234-645: Wonderwall Music is the debut solo album by the English musician George Harrison and the soundtrack to the 1968 film Wonderwall , directed by Joe Massot . Released in November 1968, it was the first solo album by a member of the Beatles , and the first album issued on the band's Apple record label. The songs are all instrumental pieces, except for occasional non-English language vocals, and mostly comprise short musical vignettes. Following his Indian-styled compositions for
468-816: A Liver bird holding an acoustic guitar in its claw, reflects his background in Liverpool and his musical career. The shield includes four curved emblems which resemble beetles ' backs. The arms' motto is Ecce Cor Meum , Latin for "Behold My Heart". In 2003, the McCartneys had a child, Beatrice Milly. In July 2005, he performed at the Live ;8 event in Hyde Park , London, opening the show with " Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band " (with U2 ) and closing it with " Drive My Car " (with George Michael ), " Helter Skelter ", and " The Long and Winding Road ". In September, he released
702-478: A country music feel to many of the Beatles' recordings. He identified Chuck Berry as another early influence. In 1961, the Beatles recorded " Cry for a Shadow ", a blues-inspired instrumental co-written by Lennon and Harrison, who is credited with composing the song's lead guitar part, building on unusual chord voicings and imitating the style of other English groups such as the Shadows . Harrison's liberal use of
936-515: A demo , which the musicians followed. Harrison collaborated on much of the project with John Barham , who had studied composition under Harrison's sitar teacher, Ravi Shankar . A classically trained pianist and musical arranger, Barham annotated some of the melodies that Harrison sang to him and transcribed them onto staves . Leng describes Barham as Harrison's "fellow traveler", due to the two musicians' shared appreciation of Indian classical music. He adds that their musical compatibility made Barham
1170-401: A police siren , and more backwards tape loops. The song fades out with a slowed-down spoken voice over the sound of church bells. Leng notes that "Dream Scene" was recorded several months before Lennon's experimental sound collage " Revolution 9 ", released on the double album The Beatles . "Party Seacombe" includes a rock accompaniment that Clayson likens to the style of Pink Floyd , and
1404-452: A string quartet . Included on the Help! LP, the song was the group's first recorded use of classical music elements and their first recording that involved only a single band member. "Yesterday" became one of the most covered songs in popular music history. Later that year, during recording sessions for the album Rubber Soul , McCartney began to supplant Lennon as the dominant musical force in
1638-528: A Bob Dylan tribute concert at Madison Square Garden in New York City, playing alongside Dylan, Clapton, McGuinn, Petty and Neil Young . In 1994, Harrison began a collaboration with McCartney, Starr and producer Jeff Lynne for the Beatles Anthology project. This included the recording of two new Beatles songs built around solo vocal and piano tapes recorded by Lennon as well as lengthy interviews about
1872-559: A Cloud ", which Leng describes as "a uniquely candid reaction to illness and mortality", achieved number 27 on Billboard ' s Adult Contemporary chart. The single " Any Road ", released in May 2003, peaked at number 37 on the UK Singles Chart . " Marwa Blues " went on to receive the 2004 Grammy Award for Best Pop Instrumental Performance , while "Any Road" was nominated for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance . Harrison's guitar work with
2106-408: A Home": "its jangle piano instantly recreates the mood of a crowded saloon in a frontier town, or a Laurel and Hardy or Keystone Cops pursuit." The track segues into "Guru Vandana", another Bombay-recorded piece featuring multiple shehnais. The title references Guru Vandana, a Hindu prayer in honour of God and one's teacher. "Greasy Legs" consists of harmonium and Mellotron, including parts played on
2340-508: A band, and assemble a cross-country tour, all within three weeks". The album reached number 4 on the Billboard chart and the single " Dark Horse " reached number 15, but they failed to make an impact in the UK. The music critic Mikal Gilmore described Dark Horse as "one of Harrison's most fascinating works – a record about change and loss". Harrison's final studio album for EMI and Apple Records,
2574-531: A bassist with the Beatles, he played a number of other instruments, including keyboards, guitars, and drums, on various songs. After the Beatles disbanded , he debuted as a solo artist with the 1970 album McCartney and went on to form the band Wings with his first wife, Linda , and Denny Laine . Under McCartney's leadership, Wings became one of the most successful bands of the 1970s. He wrote or co-wrote their US or UK number-one hits, such as " My Love ", " Band on
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#17328729439112808-416: A bicycle to her patients; McCartney described an early memory of her leaving at "about three in the morning [the] streets ... thick with snow". On 31 October 1956, when McCartney was 14, his mother died of an embolism as a complication of surgery for breast cancer. McCartney's loss later became a connection with John Lennon , whose mother, Julia , died in 1958 when Lennon was 17. McCartney's father
3042-577: A bit, but it's silly to fight that discipline if it's our own". In March 1969, McCartney married his first wife, Linda Eastman , and in August, the couple had their first child, Mary , named after his late mother. Abbey Road was the band's last recorded album, and Martin suggested "a continuously moving piece of music", urging the group to think symphonically . McCartney agreed, but Lennon did not. They eventually compromised, agreeing to McCartney's suggestion: an LP featuring individual songs on side one and
3276-471: A brief tour of Europe with the American group Delaney & Bonnie and Friends . During the tour, which included Clapton, Bobby Whitlock , drummer Jim Gordon and band leaders Delaney and Bonnie Bramlett , Harrison began to play slide guitar, and also began to write " My Sweet Lord ", which became his first single as a solo artist. For many years, Harrison was restricted in his songwriting contributions to
3510-620: A charity event, the Concert for Bangladesh, which took place on 1 August 1971. The event drew over 40,000 people to two shows in New York's Madison Square Garden . The goal of the event was to raise money to aid starving refugees during the Bangladesh Liberation War . Shankar opened the show, which featured popular musicians such as Dylan, Clapton, Leon Russell , Badfinger, Preston and Starr. A triple album, The Concert for Bangladesh ,
3744-504: A few weeks before The Beatles . The release date was 1 November 1968 in Britain (with Apple catalogue number SAPCOR 1), only three weeks before the Beatles' " The White Album " was released, and 2 December in America (as Apple ST 3350). The mono version of the album was available only in the UK. Promotion for Wonderwall Music consisted of print advertising, including a full-page advertisement in
3978-403: A four-year break, he returned to touring and has since performed over 80 shows. More than forty-five years after the Beatles first appeared on American television during The Ed Sullivan Show , he returned to the same New York theatre to perform on Late Show with David Letterman . On 9 September 2009, EMI reissued the Beatles catalogue following a four-year digital remastering effort, releasing
4212-491: A guitarist, writing parts that featured the use of nonresolving tones, as with the ending chord arpeggios on " A Hard Day's Night ". On this and other songs from the period, he used a Rickenbacker 360/12 – an electric guitar with twelve strings, the low eight of which are tuned in pairs, one octave apart, with the higher four being pairs tuned in unison. His use of the Rickenbacker on A Hard Day's Night helped to popularise
4446-633: A knife attack by an intruder at his home, Friar Park . His remains were cremated, and the ashes were scattered according to Hindu tradition in a private ceremony in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India. He left an estate of almost £100 million. Harrison was born at 12 Arnold Grove in Wavertree , Liverpool, on 25 February 1943. He was the youngest of four children of Harold Hargreaves (or Hargrove) Harrison (1909–1978) and Louise (née French; 1911–1970). Harold
4680-557: A local department store. During the group's first tour of Scotland, in 1960, Harrison used the pseudonym "Carl Harrison", in reference to Carl Perkins. In 1960, promoter Allan Williams arranged for the band, now calling themselves the Beatles, to play at the Indra and Kaiserkeller clubs in Hamburg , both owned by Bruno Koschmider . Their first residency in Hamburg ended prematurely when Harrison
4914-448: A lonely professor (played by Irish actor Jack MacGowran ) and his increasing obsession with his female neighbour, a fashion model named Penny Lane (played by Jane Birkin ), whom he spies on via a hole in the wall separating their apartments. In the context of 1960s Swinging London , the contrast between their existences symbolised the division between traditional norms and the younger generation's progressive thinking. In his soundtrack for
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#17328729439115148-520: A long medley on side two. In October 1969, a rumour surfaced that McCartney had died in a car crash in 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike, but this was quickly refuted when a November Life magazine cover featured him and his family, accompanied by the caption "Paul is still with us". John Lennon privately left the Beatles in September 1969, though agreed not to go public with the information to not jeopardise ongoing business negotiations. McCartney
5382-416: A lung and causing head injuries before he was incapacitated by Harrison's wife, who struck him repeatedly with a fireplace poker and a lamp. Harrison later commented, "I felt exhausted and could feel the strength draining from me. I vividly remember a deliberate thrust to my chest. I could hear my lung exhaling and had blood in my mouth. I believed I had been fatally stabbed." Following the attack, Harrison
5616-467: A music video game called The Beatles: Rock Band the same day. McCartney's enduring fame has made him a popular choice to open new venues. In 2009, he performed three sold-out concerts at the newly built Citi Field , a venue constructed to replace Shea Stadium in Queens , New York. These performances yielded the double live album Good Evening New York City later that year. In 2010, McCartney opened
5850-491: A musical piece by him to celebrate its sesquicentennial . He collaborated with composer Carl Davis , producing Liverpool Oratorio . The performance featured opera singers Kiri Te Kanawa , Sally Burgess, Jerry Hadley and Willard White with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the choir of Liverpool Cathedral . Reviews were negative. The Guardian was especially critical, describing
6084-408: A mute passage in which the implied lust of the aging academic turns to compassion for Jane Birkin['s character], whose suicide attempt he witnesses ... Harrison's melody was strongly empathetic to the first appearance of human feeling in the film." The album closes with "Singing Om", in which a male Indian voice chants the sacred term Om over a musical backing of harmonium and bansuri. The piece
6318-598: A natural choice over George Martin , the Beatles' producer and orchestral arranger. The first session for the Wonderwall soundtrack took place on 22 November 1967 at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios ) in London. That day, Harrison recorded with a tabla player and flautists Richard Adeney and Jack Ellory, taping the pieces "Swordfencing", "India", "Backwards Tabla" and "Backwards Tones". On 23 November, he carried out further work on some of these selections, with two oboe players,
6552-436: A nearby house, and the song piqued his interest in rock and roll . He often sat at the back of the class drawing guitars in his schoolbooks, and later commented, "I was totally into guitars." Harrison cited Slim Whitman as another early influence: "The first person I ever saw playing a guitar was Slim Whitman, either a photo of him in a magazine or live on television. Guitars were definitely coming in." When George Harrison
6786-438: A nickel-plated trumpet from his father for his fourteenth birthday, but when rock and roll became popular on Radio Luxembourg , McCartney traded it for a £15 Framus Zenith (model 17) acoustic guitar , since he wanted to be able to sing while playing. He found it difficult to play guitar right-handed, but after noticing a poster advertising a Slim Whitman concert and realising that Whitman played left-handed, he reversed
