Today’s classic song of the day is “Something,” one of the very best tunes by the Beatles. It was also the first big hit not written by John Lennon and/or Paul McCartney.
George Harrison penned “Something,” which was the second track of side one of the Beatles’ Abbey Road album. Released as a double A-sided single (along with John Lennon’s “Come Together” on the flip) in October of 1969, it hit #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #2 on the Cash Box Top 100. It also hit the top slot in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and West Germany.
One can assume that “Something” was written about George’s then-wife, Pattie Boyd. George later claimed that “everybody presumed I wrote it about Pattie” but that it was really about the Hindu god Krishna: “When you love a woman, it’s the God in her that you see.”
That said, here’s what Pattie Boyd said about the song:
“George wrote a song called ‘Something.’ He told me in a matter-of-fact way that he had written it for me. I thought it was beautiful and it turned out to be the most successful song he ever wrote, with more than 150 cover versions. George’s favourite version was the one by James Brown. Mine was the one by George Harrison, which he played to me in our kitchen.”
That’s sweet.
George got the first line of “Something” from a James Taylor tune, “Something in the Way She Moves.” That track was on Taylor’s debut album on Apple Records, and James was apparently okay with that:
“I felt hugely flattered. I had played this song for George and Paul as my audition, and I think it had just sort of stuck in his mind. But he didn’t realize that. I think all music is reiteration. I think we just pick stuff up and use it again. I mean, there are just 12 notes.”
George Harrison started writing “Something” early in September of 1968, during the sessions for the White Album. He quickly abandoned it, however, thinking that the tune came to him so quickly he must have subliminally lifted it from some other song. (Ironic, given the later controversary over “My Sweet Lord.”) He finished the song a few days later and played it for producer Chris Thomas in a session on September 19, 1968.
Harrison decided not to record the song at that point in time, however, instead focusing on “Piggies.” He actually considered giving “Something” to singer Jackie Lomax, whose debut album he was then producing, although that didn’t materialize.
Instead, George brought “Something” to the table in January of 1969 when the Beatles gathered for the ultimately abandoned Get Back project, which itself morphed into the Let It Be album. The Beatles recorded an initial version of the tune on January 28, but George had yet to finish the second verse. (That’s the one that starts with “Attracts me like…”) Lennon jokingly suggested “Attracts me like a cauliflower,” and Harrison actually recorded “Attracts me like a pomegranate.” The group gave the song two run throughs that day but then dropped it.
George thought about saving “Something” for a potential solo album consisting of songs he’d written over the past ten years or so. (Having been relegated by Lennon and McCartney to just one track per album, George had a lot of songs saved up.) That album didn’t happen, however, at least not until the Beatles broke up the following year. Instead, George gave “Something” to singer Joe Cocker, who recorded it for his Joe Cocker! album, which was released in November of 1969.
The Beatles eventually got their act together to go back into the studio to record what would be their final album. (That’s the final one recorded, anyway; Let It Be, recorded earlier, was released after Abbey Road.) The lads first recorded a version of Something on April 16, 1969, but George didn’t like that one. They got back to the track in July and, after a series of recording sessions and overdubs, finished it up on August 15.
The result is a true classic. It’s one of Harrison’s best for the Beatles (along with “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Here Comes the Sun”) and one of the group’s top tunes, period. Some reviewers considered “Something” to be the best track on the Abbey Road album. It definitely established Harrison as a songwriter equal to Lennon and McCartney, and became the second-most covered song in the Beatles’ library, after Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday.”
So here’s your daily bonus video of the day, the promotional film the Beatles produced for “Something.” It features the lads walking separately with their wives, emphasizing in its own way the growing separation within the group. (George and Pattie were filmed walking around the garden of their Kinfauns estate.)
