‘You Are So Beautiful’
A Reason To Smile
For this week’s reason to smile, I think we all just need a beautiful song to lift the spirit.
What better way to lift one’s spirit than to listen to the song “You Are So Beautiful.”
A staple of weddings and anniversaries, “You Are So Beautiful” was, surprisingly, not written to be a romantic love song. Singer-songwriter Billy Preston wrote the award-winning ballad about his mother.
Though Preston released a version, the song was made famous by bluesy British rocker Joe Cocker in 1974. Cocker’s rendition was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame 42 years later.
When he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, it was said that Cocker’s “true genius lay in his rare ability to take someone else’s music and use his raw and powerful voice to make it uniquely his own.” He certainly succeeded with “You Are So Beautiful.”
Cocker dueted with the likes of Ray Charles, Patti LaBelle, and Luciano Pavarotti, but I prefer his solo version of the song.
This one is from 2013, just a year before his death. When you hear it, I hope it will rekindle memories of time spent with someone who was beautiful to you.
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Stay Steady,
Dan
Ah, Dan. You are so beautiful to me. Take care of yourself. We need you now more than ever (which is saying something large and true.)
Such a beautiful, uplifting message. So needed. Thank you!