7020-510: A photo of Harrison working with some of the Indian musicians in 1968. In November 1997, Massot began preparing a director's cut of Wonderwall , which omitted many of the musical cues that had appeared in the original film but not on the soundtrack album, and instead repeated tracks such as "Ski-ing" and "Cowboy Music" at different points in the film. Harrison supplied Massot with a tape containing various pieces recorded for Wonderwall , which led to
7254-519: A photo of part of the Berlin Wall – a stock image from the Camera Press picture agency – which Kelly and Aldridge then manipulated and mirrored to represent a corner. Taylor describes the result as innovative for its time, with the wall made to look "proud and sharp as the prow of a liner". The sleeve was designed so that the rear face appeared upside down relative to the front. In America, some copies of
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7488-545: A private ceremony in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers near Varanasi , India. He left almost £100 million in his will. Harrison's final studio album, Brainwashed (2002), was released posthumously after it was completed by his son Dhani and Jeff Lynne. A quotation from the Bhagavad Gita is included in the album's liner notes: "There never was a time when you or I did not exist. Nor will there be any future when we shall cease to be." A media-only single, " Stuck Inside
7722-461: A psychiatric institution in 2002, Abram said: "If I could turn back the clock, I would give anything not to have done what I did in attacking George Harrison, but looking back on it now, I have come to understand that I was at the time not in control of my actions. I can only hope the Harrison family might somehow find it in their hearts to accept my apologies." The injuries inflicted on Harrison during
7956-763: A record 32 songs that have topped the Billboard Hot 100 and, as of 2009 , he had sales of 25.5 million RIAA-certified units in the US. His honours include two inductions into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as a member of the Beatles in 1988 and as a solo artist in 1999), an Academy Award , a Primetime Emmy Award , 18 Grammy Awards , an appointment as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1965, and an appointment as Knight Bachelor in 1997 for services to music. As of 2024, he
8190-505: A romantic mood". The piece resulted from Barham's suggestion that Khan play Mauj-Khamaj, a raga created by his grandfather, Allauddin Khan . Described by Madinger and Easter as "aptly titled", "Crying" contains the mournful tones of a tar shehnai. "Cowboy Music" is a country-and-western piece that Inglis likens to the incidental music typically heard in American westerns from the 1940s. The performance includes steel guitar and contributions from
8424-460: A selection of acoustic-only songs on MTV Unplugged and released a live album of the performance titled Unplugged (The Official Bootleg) . During the 1990s, McCartney collaborated twice with Youth of Killing Joke as the musical duo "the Fireman" . The two released their first electronica album together, Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest , in 1993. McCartney released the rock album Off
8658-504: A set that included "Let It Be" and "Live and Let Die". He closed the opening ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London on 27 July, singing " The End " and " Hey Jude " and inviting the audience to join in on the coda . Having donated his time, he received £1 from the Olympic organisers. On 12 December 2012, McCartney performed with three former members of Nirvana ( Krist Novoselic , Dave Grohl , and guest member Pat Smear ) during
8892-576: A short promotional film for the song, and another for its B-side, " Rain ". The films, described by Harrison as "the forerunner of videos ", aired on The Ed Sullivan Show and Top of the Pops in June 1966. Revolver also included McCartney's " Eleanor Rigby ", which featured a string octet . According to Jonathan Gould, the song is "a neoclassical tour de force ... a true hybrid, conforming to no recognizable style or genre of song". Except for some backing vocals,
9126-726: A sixteen-week chart run, peaking at number 49 for two weeks in March 1969. On the US Cash Box and Record World charts, the album peaked at numbers 39 and 33, respectively. Wonderwall Music also placed in the top 30 on Canada's RPM albums chart and in West Germany, where it peaked at number 22. Having been out of print since the 1970s, Wonderwall Music was remastered and issued on CD in June 1992, as part of Apple's campaign to reissue its entire catalogue. The CD booklet contained liner notes by Taylor, as well as stills from Wonderwall and
9360-399: A solo artist, the slide guitar . He also organised the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh with Indian musician Ravi Shankar , a precursor to later benefit concerts such as Live Aid . In his role as a music and film producer, Harrison produced acts signed to the Beatles' Apple record label before founding Dark Horse Records in 1974. He co-founded HandMade Films in 1978, initially to produce
9594-452: A song for a Harrison European single release. Harrison's record company decided the track, " Handle with Care ", was too good for its original purpose as a B-side and asked for a full album. The LP, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 , was released in October 1988 and recorded under pseudonyms as half-brothers, supposed sons of Charles Truscott Wilbury Sr. It reached number 16 in the UK and number 3 in
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9828-681: A song for the comedic feature film Spies Like Us . He composed and recorded the track in four days, with Phil Ramone co-producing. McCartney participated in Live Aid , performing "Let it Be", but technical difficulties rendered his vocals and piano barely audible for the first two verses, punctuated by squeals of feedback . Equipment technicians resolved the problems and David Bowie , Alison Moyet , Pete Townshend and Bob Geldof joined McCartney on stage, receiving an enthusiastic crowd reaction. McCartney collaborated with Eric Stewart on Press to Play (1986), with Stewart co-writing more than half
10062-672: A style of music he had moved on from in recent months, "I still like [the album]. I still think it's very good." He later cited the Bombay sessions for Wonderwall as the inspiration for his 1974 collaborations with Shankar – namely, the Music Festival from India and their subsequent North American tour . Both of these projects featured Indian musicians that Harrison first worked with in January 1968. Well I remember that wall, that brick ... Bob Gill and I never quite recovered our compatibility but
10296-595: A surprise appearance during the finale of the Birmingham Heart Beat Charity Concert , an event organised to raise money for the Birmingham Children's Hospital . The following year, he appeared at The Prince's Trust concert at London's Wembley Arena , performing "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Here Comes the Sun". In February 1987 he joined Dylan, John Fogerty and Jesse Ed Davis on stage for
10530-489: A teenager, having been influenced by his father, a jazz player, and rock and roll performers such as Little Richard and Buddy Holly . He began his career when he joined Lennon's skiffle group, the Quarrymen , in 1957, which evolved into the Beatles in 1960. Sometimes called "the cute Beatle", McCartney later immersed himself in the London avant-garde scene and played a key role in incorporating experimental aesthetics into
10764-486: A terrible time because I think there was a lot of cocaine going around, and that's when I got out of the picture ... I didn't like his frame of mind". He released two singles from the LP: " You ", which reached the Billboard top 20, and " This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying) ", Apple's final original single release. Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976), Harrison's first album release on his own Dark Horse Records label, produced
10998-444: A trumpeter and two flautists. Authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter state that some of these recordings may have been used as musical cues in the film but excluded from the soundtrack album, while "Swordfencing" was a piece that Harrison incorporated into " Dream Scene " on the album. Over this period, Harrison also worked at a second London location, De Lane Lea Studios . According to a contemporary issue of Beatles Monthly magazine,
11232-419: A tune "based on a minor-mode I- ♭ VII- ♭ VI-V progression, styled like Liberacian variations on ' While My Guitar Gently Weeps '". The performance is led by Ashton, on piano, and also includes instrumentation such as organ, acoustic guitar, drums and percussion. Leng views the piece as the soundtrack's "best collective work", adding: "This moving music was a close fit with the scene it covered –
11466-490: A two-hour performance with the blues musician Taj Mahal . Harrison recalled: "Bob rang me up and asked if I wanted to come out for the evening and see Taj Mahal ... So we went there and had a few of these Mexican beers – and had a few more ... Bob says, 'Hey, why don't we all get up and play, and you can sing?' But every time I got near the microphone, Dylan comes up and just starts singing this rubbish in my ear, trying to throw me." In November 1987, Harrison released
11700-473: A void, which left the Beatles perplexed and concerned about their future. McCartney stepped in to fill that void and gradually became the de facto leader and business manager of the group that Lennon had once led. In his first creative suggestion after this change of leadership, McCartney proposed that the band move forward on their plans to produce a film for television, which was to become Magical Mystery Tour . According to Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn ,
11934-519: A year earlier. It was held at the Royal Albert Hall in London on 10 April 1999, and was organised by two of her close friends, Chrissie Hynde and Carla Lane . Also during 1999, he continued his experimentation with orchestral music on Working Classical . In 2000, he released the electronica album Liverpool Sound Collage with Super Furry Animals and Youth, using the sound collage and musique concrète techniques that had fascinated him in
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#173287294391112168-404: Is a one-man album, with McCartney providing compositions, instrumentation and vocals. In 1971, he collaborated with Linda and drummer Denny Seiwell on a second album, Ram . A UK number one and a US top five, Ram included the co-written US number-one hit single " Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey ". Later that year, ex-Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine joined the McCartneys and Seiwell to form
12402-418: Is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee – as a member of the Beatles in 1988, and posthumously for his solo career in 2004. Harrison's first marriage to model Pattie Boyd in 1966 ended in divorce in 1977. In the following year he married Olivia Arias , with whom he had a son, Dhani . A lifelong cigarette smoker, Harrison died of numerous cancers in 2001 at the age of 58, two years after surviving
12636-578: Is an early example of Harrison blending Vedic chanting with Western harmony, a concept that he explored further in his 1969–70 productions for the Radha Krishna Temple , and also in his post-Beatles songs such as " My Sweet Lord " and " Awaiting on You All ". Harrison attended the world premiere of Wonderwall , held at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 1968, accompanied by his wife Pattie Boyd , Starr and Birkin. Although he had expected
12870-451: Is an experimental album that prominently features a Moog synthesizer . Released in November 1968, Wonderwall Music was the first solo album by a Beatle and the first LP released by Apple Records . Indian musicians Aashish Khan and Shivkumar Sharma performed on the album, which contains the experimental sound collage " Dream Scene ", recorded several months before Lennon's " Revolution 9 ". In December 1969, Harrison participated in
13104-614: Is one of the wealthiest musicians in the world, with an estimated fortune of £1 billion. McCartney was born on 18 June 1942 at Walton Hospital in the Walton area of Liverpool , where his mother, Mary Patricia ( née Mohin), had qualified to practise as a nurse. Both of his parents were of Irish descent. McCartney has a younger brother, Peter Michael , and a younger stepsister, Ruth, born to his father Jim's second wife, Angie, during her first marriage. Paul and Michael were baptised in their mother's Catholic faith, even though their father
13338-622: The Bhagavad Gita . His final message to the world, as relayed in a statement by Olivia and Dhani, was: "Everything else can wait, but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another." He was cremated at Hollywood Forever Cemetery , and his funeral was held at the Self-Realization Fellowship Lake Shrine in Pacific Palisades, California . His close family scattered his ashes according to Hindu tradition in
