George Harrison

George Harrison (1943-2001), British rock musician, the lead guitarist for the Beatles. Harrison was born in Liverpool, England, and—inspired by American rockabilly music—learned to play guitar when he was a young teen. He befriended Paul McCartney, another budding musician who was a year ahead of Harrison in school. McCartney introduced his younger friend to John Lennon, and by 1958 the three boys formed the core of a group called the Quarry Men. In 1960 the Quarry Men changed their name, eventually settling on “the Beatles.”

The band would go on to become the biggest rock music group of the 1960s and one of the most influential musical forces of the 20th century. Harrison played guitar, sang, and wrote songs for the Beatles, but he was consistently overshadowed by the songwriting prowess of Lennon and McCartney. Harrison’s songs often struck a moodier tone, as with his first Beatles composition, “Don’t Bother Me” (1963). His other songs with the group included “You Like Me Too Much” (1965), “Taxman” (1966), “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (1968), “Something” (1969), and “Here Comes the Sun” (1969).

Harrison also brought his interest in the music and religion of the Eastern world to the group. He was one of the first rock musicians to experiment with Indian instruments, traveling to India to study with sitar master Ravi Shankar. Harrison employed this sound—which became widely emulated by other rock artists—on Beatles songs such as “Norwegian Wood” (1965) and “Within You Without You” (1967).

In 1970, the year the Beatles broke up because of personal differences, Harrison released his first solo album, the triple-disc All Things Must Pass. Produced by Phil Spector, the album was a critical and commercial success, spawning the hit single “My Sweet Lord.” But the publishers of the 1960s pop hit “He’s So Fine” later sued Harrison over the similarities between the two songs. The litigation lasted several decades, and Harrison eventually lost.

In 1971 Harrison put on a pair of benefit concerts to support famine relief efforts in Bangladesh. Featuring Shankar, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, former Beatle Ringo Starr, and other friends of Harrison, the concerts were recorded and later released as an album and a motion picture. The Concert for Bangla Desh album won a Grammy Award and the project was cited as a model for some of the large-scale charity rock concerts of ensuing decades.

After that, Harrison’s solo career was uneven. He had a hit single with “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” off the 1973 album Living in the Material World. His next big hit, “All Those Years Ago” (1981), was written in tribute to Lennon, who was shot and killed by a deranged fan in 1980. In 1987 Harrison released the album Cloud Nine, which featured the hit songs “Got My Mind Set on You” and the Beatles-themed “When We Was Fab.” In 1988 he joined the Traveling Wilburys, a rock supergroup posing as a fictional musical family. The band—which in addition to Harrison included stars Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison—made two well-regarded albums. Harrison’s last major recording project was a live album based on his 1991 tour of Japan with Clapton.

Harrison was also involved in the business end of the entertainment world. He operated his own record label and started a film production company that had hits with movies such as Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979) and Time Bandits (1981).