Top 10 Rick Wakeman Songs

Photo: By Afelipe.carvalho (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

The members of the band Yes have become cornerstones of progressive rock through their work in the band, their collaborations with other artists, and their solo albums. When we speak of the great keyboard players of the 1970s progressive rock movement, two names always float to the top of that discussion: Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman. That doesn’t take anything away from other great progressive rock keyboardists like Patrick Moraz, John Tout, Tony Banks, and countless others. It is simply that Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman were so dominant in their respective bands that fans came to know their playing in depth.

Our Top 10 Rick Wakeman Songs list focuses on Wakeman’s solo material, which is almost funny to call solo material because his own catalog is so enormous. He has released well over 100 albums when you count studio records, live recordings, soundtracks, and other projects, and that doesn’t include the albums he made with Yes. Add his sessions and guest appearances, and the amount of officially released music featuring his keyboard work becomes staggering. So how in the name of King Arthur do we pick the 10 best Rick Wakeman songs? Well, we can have some fun trying.

# 10 – Sir Lancelot and The Black Knight

The Myths And Legends Of King Arthur And The Knights Of The Round Table

“Sir Lancelot and the Black Knight” launches our list with one of the strongest pieces from Rick Wakeman’s 1975 album The Myths & Legends of King Arthur & The Knights of the Round Table. The track closes the first side of the original album and turns the famous duel into a dramatic blend of progressive rock, orchestration, and Wakeman’s keyboards. The original album credits Terry Taplin as narrator, with Ashley Holt and Gary Pickford Hopkins on vocals, Geoff Crampton on guitar, Roger Newell on bass, and Barney James on drums.

That lineup gives the piece plenty of muscle beneath Wakeman’s classical flourishes and fast-moving keyboard work. The music rises and falls with the story’s tension without losing the rock energy that made Wakeman’s mid-1970s albums so exciting. It is a great opening choice because it captures exactly what Wakeman did so well: taking a huge story and making it sound even bigger.

# 9 – White Rock

“White Rock” is the blazing title track from Rick Wakeman’s 1977 soundtrack album White Rock, written for the film of the 1976 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria. Wakeman was given the chance to bring rock music into a sports film at a time when orchestral and brass-band scores were far more common, and he attacked the opportunity with everything he had. The title track is driven by his keyboards, including the Moog synthesizer, while Tony Fernandez supplies the drums and percussion that keep the piece moving at full speed.

There are no lyrics, and none are needed, because the performance itself carries the excitement and danger of downhill competition. The piece sounds fast, bright, and almost reckless, which is exactly why it works so well with the images it was created to support. “White Rock” remains one of Wakeman’s purest displays of keyboard firepower.

# 8 – Music Reincarnate

“Music Reincarnate” is the massive suite that occupies the first side of Rick Wakeman’s 1976 album No Earthly Connection. It is divided into five sections: “The Warning,” “The Maker,” “The Spaceman,” “The Realization,” and “The Reaper.” Wakeman recorded the album in France with the English Rock Ensemble during one of the most ambitious periods of his career. He described the larger concept in terms of the human soul and the idea of a musical soul being reincarnated from one person to another. That gives the suite plenty of room to move between grand symphonic passages, harder progressive rock, reflective sections, and the kind of keyboard work that immediately identifies Wakeman. “Music Reincarnate” is long, strange, dramatic, and completely committed to its idea, which is exactly what makes it such a fascinating piece of 1970s progressive rock.

# 7 – Pharos of Alexandria

“Pharos of Alexandria” appears right at the beginning of Rick Wakeman’s 1995 concept album The Seven Wonders of the World, following a short introductory track devoted to the same subject. The piece takes its inspiration from the Lighthouse of Alexandria, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World and one of history’s most famous structures. Wakeman uses his keyboards to give the music scale, mystery, and movement as the melody builds around the idea of the great lighthouse standing over the ancient harbor.

The track is less about literal storytelling than atmosphere, letting Wakeman paint the picture through sound instead of words. That approach fits him perfectly because so much of his best solo music has always been about turning history, mythology, or literature into something listeners can almost see. “Pharos of Alexandria” is a beautiful example of the way Wakeman could still make large-scale concept music decades after his classic 1970s albums.

# 6 – Lure of the Wild

“Lure of the Wild” opens the 1993 album Wakeman with Wakeman, the father-and-son collaboration between Rick Wakeman and Adam Wakeman. Both men are credited on keyboards throughout the album, with Stuart Sawney handling percussion programming, so the track centers on two generations of Wakemans working in the same musical space. The piece moves between broad melodic sections and faster keyboard passages without losing the sense that Rick and Adam are listening closely to one another.

