I can’t think of one better.
Well you can find piano solos on You Tube by people like Liberace that are technically better but you are right about a rock band. His solo on Jessica is the best and Chuck himself says it is his signature performance.
Chuck's Jessica solo and Dickey's second solo on Ramblin' Man are probably the highlights of Brothers and Sisters. Both so famous.
But Chuck and Dickey and Gregg for that matter, take very good solos on Jelly, Jelly on Brothers and Sisters.
And listen to Chuck's electric piano solo on High Falls on Win, Loose and Draw. Win, Loose and Draw was a big let down both commercially and critically after Brothers and Sisters. But to me High Falls and Cant Loose What You Never Did Have are good enough to have been on Brothers and Sisters.
The secret Capricorn records was trying to hide in 1975 was the Allman Brothers were not getting along and especially Gregg wasn't interested in doing that album. Butch was so angry with Gregg at the time that he wouldn't show up either. Gregg refused even Phil Walden's demands he return from Cher's house in Los Angles to record with the band. Early in the sessions he did participate in about 3 songs with the band in Macon but after that Johnny Sandlin had to take the tapes to LA and record Gregg in a studio there. As a result there are about 4 songs Gregg doesn't appear on. Best as I can tell they are probably Just Another Love Song, High Falls, Sweet Mama and maybe 3 Card Monty John.
Dickey would show up ready to record but no Gregg and no Butch so they did Sweet Mama, Just Another Love Song and 3 Card Monty John with Bill Stewart on drums and Johnny Sandlin played a second set of traps on a couple with Bill. Phil Walden didn't want this known as Phil struggled to get another blockbuster like Brothers and Sisters so Bill Stewart and Johnny Sandlin are billed on the album as percussion and not drums. But if you are use to the way Jaimoe and Butch play, you can tell it's not them. I think Bill Stewart who played drums on Gregg's Laid Back did play percussion between Jaimoe and Butch on High Falls. A couple of the 1975 shows I saw, Stewart was on stage between Jaimoe and Butch playing percussion instruments.
Find High Falls from Win, Loose and Draw on You Tube and listen with a good pair of headphones and you'll see it's a wonderful piece of music. Chuck, Lamar and Jaimoe especially shine on it and it's another gem written by Dickey.
With all due to Chuck, Nicky Hopkins was a classically trained intuitive musician whose career was sidelined by the disease that eventually killed him. He preceded Chuck w/the Stones and made the Beatles better.
I have a really soft spot for Billy Preston.
While more in the jazz fusion world than rock - see what you think of this one by Hiromi from her Sonicbloom Live DVD:
[Edited on 1/7/2019 by slothrop8]
The solo is brilliant, but there are as many as good or better, that is, if you look into the music of Bill Evans, Brad Mehldau, Fred Hersch and others (and not just in the jazz realm).
With all due to Chuck, Nicky Hopkins was a classically trained intuitive musician whose career was sidelined by the disease that eventually killed him. He preceded Chuck w/the Stones and made the Beatles better.
I have a really soft spot for Billy Preston.
I love, and I mean absolutely love Hopkins playing with Jerry Garcia in 1975 particularly on songs like “I’ll Take A Melody”. Just creative and beautiful playing.
I can’t think of one better.
Chuck on Richard Betts' "Hand Picked".....from Highway Call
For my money, Chuck outdid himself on Old Love on Clapton’s Unplugged.
I love, and I mean absolutely love Hopkins playing with Jerry Garcia in 1975 particularly on songs like “I’ll Take A Melody”. Just creative and beautiful playing.
Magic. Forgot about that pairing.
I can’t think of one, and maybe that answers the question, but I’m sure Payne had a few killer solos with Little Feat right?
Some of you are missing the point. Some pianist may be technically better but none are better known than this. He plays like Dickey. You know every note. Truth is the only other one that has the same universal appeal may be Charlie Browns theme.
That being said his most beautiful to me is Highway Call
Some of you are missing the point. Some pianist may be technically better but none are better known than this. He plays like Dickey. You know every note. Truth is the only other one that has the same universal appeal may be Charlie Browns theme.
Ah, this thread is closed to discussion. The topic is merely the narrow assertion that the "best known" piano solo in music history is Betts with which we all apparently must concur.
Nothing by the Beatles, the Stones, the Dead who each sold more than 250 mm albums. Bros & Sis on which Jessica was debuted went platinum - 1 mm sales. Sorry, even Barry Manilow's jingles are better known although they might be tied w/Brubeck's TV score.
There are numerous pianists/composers who, in their day, were far more "universally appealing" & have a long lasting legacy - Duke Ellington & Ray Charles come to mind.
[Edited on 1/7/2019 by cyclone88]
Hey Ya'll, Happy New Year!
Great subject on Chuck's solos and others as well.
