"You Are So Beautiful" | ||||
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![]() 1980s UK vinyl re-release | ||||
Single by Joe Cocker | ||||
from the album I Can Stand a Little Rain | ||||
B-side | "It's a Sin When You Love Somebody" | |||
Released | November 2, 1974 | |||
Recorded | 1973 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:39 | |||
Label | A&M | |||
Songwriter(s) | Billy Preston, Bruce Fisher | |||
Producer(s) | Jim Price | |||
Joe Cocker singles chronology | ||||
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Music video | ||||
"You Are So Beautiful" on YouTube |
"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. It was also the B-side of his single "Struttin'". 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.[1] 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),[2] 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.[3] 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, Brian Kennedy and Phil Driscoll 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.