13572-601: The Lethal Weapon 2 film soundtrack. Following Orbison's death in December 1988, the Wilburys recorded as a four-piece. Their second album, issued in October 1990, was mischievously titled Traveling Wilburys Vol. 3 . According to Lynne, "That was George's idea. He said, 'Let's confuse the buggers. ' " It peaked at number 14 in the UK and number 11 in the US, where it was certified platinum. The Wilburys never performed live, and
13806-620: The Billboard top 20. The album marked the beginning of Harrison's gradual retreat from the music business, with several of the songs having been written in the tranquil setting of Maui in the Hawaiian archipelago . Leng described George Harrison as "melodic and lush ... peaceful ... the work of a man who had lived the rock and roll dream twice over and was now embracing domestic as well as spiritual bliss". The murder of John Lennon on 8 December 1980 disturbed Harrison and reinforced his decades-long concern about stalkers . The tragedy
14040-666: The Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh , Pennsylvania; it was his first concert in Pittsburgh since 1990 due to the old Civic Arena being deemed unsuitable for McCartney's logistical needs. In July 2011, McCartney performed at two sold-out concerts at the new Yankee Stadium . A New York Times review of the first concert reported that McCartney was "not saying goodbye but touring stadiums and playing marathon concerts". In August 2011, McCartney left EMI and signed with Decca Records ,
14274-682: The Monty Python troupe's comedy film The Life of Brian (1979). Harrison released several best-selling singles and albums as a solo performer. In 1988, he co-founded the platinum-selling supergroup the Traveling Wilburys . A prolific recording artist, he was featured as a guest guitarist on tracks by Badfinger , Ronnie Wood , and Billy Preston , and collaborated on songs and music with Dylan, Eric Clapton , Ringo Starr , and Tom Petty . Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 31 in their 2023 list of greatest guitarists of all time. He
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#173287294391114508-480: The Royal College of Music —"kind of amazing for somebody who doesn't read a note of music", commented McCartney. In 1997, McCartney released the rock album Flaming Pie . Starr appeared on drums and backing vocals in " Beautiful Night ". Later that year, he released the classical work Standing Stone , which topped the UK and US classical charts. In 1998, he released Rushes , the second electronica album by
14742-462: The Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , standing with a host of celebrities . The cover piqued a frenzy of analysis. After Brian died ... Paul took over and supposedly led us you know ... we went round in circles ... We broke up then. That was the disintegration. I thought, 'we've fuckin' had it.' — John Lennon, Rolling Stone magazine, 1970 Epstein's death in August 1967 created
14976-605: The bansuri (bamboo flute) was played by S.R. Kenkare. Hariprasad Chaurasia also contributed on bansuri, but only after the soundtrack pieces had been completed, and the efficient progress of the sessions allowed Harrison to record some other compositions. After returning to England on 18 January, Harrison recorded the majority of the Western music for Wonderwall with the Remo Four, again at Abbey Road. Author Bruce Spizer writes that Harrison played piano, guitar and Mellotron on some of
15210-468: The diatonic scale in his guitar playing reveals the influence of Buddy Holly , and his interest in Berry inspired him to compose songs based on the blues scale while incorporating a rockabilly feel in the style of Perkins. Another of Harrison's musical techniques was the use of guitar lines written in octaves , as on " I'll Be on My Way ". By 1964, he had begun to develop a distinctive personal style as
15444-453: The key of G up to B ♭ , through the tape being sped up. In the film, only the portion up to the sound of a rainstorm is used. The ragtime feel of the track is accentuated by an arrangement that includes tack piano, horns and banjo, with the last two sounds created through Ashton's use of different settings on the Mellotron. Author Ian Inglis writes of the effectiveness of "Drilling
15678-577: The sarod , similar to a lute , and the santoor , a type of hammered dulcimer with up to 100 strings. Having used personnel from the Asian Music Circle in north London on his Beatles songs " Love You To " and " Within You Without You ", in addition to his own sitar playing, Harrison decided to record part of the soundtrack in Bombay , the centre of India's film industry, in order to work with some of
15912-402: The soul music -inspired Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975), peaked at number 8 on the Billboard chart and number 16 in the UK. Harrison considered it the least satisfactory of the three albums he had recorded since All Things Must Pass . Leng identified "bitterness and dismay" in many of the tracks; his long-time friend Klaus Voormann commented: "He wasn't up for it ... It was
16146-538: The soundtrack album issued six months later received a less enthusiastic response. By late 1968, relations within the band were deteriorating. The tension grew during the recording of their eponymous double album, also known as the " White Album ". Matters worsened the following year during the Let It Be sessions, when a camera crew filmed McCartney lecturing the group: "We've been very negative since Mr. Epstein passed away ... we were always fighting [his] discipline
16380-558: The 14 December issue of Billboard magazine, and an Apple-prepared poster that superimposed details from Gill's painting onto a photo of Harrison. The album's commercial impact was lessened by its unusual position of being the soundtrack to a film that had yet to receive a general release. The album failed to chart in the United Kingdom, but performed surprisingly well in the United States. On Billboard ' s pop LPs listings, it had
16614-435: The 1970s Frank Sinatra recorded "Something" twice (1970 and 1979) and later dubbed it "the greatest love song of the past fifty years". Lennon considered it the best song on Abbey Road , and it became the Beatles' second most covered song after " Yesterday ". In May 1970, Harrison's song " For You Blue " was coupled on a US single with McCartney's " The Long and Winding Road " and became Harrison's second chart-topper when
16848-540: The 1974 Music Festival from India . The album cover consists of a painting by American artist Bob Gill in which, as in Massot's film, two contrasting worlds are separated by a wall, with only a small gap allowing visual access between them. Harrison omitted his name from the list of performing musicians, leading to an assumption that he had merely produced and arranged the music. The 2014 reissue of Wonderwall Music recognises his contributions on keyboards and guitar. The album
17082-602: The 1980s, including Time Bandits and Shanghai Surprise . Together with "The Inner Light", the Wonderwall project marked the end of Harrison's overtly Indian musical phase. After filming his scenes for the Shankar documentary Raga in Los Angeles, in June 1968, he decided to abandon his sitar studies and return to his first instrument, the guitar. In an interview to promote his Apple signing Jackie Lomax , in September, Harrison said that, although Wonderwall Music represented
17316-447: The 418th spot on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time . In 1974, McCartney hired guitarist Jimmy McCulloch and drummer Geoff Britton to replace McCullough and Seiwell. Britton subsequently quit during recording sessions in 1975 and was replaced by Joe English . Wings followed Band on the Run with the chart-topping albums Venus and Mars (1975) and Wings at
17550-554: The Beatles in 1964 and comprised Colin Manley (guitar), Tony Ashton (keyboards), Phillip Rogers (bass) and Roy Dyke (drums). Ashton contributed on tack (or jangle) piano and organ, and played the majority of the Mellotron parts that are prominent on the album. Ringo Starr and Eric Clapton joined Harrison to record "Ski-ing" on 2–3 January. Credited only on the US release, under the pseudonym "Eddie Clayton", Clapton's appearance marked
17784-457: The Beatles over this period, including "Within You Without You" and " Blue Jay Way ", he composed mainly on keyboard instruments such as piano or organ, rather than guitar. In addition to the Indian pieces, Harrison wrote and arranged selections in Western musical styles. In some cases, these pieces were outlined to the musicians at the recording session by Harrison, on guitar, and they then improvised on his ideas. With other selections, he first made
18018-459: The Beatles since 1966, he used the film score to further promote Indian classical music by introducing rock audiences to instruments that were relatively little-known in the West – including shehnai , sarod , tar shehnai , tanpura and santoor . The Indian pieces are contrasted by Western musical selections, in the psychedelic rock , experimental , country and ragtime styles. Harrison recorded
18252-481: The Beatles was on 4 January 1970, when he, McCartney and Starr recorded overdubs to the song " Let It Be " for the soundtrack album of the same name . Before the Beatles' break-up, Harrison had already recorded and released two solo albums: Wonderwall Music and Electronic Sound , both of which contain mainly instrumental compositions. Wonderwall Music , a soundtrack to the 1968 film Wonderwall , blends Indian and Western instrumentation, while Electronic Sound
18486-475: The Beatles was varied and flexible. Although not fast or flashy, his lead guitar playing was solid and typified the more subdued lead guitar style of the early 1960s. His rhythm guitar playing was innovative, for example when he used a capo to shorten the strings on an acoustic guitar, as on the Rubber Soul (1965) album and " Here Comes the Sun ", to create a bright, sweet sound. Eric Clapton felt that Harrison
18720-401: The Beatles were breaking up in 1969–70, McCartney fell into a depression. His wife helped him pull out of that condition by praising his work as a songwriter and convincing him to continue writing and recording. In her honour, he wrote " Maybe I'm Amazed ", explaining that with the Beatles breaking up, "that was my feeling: Maybe I'm amazed at what's going on ... Maybe I'm a man and maybe you're
18954-403: The Beatles' studio productions . Starting with the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , he gradually became the band's de facto leader, providing creative impetus for most of their music and film projects. Many of his Beatles songs, including " And I Love Her ", " Yesterday ", " Eleanor Rigby ", and " Blackbird ", rank among the most covered songs in history. Although primarily
19188-521: The Beatles' albums, but he released All Things Must Pass , a triple album with two discs of his songs and the third of recordings of Harrison jamming with friends. The album was regarded by many as his best work, and it topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. The number-one hit single "My Sweet Lord" and the top-ten single " What Is Life " were taken from the album, which was co-produced by Phil Spector using his " Wall of Sound " approach;
19422-444: The Beatles' career. Released in December 1995, " Free as a Bird " was the first new Beatles single since 1970. In March 1996, they released a second single, " Real Love ". They also attempted to finish a third single, " Now and Then ", but did not finish it because the audio quality of the cassette was, according to Harrison, "fucking rubbish." The song was later finished by McCartney and Starr and released in 2023. He later commented on
19656-427: The Beatles' partnership on 9 January 1975, though sporadic lawsuits against their record company EMI , Klein, and each other persisted until 1989. I didn't really want to keep going as a solo artist ... so it became obvious that I had to get a band together ... Linda and I talked it through and it was like, "Yeah, but let's not put together a supergroup, let's go back to square one." — McCartney As
19890-638: The Beatles' pre-fame years were included in the Apple enterprise. Apple Records originally scheduled the release for late August 1968 to coincide with the label's launch, which was marked by the highly publicised release of its "First Four" singles. As a result, parts of "Ski-ing", "Cowboy Music" and "Wonderwall to Be Here" were included in Apple , a ten-minute film designed to promote the new label at distributor EMI's international sales conferences. Delayed from this scheduled date, Wonderwall Music instead appeared in November,
20124-533: The Beatles, Harrison sought to include less well-known Indian musical instruments. Among these, the oboe -like shehnai , traditionally used in religious ceremonies, was an instrument that Harrison had enthused about after seeing Bismillah Khan perform at the Hollywood Bowl in August 1967. Also prominent on the soundtrack is the tar shehnai , a bow-played string instrument that is similar to an esraj . Other instrumentation introduced on Wonderwall Music includes
