Many may not realize it but if you've listened to Rock or popular music from the last 60 years, you've heard Nicky Hopkins. He was the pre-eminent piano and keyboard session player, playing on recordings by the Who, the Beatles, the Kinks and, most frequently, the Rolling Stones. And that’s just the top tier. Hopkins played on hundreds of singles and albums by a variety of artists, from David Bowie to Jerry Garcia, Cat Stevens to Jefferson Airplane, Joe Cocker to Harry Nilsson, all the while working alongside the likes of Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, John Paul Jones and Billy Preston. Bands and producers wouldn’t ask for Hopkins; they’d demand him – sometimes wearing out the ever-agreeable session player with long hours spent in the studio. Hopkins was but a teenager when he began working as a professional musician in 1960, joining Screaming Lord Sutch and the Savages, a gig that would soon lead to his role in English blues harpist Cyril Davies’ R&B All-Stars. While many of the forthcoming British Invasion bands were still figuring out what they were doing, Davies and the All-Stars were performing and recording high-energy rhythm & blues like [Country Line Special](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lscwcKgz6J8) a 1963 single that featured the young Hopkins’ locomotive piano. Unfortunately for Nicky, the sideman would be sidelined by horrific health problems. Hopkins underwent two years of surgeries, extended hospital visits and being bedridden, ultimately being diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Hopkins, who initially wasn’t able to embark on the rigors of being in a full-time touring group, grew stronger and eventually joined a few bands, including the Jeff Beck Group and Quicksilver Messenger Service (although he rejected the opportunity to become a member of an early version of Led Zeppelin). Nicky also went on the road with the Stones for a few tours, but his condition – paired with substance abuse – prevented him from continuing work at such a pace. He still played on tons of records (and did some live performing) through the ’70s and into the ’80s and early ’90s. Ray Davies (Kinks): “He had the ability to turn an ordinary track into a gem, slotting in the right chord at the right time or dropping a set of triplets around the backbeat, just enough to make you want to dance.” A full discography would take pages due to his immense and outstanding career, but [here](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicky_Hopkins#Selected_performances) is a list of some of his more notable and heard songs. A true Legend and Icon.