It's been 45 years since Highway Call was released, and I'll still get goose bumps from measures 5 through 8 of Chuck's Highway Call solo. The climb he does there is just a perfect grand piano passage. The way it was backed with the loosely held pick on the acoustic guitar rhythm simply drips out of my great Polk Audio passive radiators!
Today that record would be huge in the Americana market. I'd always hoped that my hero would record another like it, or even play some of those songs live. Anybody else ever think it's a bit odd that the material never resurfaced? Chuck Leavel could certainly play some country music. I agree that in rock, the Jessica solo is hard to top!
Couple of other favorites: Bill Payne with The Feat on Representing the Mambo.
Taz DiGregario with The CDB on the smoking middle section of Saddle Tramp.
Taz also on High Lonesome.
Hope everybody's doin well!
Chuck did a lot of great ones -- it's just as good on Southbound, the one before Jessica on B&S
Best piano solo ever is in the proverbial ear of the beholder -- the solo on Doin' Fine, which kicks off Savoy Brown's Hellbound Train, has always been mine --
but yes Jessica is a real highlight -- I know LLou isn't popular around here, but the way he busts into that solo -- nails it w/tremendous energy
the solo on Doin' Fine, which kicks off Savoy Brown's Hellbound Train, has always been mine --
Hellbound Train. You made my day.
Some of you are missing the point. Some pianist may be technically better but none are better known than this. He plays like Dickey. You know every note. Truth is the only other one that has the same universal appeal may be Charlie Browns theme.
All do respect, but you didn't really make a point. You asked a question. Hard to miss a point that wasn't made.
the solo on Doin' Fine, which kicks off Savoy Brown's Hellbound Train, has always been mine --
Hellbound Train. You made my day.
no piano solos but raw siena and lookin in are great albums by savoy brown.
Skynyrd’s Billy Powell on “Call Me The Breeze” absolutely smokes. It’s up there with the best ever IMO.
Skynyrd’s Billy Powell on “Call Me The Breeze” absolutely smokes. It’s up there with the best ever IMO.
Love that solo and pretty much all of Billy's work. I think his piano is actually the basis for the band's songs. His parts are always busy and liven up the songs while the guitars often just pumped the chords.
When I hear a song like Sweet Home Alabama, the piano is what jumps out at me the most. Sure there are great guitar licks throughout the song but the piano drives it.
I love that song and Powell's work on it. Interesting thing about Powell (to me anyway) is that he started out with Skynyrd as a roadie. I don't think that happens too often.
Everything in Moderation. Including Moderation.
Maybe off topic since it is not a solo at all, and not technically dazzling, but my alltime favorite piano in rock is the last bit of Layla.
Wow, went looking for who wrote that piano part - just found this crazy story about the artist behind that:
"A searing guitar riff and Clapton's tortured vocals would have made "Layla" memorable no matter what. But sealing the deal was a nearly four-minute piano coda of such sheer loveliness that "Layla" was recognized almost immediately as a new classic.
The coda was credited to drummer Jim Gordon, who played the main piano part while Allman contributed the (slightly off-key) slide guitar. But years later, it was revealed that Gordon had stolen the melody of the "Layla" coda from his ex-girlfriend, singer Rita Coolidge. Coolidge (who was living with Gordon in early 1970 but who left him after he gave her a black eye in the hallway of New York's Warwick Hotel) had written the music for a song called "Time," and knew Gordon had stolen her melody, but — afraid of his temper — decided to shine it on.
Gordon continued to work steadily after the Derek and the Dominos sessions. (You can hear his work on Steely Dan's "Rikki Don't Lose That Number" and Maria Muldaur's "Midnight at the Oasis," among others). But years of cycling between heroin, cocaine and alcohol had taken a grim toll on the talented musician.
Through the 1970s, Gordon wrestled with acute schizophrenia. He was paranoid. He heard voices. He became convinced his mother was evil, and had killed Karen Carpenter and comedian Paul Lynde. Finally, in 1983, he murdered his own mother, bludgeoning her with a hammer before stabbing her with a butcher knife. Jim Gordon, the man whose piano-playing on the "Layla" coda has brought grown men to tears, is halfway through his thirtieth year in prison in Vacaville, Calif., where he is expected to spend the rest of his life."
Craven Lovelace
from https://www.postindependent.com/news/entertainment/music-the-tragedy-of-the-layla-coda/
This is an easy one as i love all of Chucks work with the ABB. I still get the shakes when i hear him on Southbound after countless times listening. 
the solo on Doin' Fine, which kicks off Savoy Brown's Hellbound Train, has always been mine --
Hellbound Train. You made my day.
Mine too!
John Lord was pretty good on the keys.
I always liked the piano (Roy Bittan) on Bruce Springsteen's Back Streets. Hard to top Elton John's Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding.