20358-446: The Beatles. Tensions among the group surfaced again in January 1969, at Twickenham Studios , during the filmed rehearsals that became the 1970 documentary Let It Be . Frustrated by the cold and sterile film studio, by Lennon's creative disengagement from the Beatles, and by what he perceived as a domineering attitude from McCartney, Harrison quit the group on 10 January. He returned 12 days later, after his bandmates had agreed to move
20592-485: The Beatles. While on a visit to Woodstock in late 1968, he established a friendship with Dylan and found himself drawn to the Band's sense of communal music-making and to the creative equality among the band members, which contrasted with Lennon and McCartney's domination of the Beatles' songwriting and creative direction. This coincided with a prolific period in his songwriting and a growing desire to assert his independence from
20826-554: The Bed" opens with a piano riff from Harrison, which, in Leng's description, is complemented by "spacey steel guitar, and a fugue of flugelhorn countermelodies, added by Barham". The song includes backing from the Remo Four, and Big Jim Sullivan on bass. Harrison overdubbed the sitar-like steel guitar part. "Glass Box" is "a high-speed Indian raga ", according to Spizer, with Indranil Bhattacharya on sitar. Everett describes "Wonderwall to Be Here" as
21060-509: The Bee Gees had become unavailable. It was Harrison's first formal music project outside the Beatles and coincided with his continued immersion in Indian classical music . Since 1966, this association with India had given Harrison a distinct musical identity beside the band's primary songwriters, John Lennon and Paul McCartney . While he had minimal interest in the Beatles' main projects during 1967 –
21294-607: The Best Albums of the Year for 1973, and in 1975, Paul McCartney and Wings won the Grammy Award for Best Pop Vocal Performance for the song "Band on the Run", and Geoff Emerick won the Grammy for Best Engineered Recording for the album. In 1974, Wings achieved a second US number-one single with the title track . The album also included the top-ten hits " Jet " and " Helen Wheels ", and earned
21528-563: The Bombay sessions was " The Inner Light ", which he completed at Abbey Road in early February. This song became the first Harrison composition to appear on a Beatles single when it was issued as the B-side to " Lady Madonna " in March 1968, a release that served to cover the band's absence in Rishikesh. The Remo Four song " In the First Place " was another product of the Wonderwall sessions, although
21762-471: The Dark Horse tour might be considered a noble failure, there were a number of fans who were tuned-in to what was being attempted. They went away ecstatic, conscious that they had just witnessed something so uplifting that it could never be repeated." Simon Leng called the tour "groundbreaking" and "revolutionary in its presentation of Indian Music". On 16 November 1974, Harrison and several others involved in
21996-526: The Dirt ; a collaborative effort with Elvis Costello that included musical contributions from Gilmour and Nicky Hopkins . McCartney then formed a band consisting of himself and Linda, with Hamish Stuart and Robbie McIntosh on guitars, Paul "Wix" Wickens on keyboards and Chris Whitten on drums. In September 1989, they launched the Paul McCartney World Tour , his first in over a decade. During
22230-503: The Fireman. In 1999, McCartney released Run Devil Run . Recorded in one week, and featuring Ian Paice and David Gilmour, it was primarily an album of covers with three McCartney originals. He had been planning such an album for years, having been previously encouraged to do so by Linda, who had died of cancer in April 1998. McCartney did an unannounced performance at the benefit tribute, " Concert for Linda ", his wife of 29 years who died
22464-617: The Ground in 1993. The subsequent New World Tour followed, which led to the release of the Paul Is Live album later that year. Starting in 1994, McCartney took a four-year break from his solo career to work on Apple's Beatles Anthology project with Harrison, Starr and Martin. He recorded a radio series called Oobu Joobu in 1995 for the American network Westwood One , which he described as "widescreen radio". Also in 1995, Prince Charles presented him with an Honorary Fellowship of
22698-511: The Indian musicians at HMV. A brief portion of this footage was broadcast in Britain on 11 January. In Menon's recollection, following each day's recording session, Harrison returned to his rooms at the Taj Mahal Hotel and studiously documented his observations on the sounds and nuances of the various Indian instruments. Menon described the process as "a kind of immersion for him into the folk music of India". According to author Alan Clayson ,
22932-408: The Indian players were "fascinated" to be following Western rules of harmony for the first time. The musicians were recruited by Shambhu Das , who ran Shankar's Kinnara School of Music in Bombay, and Vijay Dubey, the head of A&R for HMV Records in India. The shehnai players were Sharad Kumar and Hanuman Jadev, while the tar shehnaist was Vinayak Vora. Shambhu Das and Indranil Bhattacharya were
23166-587: The LP had the Berlin Wall image mistakenly printed on the front, which made for "a less than exciting cover to be sure", in Madinger and Easter's opinion. The LP's sleeve insert included a black-and-white photograph of Harrison taken by Astrid Kirchherr , a friend since the Beatles' first residency in Hamburg, Germany , in 1960. Clayson cites Kirchherr's involvement as an example of Harrison's efforts to ensure that friends from
23400-504: The Life " required a forty-piece orchestra, which Martin and McCartney took turns conducting. The sessions produced the double A-side single " Strawberry Fields Forever "/" Penny Lane " in February 1967, and the LP followed in June. Based on an ink drawing by McCartney, the LP's cover included a collage designed by pop artists Peter Blake and Jann Haworth , featuring the Beatles in costume as
23634-540: The Little Richard cover " Long Tall Sally " was the only song that the Beatles had previously recorded. McCartney wanted the tour to avoid large venues; most of the small halls they played had capacities of fewer than 3,000 people. In March 1973, Wings achieved their first US number-one single, " My Love ", included on their second LP, Red Rose Speedway , a US number one and UK top five. McCartney's collaboration with Linda and former Beatles producer Martin resulted in
23868-407: The McCartneys and Laine recorded Band on the Run . The album was the first of seven platinum Wings LPs. It was a US and UK number one, the band's first to top the charts in both countries and the first ever to reach Billboard magazine's charts on three separate occasions. One of the best-selling releases of the decade, it remained on the UK charts for 124 weeks. Rolling Stone named it one of
24102-778: The Presidents, the Prime Minister, I never met anyone half as nice as some of the people I know from Liverpool who are nothing, who do nothing. They're not important or famous. But they are smart, like my dad was smart. I mean, people who can just cut through problems like a hot knife through butter. The kind of people you need in life. Salt of the earth. — Paul McCartney, Playboy interview, 1984 Mary McCartney's midwifery paid well, and her earnings enabled them to move into 20 Forthlin Road in Allerton , where they lived until 1964. She rode
24336-468: The Remo Four , as well as guest appearances by Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr . Harrison recorded many other pieces that appeared in Wonderwall but not on the soundtrack album, and the Beatles' 1968 B-side " The Inner Light " also originated from his time in Bombay. Although the Wonderwall project marked the end of Harrison's direct involvement with Indian music as a musician and songwriter, it inspired his later collaborations with Ravi Shankar , including
24570-427: The Remo Four, along with Reilly on harmonica. Returning to the Indian style, "Fantasy Sequins" combines tar shehnai with harmonium, played by Desad, and bell-like percussion known as khas. This track segues into "On the Bed", although Madinger and Easter say that the correct title, as it appeared on early US copies of the album, should be "Glass Box", which is the name given instead to the Indian piece that follows it. "On
24804-677: The Run ", " Listen to What the Man Said ", " Silly Love Songs ", and " Mull of Kintyre ". He resumed his solo career in 1980 and has been touring as a solo artist since 1989. Apart from Wings, his UK or US number-one hits include " Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey " (with Linda), " Coming Up ", " Pipes of Peace ", " Ebony and Ivory " (with Stevie Wonder ), and " Say Say Say " (with Michael Jackson ). Beyond music, he has been involved in projects to promote international charities related to animal rights , seal hunting , land mines , vegetarianism, poverty, and music education . McCartney has written or co-written
25038-493: The Sky with Diamonds " mirrors Lennon's vocal line in much the same way that a sarangi player accompanies a khyal singer in a Hindu devotional song . Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles , for whom he played bass guitar and the piano, and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon . One of
25272-524: The Speed of Sound (1976). In 1975, they began the fourteen-month Wings Over the World Tour , which included stops in the UK, Australia, Europe and the US. The tour marked the first time McCartney performed Beatles songs live with Wings, with five in the two-hour set list : " I've Just Seen a Face ", "Yesterday", " Blackbird ", " Lady Madonna " and "The Long and Winding Road". Following the second European leg of
25506-539: The Sun " and " Something ". Harrison's earliest musical influences included George Formby and Django Reinhardt ; subsequent influences were Carl Perkins , Chet Atkins and Chuck Berry . By 1965, he had begun to lead the Beatles into folk rock through his interest in Bob Dylan and the Byrds , and towards Indian classical music through his use of Indian instruments, such as the sitar , which he had become acquainted with on
25740-576: The UK that included the live debut of the Beatles songs " Got to Get You into My Life ", " The Fool on the Hill " and "Let It Be". In 1980, McCartney released his second solo LP, the self-produced McCartney II , which peaked at number one in the UK and number three in the US. As with his first album, he composed and performed it alone. The album contained the song " Coming Up ", the live version of which, recorded in Glasgow , Scotland, in 1979 by Wings, became
25974-500: The UK in 1963 , and in the US a year later. The fan hysteria became known as " Beatlemania ", and the press sometimes referred to McCartney as the "cute Beatle". McCartney co-wrote (with Lennon) several of their early hits, including " I Saw Her Standing There ", " She Loves You ", " I Want to Hold Your Hand " (1963) and " Can't Buy Me Love " (1964). In August 1965, the Beatles released the McCartney composition " Yesterday ", featuring
26208-493: The US , released internationally in 2003 as Back in the World . The tour earned a reported $ 126.2 million, an average of over $ 2 million per night, and Billboard named it the top tour of the year. The group continues to play together; McCartney has played live with Ray, Anderson, Laboriel, and Wickens longer than he played live with the Beatles or Wings. In July 2002, McCartney married Heather Mills . In November, on
26442-465: The US charts. The single was included on the album Somewhere in England in 1981. Harrison did not release any new albums for five years after 1982's Gone Troppo received little notice from critics or the public. During this period he made several guest appearances, including a 1985 performance at a tribute to Carl Perkins titled Blue Suede Shoes: A Rockabilly Session . In March 1986 he made
26676-432: The US since All Things Must Pass . The album peaked just outside the top ten there, but outsold his previous two LPs. As part of his promotion for the release, Harrison performed on Saturday Night Live with Paul Simon . In 1979, Harrison released George Harrison , which followed his second marriage and the birth of his son Dhani . Co-produced by Russ Titelman , the album and the single " Blow Away " both made
26910-495: The US, where it was certified triple platinum . Harrison's pseudonym on the album was "Nelson Wilbury"; he used the name "Spike Wilbury" for their second album. In 1989, Harrison and Starr appeared in the music video for Petty's song " I Won't Back Down ". In October that year, Harrison assembled and released Best of Dark Horse 1976–1989 , a compilation of his later solo work. The album included three new songs, including " Cheer Down ", which Harrison had recently contributed to
27144-566: The US. In the UK, the LP peaked at number two and the single reached number 8. The album was lavishly produced and packaged, and its dominant message was Harrison's Hindu beliefs. In Greene's opinion it "contained many of the strongest compositions of his career". Stephen Holden , writing in Rolling Stone , felt the album was "vastly appealing" and "profoundly seductive", and that it stood "alone as an article of faith, miraculous in its radiance". Other reviewers were less enthusiastic, describing
