of 1973". Musicoutfitters.com. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
9. ^ "Billboard Hot 100 60th Anniversary Interactive Chart". Billboard. Retrieved 10 December 2018.
10. ^ "American single certifications – Billy Preston – Will It Go Round in Circles". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved August 15, 2024.
11. ^ "Phish Relisten". relisten.net. Retrieved 2016-12-22.
12. ^ "Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior Entry". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
13. ^ בינתיים זה הכל at Discogs
14. ^ "Beautiful Girls Entry". IMDb.com. Retrieved 2016-10-08.
15. ^ Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "Longshots - The Life & Times Of The American Basketball Association". YouTube. 5 January 2014.

## External links

[edit]

* Billy Preston - Will It Go Round in Circles on YouTube

* v
* t
* e

Billy Preston

Studio albums|

* 16 Yr. Old Soul
* The Most Exciting Organ Ever
* Early Hits of '65
* Wildest Organ in Town!
* Club Meeting
* That's the Way God Planned It
* Encouraging Words
* I Wrote a Simple Song
* Music Is My Life
* Everybody Likes Some Kind of Music
* The Kids & Me
* It's My Pleasure
* Billy Preston
* A Whole New Thing
* Late at Night
* Billy Preston & Syreeta
* The Way I Am
* Pressin' On
* On the Air

Live albums|

* Live European Tour

Singles|

* "That's the Way God Planned It"
* "All That I've Got (I'm Gonna Give It to You)"
* "My Sweet Lord"
* "I Wrote a Simple Song"
* "Outa-Space"
* "Slaughter"
* "Will It Go Round in Circles"
* "Space Race"
* "Nothing from Nothing"
* "Get Back"
* "With You I'm Born Again"

Songs|

* "Sing One for the Lord"
* "The Duck"
* "You Are So Beautiful"

Related|

* St. Louis Blues
* "Get Back" (Beatles single)
* Let It Be
* The Concert for Bangladesh
* George Harrison and Ravi Shankar's 1974 North American tour
* The Rolling Stones' Tour of the Americas '75
* Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (film)
* Concert for George

Authority control databases |

* MusicBrainz work

|

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