George was the first Beatle to post up a #1 single as a solo artist. And a magnificent first #1 it was, becoming the biggest selling single of 1971 in the UK. On top of that, George went to #1 his very first time out.
It also went back to #1 – not the first Beatle solo track to do so – after George’s death.
The Writing
George Harrison's famous hymn to the Hindu god Krishna was written in Copenhagen in December 1969, when George was with Billy Preston and Eric Clapton supporting Delaney and Bonnie on tour. Fascinated with gospel music at the time, he had been seeking a way to fuse the ideological core of Christianity to that of Gaudiya Vaishnava.
There are several versions of how the song got written. George's own - rendered under oath before the High Court is that he ducked out of a press conference and found an empty upstairs room in the theater where the band was playing. He began alternating the "hallelujah" and "hare krishna" phrases over guitar chords, and took the result to the others for their opinion. More experimentation followed, who filled out the chorus vocals.
Delaney Bramlett tells it differently. He agrees that George was trying to write gospel, and says George came to him for advice on how to do it. In his telling of the story, he began to improvise "Oh, my Lord," with his wife and singer Rita Coolidge echoing back the "hallelujah." There are several problems with this version: first, George had already written several gospel songs with Preston, one of which he'd recorded; second, George was openly reworking 'Oh Happy Day', an eighteenth-century hymn (and long out of copyright), recently made popular by the Edwin Hawkins Singers. He didn't need lessons in how to write gospel songs.
The Beatles were still together at the time the song was written, and having based the song on an Edwin Hawkins Singers recording, George was initially of a mind to offer the song to Edwin Hawkins.
The deliberate blending of the Christian 'Hallelujah' with the Hare Krishna chant was intended as a unity gesture. They mean "quite the same thing," George said in his autobiography I Me Mine.
Notable in the lyric is George's expression of impatience - ...but it takes so long, my Lord! - a very vulnerable gesture in the context of musical worship.
Once written, George offered the song to Billy Preston, who had been there when he'd written it. Preston took it, recording it for his Encouraging Words album two months before George used it himself.
The Music
George deliberately chose a gospel motif for his prayful lyric (which is one of the reasons he involved Preston in his own recording), the idea being to wed its Sanskrit mantra to the spiritual rhythms at the very root of rock. The subtle transition from “Hallelujah” to “Hare Krishna,” using the same melody and harmonies, underscores the seamlessness of this attempt to universalize what he was trying to convey – to create music that would sell his private prayer as one for general use: “Hindu revivalism,” in the words of author Joshua Greene, “the pop equivalent of interfaith prayer.”
The Recording
George's slide guitar technique figures prominently in the recording, inspired by his friend Eric Clapton and soon to become closely associated with his post-Beatles music. The style is "musically as distinctive as the Mark of Zorro," in the words of biographer Alan Clayson.
Preston and Clapton, who were there when the song was born, both played on the track - Preston on piano, Clapton on acoustic guitar. Ringo came in to play drums, and Klaus Voorman provided bass (Jim Gordon of Derek and the Dominos also added drums and percussion).
Producer Phil Spector gave “My Sweet Lord” his “wall of sound” treatment, as he had Paul McCartney's “The Long and Winding Road”. George, as opposed to Paul, didn't mind a bit: layering acoustic guitars and zithers as if they themselves were an orchestra appealed to him. Consequently, the members of Badfinger were recruited to play the same acoustic guitar part on multiple acoustic guitars.
George played the slide guitar parts, which harmonized, himself; pop star Gary Wright played a keyboard alongside Preston.
The orchestral overdub was done two months later.
What George Said
George was hesitant about putting the song on All Things Must Pass: “I was sticking my neck out on the chopping block because now I would have to live up to something, but at the same time I thought, 'Nobody's saying it; I wish somebody else was doing it.’”
What the Other Beatles Said
John Lennon: “Every time I put the radio on, it's ‘Oh my Lord’ - I'm beginning to think there must be a God!”
The Response
“The first minute and a half of the hit “My Sweet Lord” is quite brilliant in its approach. But this song does get quite repetitive and the backing religious chants wear thin later on in the song.” ~ClassicRockReview.com
“...among the boldest steps in the history of popular music.” ~Joshua M. Greene
“…the honest child of black American sacred song.” ~David Fricke
“‘My Sweet Lord’ was everything that people wanted to hear in November 1970: shimmering harmonies, lustrous acoustic guitars, a solid Ringo Starr backbeat, and an exquisite guitar solo.” ~Peter Lavezzoli, music writer
“… a prayer, a love song, an anthem, a contemporary gospel track, or a piece of perfect pop.” ~Ian Inglis
The Quiet Beatle's first single became the first post-Beatles #1 hit by a Beatle, and became the UK's biggest-selling single of 1971. It went gold in the US in only three weeks, hit the top of the charts in both countries28, and in France, Germany, Australia, Holland, New Zealand, Switzerland, Ireland, Belgium, Norway, and Austria as well, also cracking the Top 5 in Japan and South Africa.
In the UK, readers of Melody Maker voted it Single of the Year.
Forty years later, in 2010, AOL Radio’s audience voted it the best George Harrison solo song.
The song's reign over the singles charts overlapped with the reign of All Things Must Pass over the Billboard albums chart. It was #1 for seven weeks. The single sold over 5,000,000 copies, one of the biggest-selling singles of all time.
It was the biggest-selling post-Beatles hit by a Beatle of the entire decade.
“My Sweet Lord” is #460 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Predictably, Fundamentalist Christians protested the song, claiming its message to be satanic, or at least anti-Christian - the opposite of George's intent. On the other hand, a number of Christians praised the song, and even took it up as an anthem. Several Christian artists recorded it (see Covers and Other Appearances).