27378-429: The Western recordings for Wonderwall , playing piano, harmonium and flugelhorn , and providing orchestral arrangements for flutes, oboes and trumpet. Another session with some unnamed Indian musicians took place on 5 January 1968. The main participants on the Western pieces were the Remo Four , whose first session with Harrison was on 22 December. The band were an instrumental group from Liverpool that had toured with
27612-492: The Western tracks. In addition, according to Manley, Harrison provided the steel guitar part on "Cowboy Music", even though Manley is credited on the album sleeve. Also present at the sessions were Dutch designers the Fool – Simon Posthuma, Marijke Koger and Josje Leeger – who had created the psychedelic -themed sets for Massot's film. Well known for his theme tune to BBC television's Dixon of Dock Green , Tommy Reilly played on
27846-565: The addition of guitarist Henry McCullough , Wings' first concert tour began in 1972 with a debut performance in front of an audience of seven hundred at the University of Nottingham . Ten more gigs followed as they travelled across the UK in a van during an unannounced tour of universities , during which the band stayed in modest accommodation and received pay in coinage collected from students, while avoiding Beatles songs during their performances. McCartney later said, "The main thing I didn't want
28080-648: The age of fifteen on 6 July 1957, McCartney met John Lennon and his band, the Quarrymen, at the St Peter's Church Hall fête in Woolton . The Quarrymen played a mix of rock and roll and skiffle , a type of popular music with jazz , blues and folk influences. Soon afterwards, the members of the band invited McCartney to join as a rhythm guitarist, and he formed a close working relationship with Lennon. Harrison joined in 1958 as lead guitarist, followed by Lennon's art school friend Stuart Sutcliffe on bass, in 1960. By May 1960,
28314-431: The album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and their television film Magical Mystery Tour – Harrison led the group in terms of their shared philosophical direction, as his bandmates followed him in embracing Transcendental Meditation under the guidance of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi . Harrison viewed Wonderwall at Twickenham Film Studios with Massot and was intrigued by the storyline. The film's premise concerns
28548-409: The album between November 1967 and February 1968, with sessions taking place in London and Bombay . One of his collaborators on the project was classical pianist and orchestral arranger John Barham , while other contributors include Indian classical musicians Aashish Khan , Shivkumar Sharma , Shankar Ghosh and Mahapurush Misra. The Western music features contributions from Tony Ashton and his band
28782-426: The album for their new record label and outlined the concept behind the film. Gill painted a picture in the style of Belgian surrealist René Magritte , showing a formally dressed man "separated by a huge red brick wall from a group of happy bathing Indian maidens", Spizer writes. Apple executive Derek Taylor , whom Harrison had invited to help run the Beatles' label in early 1968, later wrote of Gill's submission: "It
29016-580: The album was the Indian-inspired " Within You Without You ", to which no other Beatle contributed. He played sitar and tambura on the track, backed by musicians from the London Asian Music Circle on dilruba , swarmandal and tabla. He later commented on the Sgt. Pepper album: "It was a millstone and a milestone in the music industry ... There's about half the songs I like and the other half I can't stand." In January 1968, he recorded
29250-467: The album's recording, Harrison asserted more creative control than before, rejecting suggestions for changes to his music, particularly from McCartney. "Something" became his first A-side when issued on a double A-side single with " Come Together "; the song was number one in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and West Germany, and the combined sides topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart in the United States. In
29484-632: The album, which included several of his long-time musical collaborators, including Clapton, Jim Keltner and Jim Horn . Cloud Nine reached number eight and number ten on the US and UK charts respectively, and several tracks from the album achieved placement on Billboard ' s Mainstream Rock chart – " Devil's Radio ", " This Is Love " and " Cloud 9 ". In 1988, Harrison formed the Traveling Wilburys with Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison , Bob Dylan and Tom Petty. The band had gathered in Dylan's garage to record
29718-470: The baby in the womb." Harrison lived at 12 Arnold Grove until 1 January 1950. A terraced house on a cul-de-sac , it had an outdoor toilet, and its only heat came from a single coal fire. In the autumn of 1949, the family was offered a council house and moved to 25 Upton Green, Speke . In 1948, Harrison enrolled at Dovedale Primary School . He passed the eleven-plus exam and attended Liverpool Institute High School for Boys from 1954 to 1959. Though
29952-490: The band Wings . McCartney had this to say on the group's formation: "Wings were always a difficult idea ... any group having to follow [the Beatles'] success would have a hard job ... I found myself in that very position. However, it was a choice between going on or finishing, and I loved music too much to think of stopping." In September 1971, the McCartneys' daughter Stella was born, named in honour of Linda's grandmothers, both of whom were named Stella. Following
30186-473: The band at the Star-Club in Hamburg. The following year, he was the most active of the former Beatles in promoting the reissue of their 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine . On 30 December 1999, Harrison and his wife Olivia were attacked at their home, Friar Park . The perpetrator was 34-year-old paranoid schizophrenic man Michael Abram, who broke in and attacked Harrison with a kitchen knife, puncturing
30420-565: The band had tried several names, including Johnny and the Moondogs , Beatals and the Silver Beetles . They adopted the name the Beatles in August 1960 and recruited drummer Pete Best shortly before a five-engagement residency in Hamburg . In 1961, Sutcliffe left the band, and McCartney became their bass player. It is disputed whether he did so reluctantly or actively sought out the role. While in Hamburg, they recorded professionally for
30654-463: The band's ongoing exploration of non-Western instruments, while the sitar- and tabla -based "Love You To" represented the Beatles' first genuine foray into Indian music. According to the ethnomusicologist David Reck, the latter song set a precedent in popular music as an example of Asian culture being represented by Westerners respectfully and without parody. Author Nicholas Schaffner wrote in 1978 that following Harrison's increased association with
30888-422: The band, Harrison was known as "the quiet Beatle". That moniker arose when the Beatles arrived in the United States in early 1964, and Harrison was ill with a case of Strep throat and a fever and was medically advised to limit speaking as much as possible until he performed on The Ed Sullivan Show as scheduled. As such, the press noticed Harrison's apparent laconic nature in public appearances on that tour and
31122-453: The band. Musicologist Ian MacDonald wrote, "from [1965] ... [McCartney] would be in the ascendant not only as a songwriter, but also as instrumentalist, arranger, producer, and de facto musical director of the Beatles." Critics described Rubber Soul as a significant advance in the refinement and profundity of the band's music and lyrics. Considered a high point in the Beatles catalogue, both Lennon and McCartney said they had written
31356-577: The basic track for his song " The Inner Light " at EMI's studio in Bombay , using a group of local musicians playing traditional Indian instruments. Released as the B-side to McCartney's " Lady Madonna ", it was the first Harrison composition to appear on a Beatles single. Derived from a quotation from the Tao Te Ching , the song's lyric reflected Harrison's deepening interest in Hinduism and meditation . During
31590-404: The brick did have to go. Were we right? Yes. – Derek Taylor , recalling difficulties with artist Bob Gill over Harrison's alteration to his cover design Apple commissioned American artist Bob Gill to produce a painting for the front cover of Wonderwall Music . Gill recalls that he first attended a meeting at the company's headquarters, where the four Beatles emphasised the importance of
31824-534: The bus to school, Harrison met Paul McCartney , who also attended the Liverpool Institute, and the pair bonded over their shared love of music. McCartney and his friend John Lennon were in a skiffle group called the Quarrymen . In March 1958, at McCartney's urging, Harrison auditioned for the Quarrymen at Rory Storm 's Morgue Skiffle Club, playing Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith 's " Guitar Boogie Shuffle ", but Lennon felt that Harrison, having just turned 15,
32058-486: The closing act of 12-12-12: The Concert for Sandy Relief , seen by approximately two billion people worldwide. On 28 August 2013, McCartney released the title track of his upcoming studio album New , which came out in October 2013. A primetime entertainment special was taped on 27 January 2014 at the Ed Sullivan Theater with a 9 February 2014 CBS airing. The show featured McCartney and Ringo Starr, and celebrated
32292-402: The consensus reaction to the tour was negative. Some fans found Shankar's significant presence to be a bizarre disappointment, and many were affronted by what Inglis described as Harrison's "sermonizing". Further, he reworked the lyrics to several Beatles songs, and his laryngitis -affected vocals led to some critics calling the tour "dark hoarse". The author Robert Rodriguez commented: "While
32526-414: The country's best musicians. The Wonderwall score was Harrison's first opportunity to compose extensively for a single project. He later described how he went about preparing the music: "I had a regular wind-up stopwatch and I watched the film to 'spot-in' the music with the watch. I wrote the timings down in my book, then I'd go to [the recording studio], make up a piece, record it." As with his songs for
32760-459: The end of the Beatles' performing career, McCartney sensed unease in the band and wanted them to maintain creative productivity. He pressed them to start a new project, which became Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band , widely regarded as rock's first concept album . McCartney was inspired to create a new persona for the group, to serve as a vehicle for experimentation and to demonstrate to their fans that they had musically matured. He invented
32994-427: The fictional band of the album's title track . As McCartney explained, "We were fed up with being the Beatles. We really hated that fucking four little mop-top approach. We were not boys we were men ... and [we] thought of ourselves as artists rather than just performers." Starting in November 1966, the band adopted an experimental attitude during recording sessions for the album. Their recording of " A Day in
33228-471: The film project to their own Apple Studio and to abandon McCartney's plan for making a return to public performance. Relations among the Beatles were more cordial, though still strained, when the band recorded their 1969 album Abbey Road . The LP included what Lavezzoli describes as "two classic contributions" from Harrison – " Here Comes the Sun " and " Something " – that saw him "finally achieve equal songwriting status" with Lennon and McCartney. During
33462-463: The film was made available on DVD in early 2014, as part of the two-disc Wonderwall Collector's Edition . In September that year, the album was reissued in remastered form as part of Harrison's Apple Years 1968–75 box set, with the addition of three bonus tracks. George Harrison first met Joe Massot while the Beatles were filming Help! in early 1965. He agreed to write the musical score for Massot's film Wonderwall in October 1967, after
33696-449: The film's producers to purchase the soundtrack rights and issue the album independently, they declined to do so, leading Massot to suggest that Harrison release it on the Beatles' new label, Apple Records . Wonderwall Music therefore became Apple's first album release, as well as the first solo album by a member of the Beatles. Inglis writes that Massot was impressed with "the accuracy with which [Harrison's music] illustrated and enhanced
33930-415: The film, Harrison conveyed this contrast further in terms of the duality between psychedelia and his Hindu -aligned spiritual convictions. According to author Simon Leng: "The lack of dialogue left acres of room for music to speak, and a soupçon of cosmic apotheosis also helped ... Wonderwall touched on themes that would come to preoccupy George Harrison – critically, the objectification of celebrities and
