The George Harrison Song That Made Him Stop ‘Listening to the Radio’
George Harrison had many musical influences and often found ways to pay homage to those artists in his songs. Sometimes, he would unconsciously include a melody or riff he heard somewhere else. One song he wrote sounded too similar to another artist, and the consequences made him stop “listening to the radio.”
‘My Sweet Lord’ was George Harrison’s first No. 1 hit single
“My Sweet Lord” was released in 1970 on the triple album All Things Must Pass, but it was also released as a single. The song hit No. 1 on the charts worldwide, making Harrison the first Beatle to hit No. 1 after the band split. The song was produced by Phil Spector and also included musicians such as Ringo Starr and Eric Clapton on the recording. In a 1971 interview shared by loudersound.com, Harrison explained why he believed “My Sweet Lord” became a hit.
“As far as I’m concerned, My Sweet Lord was a hit because of the sound and its simplicity. The sound of that record, it sounds like one huge guitar. The way Phil Spector and I put that down was we had two drummers, a bass player, two pianos and about five acoustic guitars, a tambourine player, and we sequenced it in order.”
“Everybody plays live in the studio. I spend a lot of time with the other rhythm guitar players to get them all to play exactly the same rhythm so it just sounded perfectly in sync. I overdubbed the voices, which I sang all the backup parts as well, and overdub the slide guitar, but everything else on it was live.”
Harrison stopped ‘listening to the radio’ after he had to go to court to defend ‘My Sweet Lord’
Later in the 1970s, George Harrison was involved in a copyright infringement suit where he was accused of copying “He’s so Fine,” a 1963 hit song for The Chiffons. In 1976, Harrison was found guilty of unconsciously plagiarising the song while writing “My Sweet Lord,” a decision that had repercussions throughout the music industry. Harrison’s ex-wife Pattie Boyd said the experience forced the former Beatle to stop listening to the radio so he would never accidentally copy another song again.
“It’s a beautiful song, and he was so proud of it. It was absolutely stunning. I know he wrote it; he didn’t copy it from The Chiffons,” Boyd said. “It was deeply upsetting and really hurtful when he was called into court in America for supposedly plagiarising one of The Chiffons’ songs. That song became a bit tainted when we were told he’d have to go to court and defend himself with his guitar. George stopped listening to the radio after that so he wouldn’t be influenced by any music. There was no possibility of anything else influencing him when he wrote songs.”
George Harrison wrote a song about the court case
While the copyright infringement suit was a touchy subject for George Harrison, he took advantage of the situation and wrote a song responding to it. The singer-songwriter released “This Song” as a single and on his 1976 album Thirty Three & ⅓.
Harrison deliberately calls out the copyright situation with lyrics such as “This song ain’t black or white and as far as I know/ Don’t infringe on anyone’s copyright.” There is also an opening riff similar to The Four Tops’ “I Can’t Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch,” which Harrison acknowledges.
