Because most conversations about The Beatles quickly turn to the Lennon-McCartney writing partnership, many frequently overlooked unsung hero is the songwriting talents of George Harrison.
This makes sense, to a point: after all, Paul McCartney and John Lennon are both responsible for some of the greatest Beatles records across their entire career, like ‘She Loves You’, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’, ‘And I Love Her’, and countless others, all songs that are still heavily associated with the Fab Four’s longstanding popularity and legacy.
However, Harrison came up with a fair few gems himself, many of which also went on to take on a life of their own. ‘Here Comes The Sun’ and ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, for instance, are two songs that most people immediately think of whenever it comes to The Beatles, standing out as some of the band’s most celebrated material and showing a different side to their tone and style.
However, as was the case with some of the members’ solo careers once the band split, Harrison penned most of his best material after The Beatles. In many ways, the band stood as a thorough test-run of everything he’d go on to achieve after, with his later work demonstrating the best of his abilities both as a songwriter and an independent artist.
Five George Harrison songs that surpass his Beatles work:
‘My Sweet Lord’
It might seem excruciatingly obvious to include ‘My Sweet Lord’ in this list, but what do they say? Popular songs often become popular for a reason, and this is about as quintessentially George Harrison as it gets.
The song sounds completely ahead of its time, and with a melody that sticks in your head for a long while after, proving that Harrison not only had it in him to come up with a major, timeless hit, but that he could do it completely effortlessly, establishing himself as a major player in the same circles as his ex band mates – a fact that irritated Lennon, but which also goes to show that even the quiet ones are often capable of brilliance.