34164-708: The fire brigade at night. The growing family was rehoused at a flat in Knowsley in 1944 and then in a council housing development in Speke in 1946. After the war, Jim returned to his job at the cotton merchants with a reduced income. Mary's work as a visiting midwife was much more remunerative. McCartney attended Stockton Wood Road Primary School in Speke from 1947 until 1949, when he transferred to Joseph Williams Junior School in Belle Vale because of overcrowding at Stockton. In 1953, he
34398-534: The first anniversary of George Harrison's death, McCartney performed at the Concert for George . He participated in the National Football League 's Super Bowl , performing "Freedom" during the pre-game show for Super Bowl XXXVI in 2002 and headlining the halftime show at Super Bowl XXXIX in 2005. The English College of Arms honoured McCartney in 2002 by granting him a coat of arms . His crest, featuring
34632-495: The first of several collaborations between him and Harrison over 1968–71. Peter Tork of the Monkees played banjo , although his contribution, recorded in December 1967, was to a track that only appeared in the film. It was fantastic really. The studio is on top of the offices ... [and] if you listen closely to some of the Indian tracks on the LP you can hear taxis going by ... I mixed everything as we did it there, and that
34866-411: The first of which is a meditative section containing phase-shifted instrumentation such as tabla tarang, harp (swarmandal) and sitar, and singing. The music is delivered via backwards-played tape loops as the vocals pan from one side to the other across the stereo image. The other two pieces include a section comprising Barham's piano and flutes, followed by a trumpet solo, harmonica interspersed with
35100-480: The first time and were credited as the Beat Brothers, who were the backing band for English singer Tony Sheridan on the single " My Bonnie ". This resulted in attention from Brian Epstein , who was a key figure in their subsequent development and success. He became their manager in January 1962. Ringo Starr replaced Best in August, and the band had their first hit, " Love Me Do ", in October, becoming popular in
35334-482: The group did not record together again following the release of their second album. In December 1991, Harrison joined Clapton for a tour of Japan. It was Harrison's first since 1974 and no others followed. On 6 April 1992, Harrison held a benefit concert for the Natural Law Party at the Royal Albert Hall , his first London performance since the Beatles' 1969 rooftop concert . In October 1992, he performed at
35568-561: The group's last number-one hit. By 1981, McCartney felt he had accomplished all he could creatively with Wings and decided he needed a change. The group discontinued in April 1981 after Laine quit following disagreements over royalties and salaries. In 1982, McCartney collaborated with Stevie Wonder on the Martin-produced number-one hit " Ebony and Ivory ", included on McCartney's Tug of War LP, and with Michael Jackson on " The Girl Is Mine " from Thriller . "Ebony and Ivory"
35802-547: The group's official canon of studio albums, the Magical Mystery Tour LP achieved $ 8 million in sales within three weeks of its release, higher initial sales than any other Capitol LP up to that point. The Beatles' animated film Yellow Submarine , loosely based on the imaginary world evoked by McCartney's 1966 composition , premiered in July 1968. Though critics admired the film for its visual style, humour and music,
36036-443: The guitars segue into "Gat Kirwani", a fast-paced Indian piece with Aashish Khan on sarod, backed by sitar and Misra's tabla. The performance is based on the similarly named raga , which Harrison had suggested that Khan play. "Dream Scene" is a combination of segments that Harrison edited together. Along with "Ski-ing", it is the only track on the album that combines Indian and Western music. The song consists of three distinct pieces,
36270-468: The hit singles " This Song " and " Crackerbox Palace ", both of which reached the top 25 in the US. The surreal humour of "Crackerbox Palace" reflected Harrison's association with Monty Python 's Eric Idle , who directed a comical music video for the song. With an emphasis on melody and musicianship, and a more subtle subject matter than the pious message of his earlier works, Thirty Three & 1/3 earned Harrison his most favourable critical notices in
36504-417: The home invasion were downplayed by his family in their comments to the press. Having seen Harrison looking so healthy beforehand, those in his social circle believed that the attack brought about a change in him and was the cause for his cancer's return. In May 2001, it was revealed that Harrison had undergone an operation to remove a cancerous growth from one of his lungs, and in July, it was reported that he
36738-434: The images on screen". Massot asked Harrison to provide the soundtrack for a new film he had written, Zachariah , a western that was eventually made by director George Englund and released in 1970. Although Harrison declined, he later supplied incidental music for Little Malcolm (1974), a film he produced under the aegis of Apple Films , before going on to contribute to soundtracks for his HandMade Films productions in
36972-493: The institute did offer a music course, Harrison was disappointed with the absence of guitars, and felt that the school "moulded [students] into being frightened". Harrison's earliest musical influences included George Formby , Cab Calloway , Django Reinhardt and Hoagy Carmichael ; by the 1950s, Carl Perkins and Lonnie Donegan were significant influences. In early 1956, he had an epiphany: while riding his bicycle, he heard Elvis Presley 's " Heartbreak Hotel " playing from
37206-667: The latter instrument's flute, organ and cello settings. George told me he'd like me to play on something, or we'd write something as we went along ... You know, it was very experimental, and it was good fun. – Eric Clapton , discussing his involvement on the track "Ski-ing" On "Ski-ing", Clapton plays a blues -based guitar riff treated with a fuzz-tone effect, over a rock rhythm and heavy tanpura drone. While Spizer and Everett credit all four electric guitar parts (two of which were taped backwards) to Clapton alone, he recalls that "we put down this thing [on tape] and George then put backwards guitar on it." The seagull-like sounds of
37440-483: The lyrics of the album's title track "a recognition of the impermanence of human existence ... a simple and poignant conclusion" to Harrison's former band. In 1971, Bright Tunes sued Harrison for copyright infringement over "My Sweet Lord", owing to its similarity to the 1963 Chiffons hit " He's So Fine ". When the case was heard in the United States district court in 1976, he denied deliberately plagiarising
37674-477: The merits of the work." The New York Times was slightly more generous, stating, "There are moments of beauty and pleasure in this dramatic miscellany ... the music's innocent sincerity makes it difficult to be put off by its ambitions". Performed around the world after its London premiere, the Liverpool Oratorio reached number one on the UK classical chart, Music Week . In 1991, McCartney performed
37908-503: The mid-1960s. He contributed the song "Nova" to a tribute album of classical, choral music called A Garland for Linda (2000), dedicated to his late wife. Having witnessed the September 11 attacks from the JFK airport tarmac, McCartney was inspired to take a leading role in organising the Concert for New York City . His studio album release in November that year, Driving Rain , included
38142-443: The model, and the jangly sound became so prominent that Melody Maker termed it the Beatles' "secret weapon". In 1965, Harrison used an expression pedal to control his guitar's volume on " I Need You ", creating a syncopated flautando effect with the melody resolving its dissonance through tonal displacements. He used the same volume-swell technique on " Yes It Is ", applying what Everett described as "ghostly articulation" to
38376-506: The most successful composers and performers of all time , McCartney is known for his melodic approach to bass-playing, versatile and wide tenor vocal range, and musical eclecticism , exploring genres ranging from pre–rock and roll pop to classical, ballads, and electronica . His songwriting partnership with Lennon is the most successful in modern music history. Born in Liverpool , McCartney taught himself piano, guitar, and songwriting as
38610-464: The music as "afraid of anything approaching a fast tempo", and adding that the piece has "little awareness of the need for recurrent ideas that will bind the work into a whole". The paper published a letter McCartney submitted in response in which he noted several of the work's faster tempos and added, "happily, history shows that many good pieces of music were not liked by the critics of the time so I am content to ... let people judge for themselves
38844-456: The music for the song " In My Life ". McCartney said of the album, "we'd had our cute period, and now it was time to expand." Recording engineer Norman Smith stated that the Rubber Soul sessions exposed indications of increasing contention within the band: "the clash between John and Paul was becoming obvious ... [and] as far as Paul was concerned, George [Harrison] could do no right—Paul
39078-459: The musicians included Starr, Clapton, Gary Wright , Billy Preston , Klaus Voormann , the whole of Delaney and Bonnie's Friends band, and the Apple group Badfinger . On its release, All Things Must Pass was received with critical acclaim; Ben Gerson of Rolling Stone described it as being "of classic Spectorian proportions, Wagnerian , Brucknerian , the music of mountain tops and vast horizons". Author and musicologist Ian Inglis considers
39312-546: The news was made public, Harrison, who would die within the month, bemoaned his physician's breach of privacy, and his estate later claimed damages. On 29 November 2001, Harrison died at a property belonging to McCartney, on Heather Road in Beverly Hills, California . He was 58 years old. He died in the company of Olivia, Dhani, Shankar and the latter's wife Sukanya and daughter Anoushka , and Hare Krishna devotees Shyamasundar Das and Mukunda Goswami , who chanted verses from
39546-420: The number of distinct album tracks was reduced to twelve. On many of the Indian selections, instruments such as sitar, surbahar and harmonium provide a drone-like backing, over which Harrison's chosen instrument plays the main musical theme. In the original album credits, Harrison was listed as producer, writer and arranger but was not included among the performers, leading to an assumption that he did not play on
39780-430: The only woman who could ever help me; Baby won't you help me understand ... Maybe I'm amazed at the way you pulled me out of time, hung me on the line, Maybe I'm amazed at the way I really need you." He added that "every love song I write is for Linda." In 1970, McCartney continued his musical career with his first solo release, McCartney , a US number-one album. Apart from some vocal contributions from Linda, McCartney
40014-455: The order of the strings. McCartney wrote his first song, " I Lost My Little Girl ", on the Zenith, and composed another early tune that would become " When I'm Sixty-Four " on the piano. American rhythm and blues influenced him, and Little Richard was his schoolboy idol; " Long Tall Sally " was the first song McCartney performed in public, at a Butlin's Filey holiday camp talent competition. At
40248-495: The other Beatles into folk rock through his interest in the Byrds and Bob Dylan , and towards Indian classical music through his use of the sitar on " Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) ". He later called Rubber Soul his "favourite [Beatles] album". Revolver (1966) included three of his compositions: " Taxman ", selected as the album's opening track, " Love You To " and " I Want to Tell You ". His drone-like tambura part on Lennon's " Tomorrow Never Knows " exemplified
40482-597: The platinum album Cloud Nine . Co-produced with Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra (ELO), the album included Harrison's rendition of James Ray's " Got My Mind Set on You ", which went to number one in the US and number two in the UK. The accompanying music video received substantial airplay, and another single, " When We Was Fab ", a retrospective of the Beatles' career, earned two MTV Music Video Awards nominations in 1988. Recorded at his estate in Friar Park, Harrison's slide guitar playing featured prominently on
40716-442: The project was "an administrative nightmare throughout". McCartney largely directed the film, which brought the group their first unfavourable critical response. However, the film's soundtrack was more successful. It was released in the UK as a six-track double extended play disc (EP) and as an identically titled LP in the US, filled out with five songs from the band's recent singles. The only Capitol compilation later included in
