Nicky Hopkins

NICKY HOPKINS
 
 
Nicky Hopkins  (24 February 1944 – 6 September 1994) was an English pianist and organist.  Hopkins recorded and performed on many notable British and American pop and rock music releases from the 1960’s through the 1990’s including many Rolling Stones songs.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
A side man can be a wonderful thing for a musician.  For rock bands without keyboard players (and that was true of many in the 1960’s), Nicky Hopkins was the go-to guy if you wanted a pianist:  He played with everybody from Jefferson Airplane to Jeff Beck Group to Steve Miller Band, and with simply every big British Invasion group:  the Beatlesthe Kinksthe Who, and especially the Rolling Stones.  His name appears on dozens of albums from the late 1960’s into the 1980’sHopkins released a couple of solo albums that I have never gotten around to buying, but I sure remember one of the first songs that I heard on college radio at North Carolina State University.  It was “Edward the Mad Shirt Grinder”; Hopkins was officially a member of Quicksilver Messenger Service at that time, and the song was the final track on their album, Shady Grove (1969).  Hopkins wrote it, and it was all his piano work along with a backing band. 
 
(August 2011)
 
Last edited: March 22, 2021