“For months John couldn’t turn around without hearing George’s goony hymn coming out of the nearest loudspeaker.” ~Albert Goldman, Lennon biographer
"I thought, 'Oh my God,' and I got chills," said Elton John when he first heard the song while riding in a taxi. "You know when a record starts on the radio, and it's great, and you think, 'Oh, what is this, what is this, what is this?' The only record I ever felt that way about [afterwards] was 'Brown Sugar' ..."
"... as pervasive on radio and in youth consciousness as anything the Beatles ever produced." ~Mikal Gilmore, Rolling Stone
"The lyrics are not directed at a specific manifestation of a single faith's deity, but rather to the concept of one god whose essential nature is unaffected by particular interpretations and who pervades everything, is present everywhere, is all-knowing and all-powerful, and transcends time and space ... All of us - Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist - can address our gods in the same way, using the phrase [My Sweet Lord]." ~Ian Inglis
“He’s So Fine”
A little over a year after ‘My Sweet Lord’ swept across the world, a new chapter in Beatle/Apple history (and pop music history in general, for that matter) was opened up, when a lawsuit was filed against George, Harrisongs, Apple Records and BMI, alleging copyright infringement by Harrison.
Bright Tunes Music, the publisher holding the rights to Ronnie Mack’s ‘He’s So Fine’ (a 1963 hit for the Chiffons), claimed that George had lifted the basic structure and melody of ‘My Sweet Lord’ from Mack’s tune. Rolling Stone’s Ben Gerson and Alan Smith of NME had already made mention of the similarities in print. George didn’t deny it, but said that any such borrowing from ‘He’s So Fine’ was subconscious at best: “Why didn’t I realize?”
Bright Tunes was on the edge of financial collapse at the time the suit was brought, and although Allen Klein (the Beatles’ controversial manager at that time) sought a settlement, offering to buy out Bright Tunes and spare it bankruptcy, there wasn’t time to resolve the matter: Bright Tunes went into receivership, which led to a delay of many years.
As months slipped into years, the Beatles soured on Klein (Paul from the outset; he had refused Klein as a manager almost from the day he met him), and lawsuits between them were piled onto the now-stale Bright Tunes suit. Klein made a final offer to Bright, 40 percent of the royalties from ‘My Sweet Lord’, with George retaining copyright. Bright’s legal advisor liked this deal, but for some reason it was rejected anyway.
Though they didn’t know it at the time, the Beatles would eventually learn that Klein had quietly renewed attempts to buy Bright Tunes, but this time for himself, to give him somewhere to go after his ouster by the Beatles. To this end, he had covertly been passing inside information to Bright regarding ‘My Sweet Lord’s financial performance.
On February 23, 1976, five years after the initial filing of the suit, Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music finally made it to US district court. Musical experts argued both sides of the case; the similarities between the songs were underscored, as well as the differences3. In September, the court handed down its verdict: George had “subconsciously” borrowed from ‘He’s So Fine’, and was subject to penalization.
The court awarded damages in the amount of $1,599,987 to Bright Tunes most of ‘My Sweet Lord’s royalty earnings, plus some of the earnings from All Things Must Pass. The ruling set uncomfortable legal precedents and triggered a flurry of similar infringement suits, including one against the Beatles by Little Richard, and another against Ringo for his song ‘Lady Gaye’. George later admitted the affair made him too paranoid to write again for a long time.
But the story didn’t end there, and became even more interesting. Klein’s questionable behaviors came to light when, having succeeded in privately buying Bright Tunes, he proceeded to offer George the rights to ‘He’s So Fine’. In 1981, the court decided that Klein had been duplicitous, and that his actions were in breach of his fiduciary responsibility to George. The $1.6 million dollar award previously recommended was reduced to $587,000, for which George would receive the rights to ‘He’s So Fine’.
It all dragged on another 15 years, and was finally over in March 1998. In addition to changing forever the pop/rock songwriting culture4, it cautioned those in such conflicts to settle out of court.
“I don’t feel guilty or bad about it, in fact it saved many a heroin addict’s life,” George said of ‘My Sweet Lord’. “I know the motive behind writing the song in the first place and its effect far exceeded the legal hassle.”
Covers and Other Appearances
Beyond the versions recorded by George and Billy Preston, 'My Sweet Lord' was covered by a multitude of other artists, including Elton John, Peggy Lee, Johnny Mathis, Richie Havens, Megadeth, Julio Iglesias, Boy George, Ray Coniff and Eddy Arnold.
Christian artists Larry Norman and Bebe Winans have done cover versions.
In what may be the most malicious cover in the history of rock, the Chiffons covered 'My Sweet Lord' in 1975, to strengthen the plagiarism suit against George. Adding insult to injury, country artist Jody Miller released a cover of ‘He’s So Fine’ in August 1971 – and included George’s ‘My Sweet Lord’ slide guitar riffs.
George performed the song at his milestone Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971. It appears on the live album and in the concert film. (He played it, in fact, at every single solo concert he performed after its release.)
Eric Clapton included 'My Sweet Lord' in his tribute Concert for George in 2002, following George's death. Appropriately, Billy Preston sang the lead vocal.
Factoids
In the US, “My Sweet Lord” knocked Smokey Robinson’s “Tears of a Clown” from the #1 spot; Tony Orlando and Dawn’s “Knock Three Times” took over.
On the UK Singles Chart, “My Sweet Lord” bumped Clive Dunn’s “Grandad” out of #1; it was in turn bumped by Mungo Jerry’s “Baby Jump”.
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