40950-471: The project: "I hope somebody does this to all my crap demos when I'm dead, make them into hit songs." After the Anthology project, Harrison collaborated with Ravi Shankar on the latter's Chants of India . Harrison's final television appearance was a VH-1 special to promote the album, taped in May 1997. Soon afterwards, Harrison was diagnosed with throat cancer ; he was treated with radiotherapy , which
41184-414: The recording of The Beatles that same year, tensions within the group ran high, and drummer Ringo Starr quit briefly. Harrison's four songwriting contributions to the double album included " While My Guitar Gently Weeps ", which featured Eric Clapton on lead guitar, and the horn -driven " Savoy Truffle ". Dylan and the Band were a major musical influence on Harrison at the end of his career with
41418-461: The recordings with Ken Scott , completing stereo and mono versions of the album. Harrison then went back to India on 15 February, with Lennon and their wives, to study meditation with the Maharishi in Rishikesh . Having been allocated a budget of £600, Harrison eventually spent £15,000 on recording the film soundtrack, paying the difference himself. One of the non-soundtrack pieces taped at the end of
41652-436: The recordings. After consulting Barham in 2002 for his book While My Guitar Gently Weeps , Leng credited Harrison as a performing musician, and Spizer also recognised him in his track-by-track list, published in 2005. The performer credits in the 2014 reissue of Wonderwall Music rectified the situation, and list Harrison on piano and guitar. The album opens with "Microbes", which consists of call-and-response shehnai parts and
41886-399: The release as awkward, sanctimonious and overly sentimental. In November 1974, Harrison became the first ex-Beatle to tour North America when he began his 45-date Dark Horse Tour . The shows included guest spots by his band members Billy Preston and Tom Scott , and traditional and contemporary Indian music performed by "Ravi Shankar, Family and Friends". Despite numerous positive reviews,
42120-488: The rock album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard , for which he provided most of the instrumentation. In 2006, McCartney released the classical work Ecce Cor Meum . The rock album Memory Almost Full followed in 2007. In 2008, he released his third Fireman album, Electric Arguments . Also in 2008, he performed at a concert in Liverpool to celebrate the city's year as European Capital of Culture . In 2009, after
42354-399: The sales of the previous record holder, " She Loves You ", and went on to sell 2.5 million copies and hold the UK sales record until the 1984 charity single, " Do They Know It's Christmas? " London Town (1978) spawned a US number-one single (" With a Little Luck "), and continued Wings' string of commercial successes, making the top five in both the US and the UK. Critical reception
42588-667: The same month that the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences honoured him as the MusiCares Person of the Year , two days prior to his performance at the 54th Annual Grammy Awards . McCartney remains one of the world's top draws. He played to over 100,000 people during two performances in Mexico City in May, with the shows grossing nearly $ 6 million. In June 2012, McCartney closed Queen Elizabeth's Diamond Jubilee Concert held outside Buckingham Palace , performing
42822-528: The same record company that famously rejected The Beatles back in January 1962. McCartney was commissioned by the New York City Ballet , and in September 2011, he released his first score for dance, a collaboration with Peter Martins called Ocean's Kingdom on Decca Records. Also in 2011, McCartney married Nancy Shevell. He released Kisses on the Bottom , a collection of standards , in February 2012,
43056-426: The scope of popular music through his incorporation of Indian instrumentation and Hindu -aligned spirituality in the Beatles' work. Although most of the band's songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney , most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contained at least two Harrison compositions. His songs for the group include " Taxman ", " Within You Without You ", " While My Guitar Gently Weeps ", " Here Comes
43290-462: The sessions continued at Abbey Road on 11, 20 and 31 December. The contributing musicians included Indian sarodya Aashish Khan and tablist Mahapurush Misra, the last of whom was the regular accompanist to Khan's father, Ali Akbar Khan . Aashish Khan and Misra's contributions were recorded at Abbey Road, rather than later in India, since the pair were performing in London in December 1967. Barham attended this session and also contributed to some of
43524-560: The set of the film Help! He played sitar on numerous Beatles songs, starting with " Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) ". Having initiated the band's embrace of Transcendental Meditation in 1967, he subsequently developed an association with the Hare Krishna movement . After the Beatles disbanded , Harrison released the triple album All Things Must Pass , a critically acclaimed work that produced his most successful hit single, " My Sweet Lord ", and introduced his signature sound as
43758-487: The shallowness of fame." I was getting so into Indian music by then that I decided to use the assignment as an excuse for a musical anthology to help spread the word. – George Harrison to Musician magazine, November 1987 Given full artistic control by Massot, Harrison approached the project as an opportunity to further educate rock and pop audiences in aspects of Indian music. Having incorporated sitar , tanpura , swarmandal , dilruba and tabla in his work with
43992-432: The sides were listed together at number one on the Hot 100. His increased productivity meant that by the time of their break-up he had amassed a stockpile of unreleased compositions. While Harrison grew as a songwriter, his compositional presence on Beatles albums remained limited to two or three songs, increasing his frustration, and significantly contributing to the band's break-up. Harrison's last recording session with
44226-473: The sitar after "Norwegian Wood", he became known as "the maharaja of raga-rock ". Harrison continued to develop his interest in non-Western instrumentation, playing swarmandal on " Strawberry Fields Forever ". By late 1966, Harrison's interests had moved away from the Beatles. This was reflected in his choice of Eastern gurus and religious leaders for inclusion on the album cover for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. His sole composition on
44460-420: The sitarists, and Chandrashekhar Naringrekar played surbahar (a low- register version of the sitar). The tablist was Shankar Ghosh , although the original album credits listed him on sitar. Rijram Desad , a multi-instrumentalist whose past work included film scores and ballets with vocalists such as Lata Mangeshkar , played Indian harmonium and tabla tarang. Shivkumar Sharma contributed on santoor, and
44694-422: The song " Freedom ", written in response to the attacks. The following year, McCartney went out on tour with a new band that included guitarists Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray , accompanied by Paul "Wix" Wickens on keyboards and Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums. They began the Driving World Tour in April 2002, which included stops in the US, Mexico and Japan. The tour resulted in the double live album Back in
44928-423: The song " Live and Let Die ", which was the theme song for the James Bond film of the same name . Nominated for an Academy Award , the song reached number two in the US and number nine in the UK. It also earned Martin a Grammy for his orchestral arrangement. Music professor and author Vincent Benitez described the track as " symphonic rock at its best". After the departure of McCullough and Seiwell in 1973,
45162-416: The song equally recalls the Beatles' instrumental " Flying ", with which it shares a twenty-bar blues structure. Recorded with the Remo Four, it includes wah -effected lead guitars, one of which resembles the sound of a human voice; phase-shifted treatment on the acoustic rhythm guitar; and additional drums and percussion, possibly played by Starr. Writing for NME Originals in 2005, Adrian Thrills described
45396-547: The song included only McCartney's lead vocal and the strings arranged by producer George Martin . The band gave their final commercial concert at the end of their 1966 US tour . Later that year, McCartney completed his first musical project independent of the group—a film score for the UK production The Family Way . The score was a collaboration with Martin, who used two McCartney themes to write thirteen variations. The soundtrack failed to chart, but it won McCartney an Ivor Novello Award for Best Instrumental Theme. Upon
45630-488: The song's natural harmonics . In 1966, Harrison contributed innovative musical ideas to Revolver . He played backwards guitar on Lennon's composition " I'm Only Sleeping " and a guitar counter-melody on " And Your Bird Can Sing " that moved in parallel octaves above McCartney's bass downbeats. His guitar playing on " I Want to Tell You " exemplified the pairing of altered chordal colours with descending chromatic lines and his guitar part for Sgt Pepper ' s " Lucy in
45864-420: The song, but lost the case, as the judge ruled that he had done so subconsciously. In 2000, Apple Records released a thirtieth-anniversary edition of the album, and Harrison actively participated in its promotion. In an interview, he reflected on the work: "It's just something that was like my continuation from the Beatles, really. It was me sort of getting out of the Beatles and just going my own way ... it
46098-427: The songs on the LP. In 1988, McCartney released Снова в СССР , initially available only in the Soviet Union , which contained eighteen covers ; recorded over the course of two days. In 1989, he joined forces with fellow Merseysiders Gerry Marsden and Holly Johnson to record an updated version of " Ferry Cross the Mersey ", for the Hillsborough disaster appeal fund. That same year, he released Flowers in
46332-462: The soundtrack after Harrison had asked Martin to suggest a good harmonica player. At various stages while working on the project, Harrison returned to Twickenham to ensure that each musical piece married up with its scene in the film; he later recalled: "it always worked. It was always right." Final mixing began on 31 January, and a late overdubbing session took place on 11 February, when extra sound effects were added to "Dream Scene". Harrison mixed
46566-428: The studio's usual mono equipment. Harrison recalled that EMI India's managing director, Bhaskar Menon , personally delivered this machine, a STEEDS stereo recorder, by train from Calcutta. The Bombay studio's soundproofing was similarly inadequate, resulting in traffic noise from the street below appearing on pieces such as "In the Park". On 10 January, Reuters and BBC News filmed Harrison working with three of
46800-485: The subsequent nickname stuck, much to Harrison's amusement. He had two lead vocal credits on the LP, including the Lennon–McCartney song " Do You Want to Know a Secret? ", and three on their second album, With the Beatles (1963). The latter included " Don't Bother Me ", Harrison's first solo writing credit. Harrison served as the Beatles' scout for new American releases, being especially knowledgeable about soul music . By 1965's Rubber Soul , he had begun to lead
47034-407: The title, the barrel-shaped pakhavaj being another mainstay of Hindustani classical music . "In the Park" includes Sharma's santoor alternating solos with surbahar and tabla tarang. Neither of these last two tracks appears in the film. Author Peter Lavezzoli recognises "Harrison's dry humor" in "the honky-tonk, piano-driven" "Drilling a Home". The song is subject to dramatic changing of pitch, from
47268-470: The tour and extensive rehearsals in London, the group undertook an ambitious US arena tour that yielded the US number-one live triple LP Wings over America . In September 1977, the McCartneys' third child was born, a son they named James . In November, the Wings song " Mull of Kintyre ", co-written with Laine, was quickly becoming one of the best-selling singles in UK chart history. The most successful single of McCartney's solo career, it achieved double
47502-403: The tour visited the White House. They were invited by President Gerald Ford's son, Jack. In December, Harrison released Dark Horse , which was an album that earned him the least favourable reviews of his career. Rolling Stone called it "the chronicle of a performer out of his element, working to a deadline, enfeebling his overtaxed talents by a rush to deliver a new 'LP product', rehearse
47736-432: The tour, McCartney performed for the largest paying stadium audience in history on 21 April 1990, when 184,000 people attended his concert at Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That year, he released the triple album Tripping the Live Fantastic , which contained selected performances from the tour. McCartney ventured into orchestral music in 1991 when the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society commissioned
