Today we would like to tell you about the shy talented and humble George Harrison, and at the same time invite you to click on the link at the end of this review and listen to the playlist we prepared for you, with songs George wrote throughout his career.
(Photo: courtesy of the Harrison family)
1. George Harrison was born in Liverpool on February 25, 1943, he was the youngest of four children.
2. Among his first musical influences were Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, and Chet Atkins.
3. His first band was called "the Rebels". He co-founded it with his brother Peter and friend Arthur Kelly.
4. He first met Paul McCartney on a bus on his way to school.
5. George was only 15 years old when John Lennon auditioned him to "The Quarrymen", which later became "The Beatles". It was on the second floor of a double-decker bus, after Paul told John Lennon that he knew someone who played the guitar perfectly.
(Photo: Music History Twitter)
6. He left school as early as age 16 and started working at a local department store.
7. The first song he co-wrote with Paul McCartney was "Despite All The Danger", it was back in 1958 as part of "the Quarrymen".
8. Although he has not written songs for the Beatles' first album, he sings in two songs from it, one of which is "Do You Want to Know a Secret?".
9. The first song he wrote for "the Beatles" was "Don't Bother Me", from the band's second album.
10. He is the one who led "the Beatles" members to experiment with Indian music and the use of Indian musical instruments. One of the first and most famous uses was the Sitar in the song "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)".
(Photo: Rex Features)
11. The first song he wrote for "the Beatles" and appeared on a single was "The Inner Light" from 1968. It was the b-side of "Lady Madonna".
12. He invented the concept of fundraising shows. He was the first to organize such a show in 1971 with "Concert for Bangladesh", which also came out as a double album and as a movie.
13. He was greatly influenced by Bob Dylan and the members of "The Band". After the release of "The White Album" in 1968, Harrison flew to the United States and spent time at Bob Dylan's home in Woodstock, where "The Band" worked on their first album.
14. He co-wrote the song "Badge" for the band "Cream", with Eric Clapton, which was released on the band's fourth and final album - "Goodbye" from 1968.
15. He also wrote several songs for Ringo Starr's solo career, the best known of which is "Photograph".
16. He played on John Lennon's solo album "Imagine".
17. He produced and played the sitar on the hit "Day After Day" by the band "Badfinger".
18. He was the first of "the Beatles" members to release a solo album, even while the band was active. These were two experimental albums, "Wonderwall Music", and "Electronic Sound" which used synthesizers in their earlier version.
19. He was also the first of "the Beatles" members to go on tour after they broke up. It was in 1974 in a tour called the "Dark Horse tour".
20. Harrison is also the only member of "the Beatles" to release a triangular solo album "All Things Must Pass".
21. He also "donated" the theme song from the album "All Things Must Pass" to his keyboardist friend Billy Preston who released the song even before Harrison released it. It was part of Preston's "Encouraging Words" album, which came out about three months before Harrison's album.
22. Beyond his guitar and singing skills, Harrison knew how to play on 26 other different instruments.
23. For example, he played the violin in the song "All You Need is Love".
24. He lost his virginity to the cheers of the rest of "the Beatles" members. This was in the band's early years when the members shared one room in Germany.
25. As an avid fan of Monty Python members he founded a production company and produced the film "Life of Brian". He did this by taking out a mortgage on his home. As a token of appreciation, the members of Monty Python gave him a guest appearance in the mythological film.
26. In 1974 he also founded his own record company - "Dark Horse Records".
27. He also became a producer and among other things produced that year the album "The Place I Love" by the duo "Splinter".
28. As part of his spiritual search in India he became a vegetarian in the 1960s.
29. The most famous song of his solo career "My Sweet Lord" was the basis for a copyright lawsuit in connection with a song called "He's So Fine", by the female band "The Chiffons" from 1963. Harrison was forced to pay a fantastic sum for those times, in the amount of $ 1.5 million, To dismiss the lawsuit against him.
30. He wrote a song about this event called "This Song". It came out as part of his 1976 album called "33 and 1/3".
31. Lennon and McCartney did not want his song "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on "The White Album". Harrison brought his friend Eric Clapton to the studio, he played the solo in the song and suddenly Paul and John relented.
32. He was the youngest "Beatle" and only 27 years old when "the Beatles" broke up.
33. An asteroid discovered on March 9, 1984, is named after him.
34. He wrote the song "Wah-Wah" when he left the Beatles shortly after a quarrel between him and McCartney, during the recordings of the "Let it Be" album. He left the studio and went home to write the song and claimed that the argument with Paul McCartney caused him a big headache like "Wah-Wah".
35. In 1988 he formed the supergroup "Traveling Wilburys" together with Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty, and Bob Dylan. He wrote and sang, among other things, the hit "Handle With Care".
6. He was ranked 11th on "Rolling Stone magazine's" list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time.
37. His first marriage to model Pattie Boyd, whom he married in 1966, ended in divorce in 1977.
38. One of the songs he wrote about her is "Something". It was the first song Harrison wrote for "the Beatles" which was released as the first side of a single. All "the Beatles" members and George Martin thought it was the best song on the "Abbey Road" album. Even Frank Sinatra defined the song as the most beautiful love song written in the last 50 years.
39. The clip for the song includes all "the Beatles" members along with their wives. At the same time, the photos of each couple were taken separately, in light of the tension that prevailed between the band members.
40. Patty was courted by his friend Eric Clapton, who also wrote the song "Layla" about her. Clapton married Patty after her divorce from Harrison. That did not stop Clapton and Harrison from remaining friends.
41. In 1997 Harrison was diagnosed with throat cancer. Later in 2001, he discovered that cancer had returned, this time in his lungs.
42. He recorded his last album "BRAINWASHED" in the shadow of the chemotherapy he underwent to treat his illness.
43. The last song he wrote was "A Horse To Water". His writing partner was his son Dhani. The song was performed by "Jools Holland's Rhythm and Blues Orchestra", as part of their 2001 album "Small World, Big Band" and Harrison was a guest on it.
44. On November 12, 2001, about two weeks before his death, he met with his Beatles friends Ringo and Paul, for the last time. They ate a meal in New York where he was receiving treatment for his illness. The meeting was happy and humorous as the friends reminisced about their distant past. Ringo flew straight from Boston, where he accompanied his daughter who had undergone head tumor treatments and was forced to leave immediately at the end of the meal, to return to her. Paul stayed and spent more time with Harrison and his wife.
(Photo: Eric Alper Twitter)
45. Harrison passed away on November 29, 2001. Just one year after his death, an amazing and moving performance was held in his memory called "Concert for George". The show was recorded and released on audio and video and featured Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, and Jeff Lynne.
For listening to the playlist we have prepared for you, click on the following link: Here.