'My Sweet Lord' by George Harrison: The making of the ex-Beatles' massive hit
How George Harrison (subconsciously) borrowed a love song from The Chiffons to make something spiritual.
While he always had his fans, it's fair to say that as a singer and songwriter, George Harrison was somewhat overshadowed in The Beatles by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. Despite writing some of the best songs of the decade, poor George only squeezed 22 songs into the Beatles back catalogue, compared to over 160 by the Lennon-McCartney partnership.
How George Harrison saved Monty Python's Life of Brian film from being axed. How The Beatles' George Harrison coined "grotty" and deconstructed influencer culture in 1964. He made up for that in the immediate aftermath of the split, releasing the TRIPLE album All Things Must Pass in late 1970.
That album was trailed by the single 'My Sweet Lord', which has remained one of the biggest post-Beatles song by any of the band, 55 years after the break-up. But do you know what track George "subconsciously" borrowed from for the song, or where it got in the charts? Read on for everything you need to know about 'My Sweet Lord'. Who wrote and played on 'My Sweet Lord'?
He started writing the song in December 1969 in wonderful, wonderful Copenhagen when he was hanging out with "Fifth Beatles" Billy Preston and Eric Clapton as part of Delaney & Bonnie's European tour.
George was in a spiritual mood, having written 'Hear Me Lord' and co-written 'Sing one for the Lord', as well as producing a Hare Krishna-inspired tracks for the Radha Krishna Temple (London).
Harrison was looking to mashup east and west with a gospel-Krishna tune. Billy Preston helped by bashing out some chords while bandleader Delaney Bramlett offered up some "Oh my Lords" and "Hallelujahs", with George coming up with the words pretty quickly, riffing on the vibe of the Christian hymn 'Oh Happy Day'.
It was produced by Harrison with Phil Spector (who was also co-producing the Plastic Ono Band albums with John Lennon and Yoko Ono).
As well as singing lead and backing vocals, George played guitar and slide guitar on the record, backed by an all-star cast of collaborators.
As was as a clutch of unknown session string players, you had Eric Clapton plus Derek and the Dominoes' Bobby Whitlock, Yes drummer Alan White, Badfinger's Pete Ham and Joey Molland, Peter Frampton, Procul Harum's Gary Brooker.
Source: goldradio.com/Mayer Nissim
