Skip to main content

George Harrison had minimal songwriting credits in the early days of The Beatles. He never wrote as much as John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but he had more and more solo writing credits as the years wore on. His first song appeared on a Beatles album in 1963. Harrison explained that he wrote it while he was sick, and he didn’t think the song was his best. 

A black and white picture of George Harrison wearing a suit and resting his arm on a trunk.
George Harrison | Max Scheler – K & K/Redferns

John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote many of the band’s hits

Lennon and McCartney spent years writing together, and they became one of the most prolific songwriting duos in history. They wrote the vast majority of The Beatles’ songs, even after Harrison started contributing more. By writing together, they could approach songs from different angles. They were able to write music that people still enjoy listening to today.

“Mine would be doing this, his would be doing that, and the interplay was just miraculous,” McCartney wrote in the book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present. “And that’s why people are still listening to the songs we wrote. They didn’t just go away like your average pop song. The climate that the two of us created in writing wasn’t a soppy pop song climate. We created an environment in which we might grow, try new things, maybe even learn a thing or two.”

George Harrison wasn’t thrilled with the first song he wrote for The Beatles

Harrison was also interested in songwriting, and he began contributing songs to The Beatles’ albums as well. His first song appeared on the band’s second studio album, With The Beatles, in 1963. He said that he wrote the song “Don’t Bother Me” while he was sick, and he promptly forgot about it. 

“I was a bit run down and was supposed to be having some sort of tonic, taking it easy for a few days,” he said, per the book The Beatles: The Authorized Biography by Hunter Davies. “I decided to try to write a song, just for a laugh. I got out my guitar and just played around till a song came. I forgot all about it till we came to record the next LP.”

The band included it on the album, but Harrison didn’t think much of it.

“It was a fairly crappy song,” he said. “I forgot about it completely once it was on the album.”

George Harrison proved his songs belonged on Beatles albums

Harrison said he took a two-year break from writing because he “never got round to it,” but he eventually started regularly contributing to the band’s albums. He wrote songs like “If I Needed Someone,” “Here Comes the Sun,” “Something,” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.”

With these, Harrison proved that he was a capable songwriter whose work could rival that of Lennon and McCartney’s. While he was self-deprecating about his talent, he proved with songs like “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun” that he could evoke clear, palpable emotion in his work. He also began incorporating the sitar and other Indian influences into his music, which pushed the bounds of the band’s creativity. His contributions only made the band stronger.

Best in Entertainment