10 of George Harrison’s Best Beatles Songs
George Harrison had to fight and scratch to get his songs on Beatles albums. Sometimes literally. The man who some called the easy-going Beatle once had a fistfight with John Lennon during the Get Back sessions. John and Paul McCartney allowed George just a few songs on each Fab Four album, but they were often some of the best. Let’s look at 10 of George’s best Beatles songs (sorted chronologically by release date and album track order).
How many Beatles songs did George Harrison write?
With Paul and John often writing tunes together (at least in the early years), that left George to work on his songs alone. That arrangement held even when the so-called quiet Beatle became so prolific as a songwriter that he said he’d need to make a hundred Beatles albums to release the songs he wrote in one year.
George earned songwriting credits on 25 Beatles songs in all. Three of those — “Dig It,” “Flying” and “Maggie Mae” — were total band efforts, meaning he had 22 of his songs appear on Fab Four records. These are 10 of George’s best Beatles songs that should be required listening.
1. ‘If I Needed Someone’
It was buried deep on Side 2 of Rubber Soul, but “If I Needed Someone” is worth the wait. The chiming 12-string guitar and beautiful, Byrds-like melodies indicate how far George had come as a songwriter in the year between Help! and Rubber Soul.
“If I Needed Someone” resided near the end of Rubber Soul, but George grabbed the spotlight with the lead track on The Beatles’ next album
2. ‘Taxman’
Revolver’s first track features a jabbing guitar riff, a fine Ringo Starr beat, and some of The Beatles’ most political lyrics. John reluctantly helped George with the song, but it’s a George song through and through.
The main guitar riff and lyrics are standout elements, but don’t miss the shredding guitar solo Paul provides on one of George’s best Beatles songs.
3. ‘Love You To’
Patient digital listeners who make it past the early sitar plucking are rewarded in spades. The insistent tabla beat, humming drone, and background sonic flourishes make the song a standout on a stellar album.
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band featured the sitar-based “Within You Without You.” This one gets the nod as one of George’s best songs for being more propulsive and powerfully brief.
4. ‘Blue Jay Way’
George somehow found inspiration from sitting around a house in Los Angeles waiting for Beatles publicist Derek Taylor to pick him up. From there, he crafted one of The Beatles’ most ominous, edgy, melancholy, and psychedelic songs, rife with background drones.
“Blue Jay Way” was guilty by association on the much-maligned Magical Mystery Tour, but the studio mastery to make this tune come to fruition deserves praise. It’s one of George’s underrated Beatles songs, and also one of the best.
5. ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’
A handful of songs spring to mind as quintessential George songs (and we’ll cover a couple more), and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” is one of them.
Everything about the song is nearly perfect: The piano line that sets the melody, the beautifully lilting vocal melody (“I don’t know ha-ha-oww”), and Eric Clapton’s cutting slide guitar solo all come together wonderfully.
Though an accomplished slide guitar player, George wanted Clapton on that solo. He got it, and the result is one of George’s best Beatles songs and one of the Fab Four’s finest moments.
6. ‘Savoy Truffle’
It’s another George-Clapton intersection. Their friendship appears to have been a muse for The Beatles guitarist. At least it was for the White Album track “Savoy Truffle.” George wrote it for Clapton in honor of his rampant sweet tooth.
It doesn’t come close to matching the intensity of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” but the warm keyboard and Motown trumpets elevate George’s rocker.
The double LP White Album included some of the most boring Beatles songs, but this isn’t one of them.
7. ‘It’s All Too Much’
Could this be one of The Beatles’ most experimental songs? Maybe. Is it one of George’s most overlooked songs? Almost certainly.
The background drones, psychedelic guitars, horn blasts, and trippy yet melodious lyrics help it stand out on Yellow Submarine. Written during an LSD trip and taken into the studio in May 1967, Harrison made more of acid than you can ask of anyone. It sounds terrific, especially compared to the syrupy-sweet McCartney tracks it rubs shoulders with on the album,.
8. ‘Something’
George’s love letter (presumably to then-wife Pattie Boyd) showcased his growing confidence in his songwriting. A more assertive George shot down Paul McCartney’s idea for a complicated bass line on this Abbey Road classic.
Keeping it simple paid off on one of the Fab Four’s most beautiful songs. And to think, he tried to give the song away to Joe Cocker before he recorded it for The Beatles. Would Frank Sinatra have called it one of the great love songs ever if Cocker sang it? Somehow, we doubt it.
9. ‘Here Comes the Sun’
The Clapton and George combo strikes again. He wrote the song while playing hooky from The Beatles’ day-to-day duties. The venue? Clapton’s garden.
He somehow managed to work in a hard-to-play Moog synthesizer part even though he had no training and was one of the first musicians in England to get his hands on one.
George didn’t live to see the streaming music age, unfortunately. If he had, “Here Comes the Sun” would have confirmed what he believed was true by the end of The Beatles’ run — that his songwriting was every bit as good as Paul and John’s. The public has spoken, and the message is loud and clear — “Here Comes the Sun” is George’s best song with The Beatles.
10. ‘I Me Mine’
George might have been saving his best work for his post-Beatles solo debut, All Things Must Pass, by the late 1960s. Still, he put this blistering takedown rocker on the Fab Four’s final release, Let It Be.
In less than two-and-a-half minutes, George seems to air his frustrations with Paul and John hogging the songwriting spotlight for so many years. “All throughout the day / I me mine / I me mine / I me mine,” and later, “All I can hear / I me mine / I me mine / I me mine / Even those tears / I me mine / I me mine / I me mine.”
George plays hard-charging guitar during some segments as if to hammer home the point on one of his best Beatles tunes.
For more on the entertainment world and exclusive interviews, subscribe to Showbiz Cheat Sheet’s YouTube channel.
