Progressive Rock Faces: Richard Wakeman

There’s hardly a person who’s into progressive rock that hasn’t heard the name of Richard Wakeman.

Rick is probably the most known artist in the genre and has worked with countless musicians during the years, and as if that was not enough, he was the first, or one of the firsts, to include electronic keyboards in rock music.
There’s not much to be said about him since “googleing” his name will probably answer all the questions you’ve got about him, but I’ll say the things that everyone already has anyways:

In 1970-1971, Wakeman played with Strawbs, recording with them the albums Just a Collection of Antiques and Curios and From the Witchwood. Formerly, he had already contributed as a session musician to the Strawbs's album Dragonfly (1970).

In 1971 he joined Yes, after keyboardist Tony Kaye was asked to leave the band because of his reluctance to play anything more than the Hammond organ and piano.
During his time with the band he also released various solo albums plus he worked with David Bowie, Elton John, BLACK SABBATH, Cat Stevens, Al Stewart, and Lou Reed.

I'm guessing you already knew this stuff, but if you're just getting into the whole progressive rock scene, than this is the time to stop listening to anything you're listening to, and download or buy some Rick Wakeman songs. He is by far one of the most important figures in the evolution of prog music and one of the best keyboard players of all time.