On November 27, 1970, George Harrison released his third studio album – and his first solo album since the break-up of The Beatles – All Things Must Pass. Produced with Phil Spector – and featuring contributions from the likes of Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Gary Wright, Klaus Voormann, John Barham, Badfinger and Pete Drake – the classic album featured hits like ‘My Sweet Lord’, ‘What Is Life’, and ‘Isn’t It A Pity’. To mark the anniversary of All Things Must Pass, we’re revisiting Jackie Hayden’s tribute to George Harrison…

Originally published in Hot Press in 2001:
As a member of The Beatles, George Harrison had the best of it as well as the worst of it. As long as he was content to bend his Carl Perkins riffs and his cute Scouse harmonies to the wishes of the more assertive Lennon and McCartney, everybody tried to be his baby. But when he wanted to be a real grown-up songwriter it was a different matter, and he struggled initially to force a token track or two onto Beatles albums. Finally he was vindicated when he supplied arguably the two stand-out tracks, ‘Something’ and ‘Here Comes The Sun’, to the career-ending Abbey Road.

But along the way his contribution to the Fab Four was considerable, despite the competition, his deft guitar work and vocal efforts an integral part of that indescribable Beatles sound that was so much more than the sum of its parts. On the infamous Decca demo tapes his mates trusted him with the lead vocals on no less than four of the tracks.

Harrison’s Beatles-era songwriting catalogue can also boast the Hollies hit ‘If I Needed Someone’ and tracks of the calibre of ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, ‘Long Long Long’, I Need You’, ‘Don’t Bother Me’, ‘I Me Mine’ and sundry others of comparable vintage.