In The Beatles, George Harrison often took a back seat, leaving most songwriting credits to Paul McCartney and John Lennon, but he also wrote several popular songs that appeared on the band’s albums. While most Beatles fans know that Harrison wrote the chart-topping song “Something,” many of his other contributions have gone under the radar. Join us as we take a tour through some underrated Beatles songs and find out just what Harrison brought to the band.
Harrison and The Beatles
Often referred to as the “quiet Beatle,” Harrison was the four-piece band’s lead guitarist. He was born on February 25, 1943, in Liverpool, England, and died in Los Angeles, California, on November 29, 2001.
In the late 1950s, Harrison met Paul McCartney, who invited him to join his and John Lennon’s band, the Quarrymen. Eventually, Ringo Starr joined the group, now called The Beatles, as their drummer. Alongside Harrison as the lead guitarist, Lennon was a vocalist and rhythm guitarist, and McCartney was a vocalist and bass guitarist. The Beatles are considered to this day to be one of the most influential rock bands of all time.
Harrison’s First Beatles Composition: “Don’t Bother Me”
From the early days of the Quarrymen and The Beatles, Harrison was impressed by the songwriting talents of McCartney and Lennon. Writing a song takes a unique talent, discipline, and practice. While McCartney and Lennon encouraged Harrison to write songs that he could sing, it took him until 1963 to put pen to paper and create his first song.
According to Harrison, he wrote that song, “Don’t Bother Me,” while he was sick in bed at the Palace Court Hotel in Bournemouth, England. Harrison felt it was a “crappy song” as he was simply experimenting, but the song made it onto the albums Meet The Beatles! and With The Beatles. Both these albums became huge successes, helping to consolidate Harrison’s place as one of the band’s songwriters.
Early Guitar Contributions to Lennon-McCartney Songs
Harrison’s guitar work shaped the sound of The Beatles’ early work and later, after his experiments with the sitar, gave their music a distinctive, exotic character. According to Guitar Player magazine, Harrison’s style was “a deft fusion of Buddy Holly’s rhythm/lead work, Chuck Berry’s double-stop riffing, and Carl Perkins’ sprightly country and rockabilly style, which included chordal arpeggios and single- and double-string bends.”
He even blended R&B and jazz into his playing, a touch that can be heard in the song “Till There Was You.” You’ll also notice his unique style in the dominant guitar riff in “And I Love Her,” the major-scale lead parts on “And Your Bird Can Sing,” and the backward-style guitar solos for “I’m Only Sleeping.”
What changed the musical direction of The Beatles was the introduction of the sitar. After hearing Indian musicians on the set of the 1965 movie Help!, Harrison took an interest in Eastern instruments and became fascinated with the sitar. You can first hear this influence on Lennon’s “Norwegian Wood.” Soon after, other bands started incorporating Indian instrumentation into their songs, demonstrating just what an impact Harrison’s guitar and sitar work had on rock and roll.
Growing Songwriting Confidence
While George Harrison’s songwriting development continued and he contributed songs to more albums, his bandmates still did not regard him as a strong songwriter. In 1965, after a grueling tour, The Beatles entered the studio to make a new album, Rubber Soul.
Harrison contributed the love song “If I Needed Someone” as a track for the album, but he also wrote “Think for Yourself,” a stinging warning about listening to lies. This was his fifth published song and showed his widening, diverse, and complex songwriting style as The Beatles began to branch away from simpler, sweeter songs such as “She Loves You.”
Contributions to Revolver and Sgt. Pepper
McCartney and Lennon embraced Harrison’s introduction of Indian influences, and the resulting sound can be heard on several songs on Revolver, for which Harrison wrote “Taxman,” “Love You To,” and “I Want To Tell You.” After a grueling tour supporting Revolver, the band decided to stop touring and focus on making music. The Beatles’ final live commercial performance was at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California, on August 29, 1966.
Soon after, Harrison and his then-wife, Pattie Boyd, visited Pandit Ravi Shankar in India, an experience that had a profound impact on Harrison’s spirituality and musical direction. Harrison became one of the first modern Western musicians to explore Eastern spirituality and express it in his songwriting and instrumental work. His song “Within You Without You,” based on Indian philosophy, was the eighth track on the diverse Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Inspiration for “Something”
One of Harrison’s most famous and successful songs is “Something.” This was his first song to appear on an A-side and the only song of his to top the charts while he was in The Beatles. It appeared on the Abbey Road album. While many people believe he wrote the song about his wife at the time, Pattie Boyd, Harrison offered an alternative explanation.
According to an article in American Songwriter, Harrison said, “I just wrote it, and then somebody put together a video. And what they did was they went out and got some footage of me and Pattie, Paul and Linda, Ringo and Maureen, it was at that time, and John and Yoko, and they just made up a little video to go with it. So then, everybody presumed I wrote it about Pattie, but actually, when I wrote it, I was thinking of Ray Charles.”
George Harrison: The Overlooked Beatle No More
Since its inclusion on the White Album, Harrison’s song “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” has become one of the most covered songs, with versions by artists including his friend, Eric Clapton. After the breakup of The Beatles in 1974, Harrison had a successful solo career, with 12 solo studio albums, including All Things Must Pass, released before the official breakup, and famous songs such as “My Sweet Lord” and “Wah-Wah.” He was also part of the supergroup the Traveling Wilburys with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison.
Harrison’s legacy of songwriting, experimental guitar playing, and exploration of Eastern music still has an impact on musicians today. While The Beatles’ huge influence on music and culture was the result of all the band members’ talents, Harrison’s role in the evolution of their style is undeniable.
