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‘Played on over 250 albums’: was Nicky Hopkins the greatest unsung pianist ever?


He helped shape classic songs by the Rolling Stones, The Who and the Beatles but his influence on music has been largely ignored. A new documentary aims to correct that

In each of those cases, the piano work sprang from the fertile mind and fleet fingers of Nicky Hopkins, a keyboard colossus so dexterous he gained eager employment from nearly every star of note from the classic rock world and beyond. More, he was a member of two key bands: the Jeff Beck Group with Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood, and Quicksilver Messenger Service, who helped define San Francisco psychedelia in the 60s. A nine-minute song he composed for Quicksilver in 1970, Edward, the Mad Shirt Grinder, featured lightning speed piano runs and jazzy breaks that made it an FM radio staple.

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Nicky Hopkins