George Harrison was born on February 25th of 1943 in Liverpool, England. He is best known as the lead guitarist (and also a singer/songwriter) for The Beatles, for his solo career, and for his work with the Traveling Wilburys.

While Harrison was overshadowed by John Lennon & Paul McCartney (and even by Ringo Starr sometimes) – his melodic guitar solos were a big part of The Beatles sound. And as a singer/songwriter he contributed at least one song to each Beatles album from 1965 on.

His first song that made it onto a Beatles album was “Don’t Bother Me” which appeared on The Beatles second album, With the Beatles. But he didn’t contribute any songs to their 3rd and 4th albums (A Hard Day’s Night & Beatles For Sale) which were both released in 1964.

It was on The Beatles 5th album, 1965′s Help!, that Harrison really got going as a songwriter. “I Need You” and “You Like Me Too Much” were both Harrison compositions.

On their next album, Rubber Soul, The Beatles used a sitar for the first time. Harrison is the one who brought the Indian influence to the band and he played the sitar on “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown.)” He wrote “Think for Yourself,” & “If I Needed Someone” for the album.

1966′s Revolver included three Harrison songs: “Taxman,” “Love You To” and “I Want to Tell You.” “Love You To” is notable for it’s heavy Indian music influence. While “Taxman” is one of Harrison’s most well known songs, he did not play the guitar solo on it: Instead it was played by Paul McCartney.

1967′s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band featured only one Harrison song, “Within You Without You.” The followup, Magical Mystery Tour, also featured one song by Harrison: “Blue Jay Way.”

In 1968 one of Harrison’s songs made it onto a Beatles single for the first time. The last Beatles song with a heavy Indian music influence, “Inner Light,” was the B-Side to “Lady Madonna.”

Harrison contributed four songs to The Beatles 1968 double album: The White Album (officially The Beatles.) “Piggies,” “Long Long Long,” “Savoy Truffle,” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (his friend Eric Clapton played the solo.)

Of the four new songs recorded for the Yellow Submarine album, two of them were Harrison’s “It’s All Too Much” & “It’s Only A Northern Song.” “It’s All Too Much” in particular is a really great song that is too often overlooked.

Harrison had two songs on 1969′s Abbey Road and they are two of The Beatles most well known songs: “Something” & “Here Comes The Sun.” “Something” was paired with John Lennon’s Come Together on a “Double A-Side Single.”

His 1969 tune “Old Brown Shoe” was released as the B-Side to Lennon’s “The Ballad of John & Yoko” single.

The Beatles final album (released, not recorded) Let It Be had two Harrison songs: “I Me Mine” & “For You Blue.”

Harrison actually released two albums of experimental music before The Beatles split up in 1970: Wonderwall Music (yes this is what inspired the Oasis song title.) & Electronic Sound.

But it was his triple album, All Things Must Pass, released on November 27th of 1970 that was considered to be his real solo debut and many people were shocked at how good it was and by how many songs it had on it. He had built up a huge backlog of songs during his time with The Beatles had he had never been able to get too many of his songs on their albums (being squeezed out by Lennon & McCartney.)

It was the first triple album by a solo artist and it included the hit singles “My Sweet Lord” (#1 in the US) and “What Is Life” (#10 in the US.)

While Harrison never really matched the success of All Things Must Pass either artistically or commercially, he did release five more albums that charted in the top 10 in the US: 1971′s The Concert for Bangla Desh, 1973′s Living in the Material World, 1974′s Dark Horse, 1975′s Extra Texture (Read All About It), and 1987′s Cloud Nine.

His final album was 2002′s Brainwashed which was released after Harrison’s death in 2001.

He also released two albums with the Traveling Wilburys supergroup (with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, and Roy Orbison.) The first album was particularly successful as it reached #3 on the US album charts.

Harrison died on November 29, 2001 at age 58 from cancer.

George Harrison Making A Surprise Appearance On The Smothers Brothers TV Program In 1968:

George Harrison At John Lennon’s Home In 1971

“My Guitar Gently Weeps” Live In 1971 (The Concert For Bangla Desh.)

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