Richard Christopher Wakeman CBE (born on 18 May 1949) is an English keyboardist. He is most popular for being in the ever-evolving musical crew Yes across five residencies somewhere in the range of 1971 and 2004 and for his independent collections delivered during the 1970s.

Brought up in West London, Wakeman expected to be a professional piano player yet stopped his examinations at the Royal College of Music in 1969 to turn into a full-time meeting performer.

His initial meetings remembered playing for "Space Oddity", among others, for David Bowie, and melodies by Junior's Eyes, T. Rex, Elton John, and Cat Stevens. Wakeman turned into an individual from The Strawbs in 1970 preceding joining Yes a year after the fact, playing on a portion of their best collections across two spells until 1980.

Wakeman started his performance vocation in 1973; his most noteworthy selling solo collections are his initial three: The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1973), Journey to the Center of the Earth (1974), and The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (1975), all idea collections.

He framed his musical gang, The English Rock Ensemble, in 1974, with which he proceeds to perform, and scored his first film, Lisztomania (1975).

Wakeman sought after performance projects during the 1980s that changed in degrees of achievement; his best collection was 1984, delivered in 1981, which was trailed by his minor pop hit single, "Brilliance Boys", from Silent Nights (1985).

He facilitated the network show Gastank, and recorded his first of a few New-age, encompassing, and Christian music collections with Country Airs (1986) and The Gospels (1987), separately.

From 1988 to 1990 he was an individual from Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe which prompted his third Yes stretch until 1992.

He returned two times more somewhere in the range of 1995 and 2004, during which he finished a few more performance ventures and visits, including his generally huge of the ten years, Return to the Center of the Earth (1999).

From 2016 to 2020, Wakeman was an individual from Yes Featuring Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rick Wakeman.

He keeps on recording collections and performing shows worldwide in different limits; his latest collection is The Red Planet (2020).

Wakeman's discography incorporates more than 90 solo albums crossing a scope of melodic styles. He has shown up; as of late he became known for his commitments to the BBC satire series Grumpy Old Men, Watchdog, and his public broadcast on Planet Rock that circulated from 2005 to 2010.

Wakeman has composed three books; a self-portrayal and two diaries. In 2017, Wakeman was drafted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an individual from Yes.

2008-present: ARW, Portraits and Odyssey collections, and The Red Planet

In 2008, Wakeman visited Rick Wakeman's Grumpy Old Picture Show, including an evening of music and stories from his profession.

In May 2009, Wakeman played out The Six Wives of Henry VIII completely interestingly at Hampton Court Palace for two evenings. In 2010, Wakeman was granted the Spirit of Prog Award at the yearly Classic Rock Roll of Honor Awards.

In 2013, Wakeman played on The Theory of Everything by Ayreon. The next year, he finished a 14-date UK visit to recognize the 40th commemoration of Journey to the Center of the Earth.

In January 2016, Trevor Rabin reported he intended to perform with Wakeman and Jon Anderson as Anderson, Rabin, and Wakeman (ARW), later in the year. Anderson uncovered the three stated, "a few extraordinary tunes together".

That month, following solicitations from fans, Wakeman recorded piano forms of "Life on Mars?" and "Space Oddity", with a unique track "Together all of the time", as an accolade for David Bowie following his demise with continues from the melodies gave to Macmillan Cancer Support.

The gathering from the single and an exhibition of "Life on Mars?" on BBC Radio 2 roused Wakeman to deliver a performance piano collection of tracks that he had played on in his vocation alongside his syntheses and transformations of old-style music pieces.

Upon discharge in January 2017, Piano Portraits entered the UK outline at No. 7 and turned into Wakeman's most elevated diagramming collection there since 1975. A subsequent collection, Piano Odyssey, was delivered in 2018.

In September and October 2019, Wakeman left on his first independent American visit in quite a while, playing piano shows. Wakeman's Christmas-themed piano collection, Christmas Portraits, was delivered in November 2019.

In January 2020, Wakeman began recording another ever-evolving rock collection which was set for discharge in March.

The collection's title was uncovered as The Red Planet and, as per Wakeman, beholds back to collections like The Six Wives of Henry VIII and Criminal Record; it was expected for discharge on 3 April 2020 and highlights the English Rock Ensemble.

It was postponed again to be delivered "closer to June everything being equal", due to the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

Wakeman was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honors for administrations to music and broadcasting.