47970-411: The track as "Whimsical '60s psychedelia from George's experimental dabblings". The two Indian pieces "Love Scene" and "Crying" form another medley, with the first track featuring Khan's call-and-response sarod parts. Overdubbing was unprecedented in Indian music until this time, and Khan later said he was "thrilled" with the effect on "Love Scene", where the sarods "[play] to each other like two lovers in
48204-432: The track remained unreleased until the late 1990s. In 1993, Harrison told Simpsons creator Matt Groening that Wonderwall Music had been his most enjoyable album to make. The nineteen tracks on Wonderwall Music range from just over a minute in length to five-and-a-half minutes. On some pressings of the 1968 LP, various pieces lacked mastering rills between them; with these selections instead presented as medleys ,
48438-420: The unearthing of the Remo Four's "In the First Place". A Manley–Ashton composition, "In the First Place" was released as a single in January 1999 with Harrison credited as producer, after Massot had incorporated the song into his new audio for the film. Harrison had played on the recording, but according to an article by Martin Lewis , he eschewed any credit as a performer. In March 2014, Harrison's full soundtrack
48672-410: Was "clearly an innovator" as he was "taking certain elements of R&B and rock and rockabilly and creating something unique". Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner described Harrison as "a guitarist who was never showy but who had an innate, eloquent melodic sense. He played exquisitely in the service of the song". The guitar picking style of Chet Atkins and Carl Perkins influenced Harrison, giving
48906-478: Was McCartney's record 28th single to hit number one on the Billboard 100 . The following year, he and Jackson worked on " Say Say Say ", McCartney's most recent US number one as of 2014 . McCartney earned his latest UK number one as of 2014 with the title track of his LP release that year, " Pipes of Peace ". In 1984, McCartney starred in Give My Regards to Broad Street , a feature film he also wrote and produced and which included Starr in an acting role. It
49140-512: Was a bus conductor who had worked as a ship's steward on the White Star Line , and Louise was a shop assistant of Irish Catholic descent. He had one sister, Louise (16 August 1931 – 29 January 2023), and two brothers, Harold (20 July 1934 - ?) and Peter (20 July 1940 – 1 June 2007). According to Boyd, Harrison's mother was particularly supportive: "All she wanted for her children is that they should be happy, and she recognised that nothing made George quite as happy as making music." Louise
49374-403: Was a former Protestant who had turned agnostic. Religion was not emphasised in the household. Before the war, Jim had worked as a salesman for the cotton merchants A. Hannay and Co., having been promoted from his job as a sample boy in their warehouse; when the war broke out, Hannay's was shuttered, and Jim was employed as a lathe turner at Napier 's defence engineering works, volunteering for
49608-418: Was a nice painting but missed the essence of hope." To Gill's chagrin, Harrison requested that a brick be removed from the wall, because he deemed it important to "give the fellow on the other side a chance, just as the Jack MacGowran character had a chance [in the film]". Along with Gill, John Kelly and Alan Aldridge were credited for designing the album's artwork. For the back cover of the LP, Harrison chose
49842-464: Was a trumpet player and pianist who led Jim Mac's Jazz Band in the 1920s. He kept an upright piano in the front room, encouraged his sons to be musical and advised McCartney to take piano lessons. However, McCartney preferred to learn by ear . When McCartney was 11, his father encouraged him to audition for the Liverpool Cathedral choir, but he was not accepted. McCartney then joined the choir at St Barnabas' Church, Mossley Hill . McCartney received
50076-399: Was a very happy occasion." He commented on the production: "Well, in those days it was like the reverb was kind of used a bit more than what I would do now. In fact, I don't use reverb at all. I can't stand it ... You know, it's hard to go back to anything thirty years later and expect it to be how you would want it now." Harrison responded to a request from Ravi Shankar by organising
50310-406: Was about 14, a friend of Harrison, Raymond Hughes, offered to sell a guitar. Harrison's mother then paid for the guitar, which cost £3.10s.– (equivalent to £110 in 2024 ). One of his father's friends taught Harrison how to play " Whispering ", " Sweet Sue " and " Dinah ". Inspired by Donegan's music, Harrison formed a skiffle group, the Rebels, with his brother Peter and a friend, Arthur Kelly. On
50544-436: Was absolutely finicky." In 1966, the Beatles released the album Revolver . Featuring sophisticated lyrics, studio experimentation, and an expanded repertoire of musical genres ranging from innovative string arrangements to psychedelic rock , the album marked an artistic leap for the Beatles. The first of three consecutive McCartney A-sides , the single " Paperback Writer " preceded the LP's release. The Beatles produced
50778-543: Was also a deep personal loss, although Harrison and Lennon had little contact in the years before Lennon was killed. Following the murder, Harrison commented: "After all we went through together I had and still have great love and respect for John Lennon. I am shocked and stunned." Harrison modified the lyrics of a song he had written for Starr to make the song a tribute to Lennon. " All Those Years Ago ", which included vocal contributions from Paul and Linda McCartney, as well as Starr's original drum part, peaked at number two in
51012-435: Was an enthusiastic music fan, and she was known among friends for her loud singing voice, which at times startled visitors by rattling the Harrisons' windows. When Louise was pregnant with George, she often listened to the weekly broadcast Radio India . Harrison's biographer Joshua Greene wrote, "Every Sunday she tuned in to mystical sounds evoked by sitars and tablas , hoping that the exotic music would bring peace and calm to
51246-458: Was being treated for a brain tumour at a clinic in Switzerland. While in Switzerland, Starr visited him but had to cut short his stay to travel to Boston, where his daughter was undergoing emergency brain surgery. Harrison, who was very weak, quipped: "Do you want me to come with you?" In November 2001, he began radiotherapy at Staten Island University Hospital in New York City for non–small cell lung cancer that had spread to his brain. When
51480-455: Was deported for being too young to work in nightclubs. When Brian Epstein became their manager in December 1961, he polished up their image and later secured them a recording contract with EMI . The group's first single, " Love Me Do ", peaked at number 17 on the Record Retailer chart, and by the time their debut album, Please Please Me , was released in early 1963, Beatlemania had arrived. Often serious and focused while on stage with
51714-460: Was disparaged by critics: Variety described the film as "characterless, bloodless, and pointless"; while Roger Ebert awarded it a single star, writing, "you can safely skip the movie and proceed directly to the soundtrack ". The album fared much better, reaching number one in the UK and producing the US top-ten hit single " No More Lonely Nights ", featuring David Gilmour on lead guitar. In 1985, Warner Brothers commissioned McCartney to write
51948-436: Was first remastered for CD release in 1992, for which former Apple executive Derek Taylor supplied a liner-note essay. While viewed as a curiosity by some rock music critics, Wonderwall Music is recognised for its inventiveness in fusing Western and Eastern sounds, and as being a precursor to the 1980s world music trend. The album's title inspired that of Oasis ' 1995 hit song " Wonderwall ". Harrison's full soundtrack for
52182-434: Was hospitalised with more than 40 stab wounds, and part of his punctured lung was removed. He released a statement soon afterwards regarding his assailant: "He wasn't a burglar, and he certainly wasn't auditioning for the Traveling Wilburys. Adi Shankara , an Indian historical, spiritual and groovy-type person, once said, 'Life is fragile like a raindrop on a lotus leaf.' And you'd better believe it." Upon being released from
52416-412: Was in the midst of business disagreements with his bandmates, largely concerning Allen Klein 's management of the group, when he announced his own departure from the group on 10 April 1970. He filed a suit for the band's formal dissolution on 31 December 1970, and in March 1971 the court appointed a receiver to oversee the finances of the Beatles' company Apple Corps . An English court legally dissolved
52650-429: Was made available on DVD when the original cut of the film was included in the two-disc set Wonderwall Collector's Edition . George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles . Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian culture and helped broaden
52884-413: Was nice enough because you get spoiled working on eight and sixteen tracks. – Harrison in 1992, recalling the primitive recording facilities at HMV Studios in Bombay Harrison recorded the rest of the Indian selections between 9 and 13 January at HMV Studios in Bombay. In contrast to the multitrack recording carried out at Abbey Road, the music was captured on a two-track tape machine, which replaced
53118-463: Was one of only three students out of 90 to pass the 11-Plus exam, meaning he could attend the Liverpool Institute , a grammar school rather than a secondary modern school . In 1954, he met schoolmate George Harrison on the bus from his suburban home in Speke. The two quickly became friends; McCartney later admitted: "I tended to talk down to him because he was a year younger." The type of people that I came from, I never saw better! [...] I mean,
53352-412: Was partly based on the raga Darbari Kanada . The waltz -time "Red Lady Too" includes what musicologist Walter Everett describes as " 'Moonlight' Sonata -like suspensions on piano, honky-tonk piano, Mellotron, and drums". Ashton performed the tack piano part, with Barham supplying the lower-register piano accompaniment. On "Tabla and Pakavaj", Mahapurush Misra played the two types of hand drums named in
53586-433: Was released by Apple in December, followed by a concert film in 1972. Credited to "George Harrison and Friends", the album topped the UK chart and peaked at number 2 in the US, and went on to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year . Tax troubles and questionable expenses later tied up many of the proceeds, but Harrison commented: "Mainly the concert was to attract attention to the situation ... The money we raised
53820-429: Was secondary, and although we had some money problems ... they still got plenty ... even though it was a drop in the ocean. The main thing was, we spread the word and helped get the war ended." Harrison's 1973 album Living in the Material World held the number one spot on the Billboard albums chart for five weeks, and the album's single, " Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) ", also reached number one in
54054-412: Was thought at the time to be successful. He publicly blamed years of smoking for the illness. In January 1998, Harrison attended Carl Perkins ' funeral in Jackson, Tennessee , where he performed a brief rendition of Perkins' song " Your True Love ". In May, he represented the Beatles at London's High Court in their successful bid to gain control of unauthorised recordings made of a 1962 performance by
54288-456: Was to come on stage, faced with the whole torment of five rows of press people with little pads, all looking at me and saying, 'Oh well, he is not as good as he was.' So we decided to go out on that university tour which made me less nervous ... by the end of that tour I felt ready for something else, so we went into Europe." During the seven-week, 25-show Wings Over Europe Tour , the band played almost solely Wings and McCartney solo material:
54522-485: Was too young to join the band. McCartney arranged a second meeting, on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, during which Harrison impressed Lennon by performing the lead guitar part for the instrumental " Raunchy ". He began socialising with the group, filling in on guitar as needed, and then became accepted as a member. Although his father wanted him to continue his education, Harrison left school at 16 and worked for several months as an apprentice electrician at Blacklers ,
54756-447: Was unfavourable, and McCartney expressed disappointment with the album. Back to the Egg (1979) featured McCartney's assemblage of a rock supergroup dubbed "Rockestra" on two tracks. The band included Wings along with Pete Townshend , David Gilmour , Gary Brooker , John Paul Jones , John Bonham and others. Though certified platinum, critics panned the album. Wings completed their final concert tour in 1979, with twenty shows in
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