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TL;DR:

  • George Harrison was asked about the inclusion of The Beatles’ “Here Comes the Sun” on Abbey Road.
  • He didn’t think Abbey Road featured a lot more contributions from him than a previous Beatles album.
  • Abbey Road became a massive hit in the United States.
George Harrison, writer of The Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun," in a car
George Harrison | William Lovelace / Stringer

The Beatles‘ “Here Comes the Sun” is one of the most famous songs George Harrison wrote. Despite this, he wasn’t a huge fan of the song. He compared it to The Beatles’ “Something,” saying neither song was much better than the songs he wrote for The White Album.

George Harrison felt The Beatles’ ‘Here Comes the Sun’ wasn’t much better than ‘Piggies’

The book George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters features an interview from 1969. In it, George was Abbey Road was unusual because it had so many songs by him.

“Well, not really,” he said. “I mean, the last album we did [The White Album] had four songs of mine on it. And, you know, I thought they were all right.” The White Album songs in question were “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Savoy Truffle,” “Piggies,” and “Long, Long, Long.”

“So I thought these, ‘Something’ and ‘Here Comes the Sun’ was OK … probably, maybe a bit more commercial, but as songs not much better than the songs on the last album,” he said. 

George Harrison said people compared him to 2 other members of The Beatles

George discussed his songwriting. “But I’ve been writing for a couple of years now,” he said. “And there’s been lots of songs I’ve written which I haven’t got ’round to recording. So, you know, in my own mind I don’t see what the fuss is, because I’ve heard these songs before and I wrote them, you know quite a while back.”

George was told he didn’t have much of a reputation as a songwriter. “No, no,” he replied. “I wasn’t Lennon or I wasn’t McCartney. And, you know, I was me. And the only reason I started to write songs was because I thought, well if they can write them, I can write them.”

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How ‘Here Comes the Sun’ performed in the United States and the United Kingdom

“Here Comes the Sun” was not a single, so it never charted on the Billboard Hot 100. The tune’s parent album, Abbey Road, reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for 11 weeks. The LP spent a total of 488 weeks on the chart.

According to The Official Charts Company, “Here Comes the Sun” became a minor hit in the United Kingdom in 2010, over 40 years after the fab Four released the tune. “Here Comes the Sun” reached No. 58 in the U.K., staying on the chart for four weeks. Meanwhile, Abbey Road reached No. 1 for 17 weeks. It remained on the chart for 97 weeks altogether.

“Her Comes the Sun” became a standard, inspiring covers by Pharrell Williams, Brad Paisley, Boyce Avenue, Cat Stevens, and many others. 

“Here Comes the Sun” is an important song even if George wasn’t a huge fan of it.

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