It became important enough to the project that a live version also opened the 1994 Wakeman with Wakeman – The Official Bootleg, recorded during their 1993 South American tour. The studio album was later issued in some territories as Lure of the Wild, which says a lot about how strongly the piece represented the record. This one is less about showing off for the sake of it than about hearing a musical family connection come alive through the keyboards.

# 5 – Stairway To Heaven

“Stairway to Heaven” found a completely different life on Rick Wakeman’s 2017 album Piano Portraits, where he reduced the Led Zeppelin classic to solo piano. Instead of trying to reproduce the power of the original recording, Wakeman focuses on the melody and harmony beneath it. That choice turns one of rock’s biggest anthems into something quieter, more reflective, and surprisingly intimate.

Piano Portraits also includes Wakeman’s interpretations of songs associated with the Beatles, David Bowie, 10cc, and other artists, but “Stairway to Heaven” remains one of the record’s most recognizable transformations. His arrangement respects the original while still sounding completely natural in his own hands. It reminds us that a great song can survive almost any change in instrumentation when the melody is strong enough.

# 4 – Judas Iscariot

Rick Wakeman's Criminal Record - Rick Wakeman LP

“Judas Iscariot” closes Rick Wakeman’s 1977 album Rick Wakeman’s Criminal Record with one of the darkest and most powerful pieces of his solo career. Wakeman uses organ, synthesizers, piano, choir, and a huge symphonic sense of drama to build a musical portrait around one of history’s most infamous figures. The track keeps expanding as it moves forward, shifting from solemn passages into something much bigger and almost overwhelming.

What makes it work is that Wakeman never treats the subject like a simple keyboard showcase; the arrangement carries real weight and sadness. The choral sections make the ending feel especially massive, giving the piece the emotional scale of a finale rather than just another album track. “Judas Iscariot” is one of those Wakeman recordings that can make the whole room feel larger when it reaches its peak.

# 3 – The Battle / The Forest

“The Battle” and “The Forest” make up the entire second side of Rick Wakeman’s 1974 Journey to the Centre of the Earth, his live musical adaptation of Jules Verne’s novel. The album was recorded with the London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Choir, narrator David Hemmings, vocalists Ashley Holt and Gary Pickford Hopkins, drummer Barney James, guitarist Mike Egan, and bassist Roger Newell. “The Battle” delivers the action with heavier orchestration and Wakeman’s keyboards pushing the music forward as the underground adventure reaches one of its most dramatic moments.

“The Forest” then changes the atmosphere, opening the music into something stranger and more mysterious as the travelers move deeper into the world beneath the earth. The contrast between those two sections is what makes the second side work so well because the music never stays in one emotional place for very long. Together they show how fearless Wakeman was about mixing rock band, orchestra, choir, narration, and a huge literary concept into one continuous performance.

# 2 – Catherine of Aragon

“Catherine of Aragon” opens Rick Wakeman’s landmark 1973 album The Six Wives of Henry VIII and immediately establishes the scale of what he was trying to do as a solo artist. Wakeman’s keyboards are joined by a remarkable group of musicians that includes Bill Bruford on drums, Chris Squire and Les Hurdle on bass, Steve Howe and Mike Egan on guitar, Ray Cooper on percussion, and backing vocals from Barry St. John and Judy Powell. The track blends classical ideas with rock instrumentation in a way that sounded completely natural in Wakeman’s hands.

Rather than writing a conventional song about Henry VIII’s first queen, he uses the arrangement, melody, and changing keyboard textures to create the character. It was an audacious way to begin a debut concept album, especially one built around six historical figures instead of radio singles. More than fifty years later, “Catherine of Aragon” still sounds like the moment Rick Wakeman announced that his solo career was going to be every bit as ambitious as his work with Yes.

# 1 – The Journey / Recollection

“The Journey” and “Recollection” form the entire first side of Rick Wakeman’s 1974 album Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and there was no way this list was going to finish anywhere else. Recorded live with the London Symphony Orchestra and English Chamber Choir, the album brought together Wakeman’s keyboards, David Hemmings’ narration, the English Rock Ensemble, and Jules Verne’s classic adventure on a scale that still sounds outrageous today.

“The Journey” begins the descent with music that feels enormous, mixing narration, orchestra, choir, rock rhythm section, and those unmistakable Wakeman keyboards. “Recollection” pulls the music into a more reflective space without breaking the flow of the story, giving the first side both adventure and wonder. The live setting adds an energy that a studio recreation could never quite duplicate because every transition feels like the entire production is moving forward together. These two pieces capture Rick Wakeman at his most ambitious, theatrical, and completely fearless, which makes them a fitting choice for number one.