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George Harrison Biography
Guitarist George Harrison was born on February 25, 1943 to a close-knit working-class family in Liverpool, England. As a teenager Harrison took up guitar, and in 1958 joined an established local skiffle band called the Quarrymen, which included his older schoolmate Paul McCartney. By 1961, the Quarrymen had become the Beatles, with Harrison on lead guitar. Though McCartney and John Lennon initially wrote nearly all of the Beatles' material, by 1966 Harrison was contributing a song or two per album, including hits like "Taxman," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Here Comes the Sun." Harrison also became fascinated with sitar music (inspired by his interest in Hinduism), and later received instruction from acclaimed sitar composer Ravi Shankar, whose music he helped to popularize in the West. Harrison contributed some sitar-based songs to the 1968 film soundtrack Wonderwall Music, the first solo outing by a Beatles member.
By the time the Beatles recorded The Beatles (aka The White Album) in 1968, Harrison was often at odds with McCartney and Lennon over whose songs would be developed and recorded by the band. The guitarist's personal life was also troubled: he and close friend Eric Clapton both loved the same woman, Pattie Boyd, who was married to Harrison yet spent much of her time with Clapton. Boyd later switched husbands, but the three remained eerily close. Following the release of Abbey Road in the fall of 1969, Harrison traveled to Europe to perform with Delaney and Bonnie and Friends,a group which included his old friend, keyboardist Billy Preston. Within months the Beatles were no more.
Harrison's first post-Beatles album was All Things Must Pass, released in late1970. Recorded with Phil Spector and featuring appearances by old friends Eric Clapton, Klaus Voormann and Ringo Starr, the triple album became a No. 1 hit, spawning the No. 1single "My Sweet Lord." Unfortunately for Harrison, "My Sweet Lord" bore a strong resemblance to the Chiffons 1962 hit "He's So Fine," and the Chiffons' publishing company filed suit seeking damages for the alleged plagiarism. After protracted negotiations failed, a court finally heard the case in 1976, and quickly ruled that Harrison had "subconsciously" borrowed from "He's So Fine" and owed $1.6 million in damages. Due to complicated business and legal issues involving Apple Music (the Beatles' label, which also released Harrison's early solo albums), the Chiffons' publisher, and former Beatles manager Allen Klein, the case was not settled until the 1990s.
Harrison took a break from recording in 1971, producing an album for Badfinger (the first band signed to Apple Records), contributing to John Lennon's Imagine,and performing at a landmark 1971 benefit for the troubled Asian nation of Bangladesh (later commemorated in a triple live album). Harrison returned to solo work with his 1973 album Living in the Material World, featuring the No. 1 hit "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)." The hastily recorded 1974 album Dark Horse was followed by Harrison's first North American solo tour, yet his following was already beginning to diminish. 1975's Extra Texture was a flop, and ended his career with EMI, the Beatles' old label. Harrison rebounded by forming Dark Horse Records,his own imprint, which was affiliated with A&M Records. He released 33 & 1/3, his most praised album since All Things Must Pass. Unfortunately this comeback was short-lived: his 1979 eponymous album was another artistic disaster. Harrison's next album, Somewhere In England, was rejected by Warner Bros. (Dark Horse's new distributor), but following John Lennon's 1980 assassination, the album was reworked to capitalize on a resurgence of Beatles nostalgia. The new Somewhere in Englandcontained the hit song "All Those Years Ago," featuring Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, and quickly rose in the charts.
Though Harrison's solo albums were often of disputed artistic quality, throughout the 1970s they sold acceptably. This came to an end in 1982 with Gone Troppo, a complete commercial failure. Harrison wisely decided to take time off from his musical career to concentrate on producing movies and racing his large collection of sports cars. He founded HandMade Films in 1978, and used the company to produce such classics as Monty Python's Life of Brian and the 1980 adventure Time Bandits.Though he contributed a few songs to the 1985 Porky's Revenge soundtrack, Harrison's serious return to music was 1987's Cloud Nine, the biggest selling album of his solo career. Produced by former ELO frontman Jeff Lynne, Cloud Ninewas Harrison's most slick, pop-oriented album yet; its cover of the Rudy Clark song"I Got My Mind Set On You" became a No. 1 radio hit. The following year, along with Lynne, Harrison formed the Traveling Wilburys with rock star pals Tom Petty, Bob Dylan and Roy Orbison. The supergroup released two platinum-selling albums, 1988'sTraveling Wilburys and 1990's Traveling Wilburys, Vol. 3 (sic) before going on hiatus.
Harrison returned to solo touring in 1991, accompanied by his old friend Eric Clapton; the world tour was commemorated in the 1992 album Live in Japan. Returning to England, Harrison quickly signed on to a planned BBC Beatles documentary, which eventually led to two "new" Beatles songs ("Free as a Bird" and "Real Love") created by matching new music performed by Harrison, McCartney, and Starr to late '70s Lennon home demos.
Harrison remained strangely silent following the massive commercial success of the 1995-6 Beatles Anthology series. Three years later, he was again in the news under unfortunate circumstances when a man broke into his mansion outside of London and attacked him and his wife. Harrison was stabbed several times, though he made a full recovery. The intruder was later found not guilty by reason of insanity.
In 2000, Harrison began work on a new album, slated for release in 2001. The same year, Capitol released a 30th anniversary edition of the landmark All Things Must Pass which included a re-recorded version of the hit "My Sweet Lord."
*George Harrison died on Novemeber 29, 2001 at the age of 58. He never did release his next album. This added part is added by the webmistress and was not on the Beatlesong bio*
Bio found at the Beatlesongs Newsletter. It is brought to us courtesy JennetteR
Nickname
The Quiet Beatle
Height
5' 11"
Spouse
Trivia
George's older sister Louise resides in southern Illinois as of 1998.
A good deal of confusion as to his real birthday was solved recently when a family birth record noted him as being born shortly before midnight around 11:50 P.M.) on February 24th, 1943. He had believed his birthday was February 25th for his entire life.
Musician. One of the Beatles.
On 30 December 1999, an intruder broke into Harrison's Oxfordshire mansion, stabbing him multiple times in the chest. Harrison and his wife fought the intruder and detained him for the police.
Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of the Beatles January 20, 1988.
Wrote the introduction to a biography on sitarist Ravi Shankar.
George played 26 instruments: guitar, sitar, 4-string guitar, bass guitar, arp bass, violin, tamboura, dobro, swordmandel, tabla, organ, piano, moog synthesizer, harmonica, autoharp, glockenspiel, vibraphone, xylophone, claves, African drum, conga drum, tympani, ukulele, mandolin, marimba, and Jal-Tarang.
Son, Dhani, born 1 August 1978. Dhani is now a student at Brown University (November 2001).
Appointed an MBE in 1965.
(1979 - 1994) Executive Producer & Principal Partner, 'HandMade Films'
Attended Dovedale Road Primary School (now Dovedale Road Junior School) and the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys (now the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts).
Got a job as an apprentice electrician at sixteen but did not have the interest to continue it.
Liked jelly babies (a softer version of jelly beans).
George met Pattie Boyd on the set of Hard Day's Night, A (1964). She was engaged at the time, but George kept asking her out until she gave in. They were married in 1966.
In 1968, Eric Clapton played guitar on George's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on the Beatles' White Album. Also, George was at Eric's home in England and wrote 'Here Comes the Sun' while skipping a meeting for the Beatles' record company, Apple
In the early 70s, Eric Clapton fell madly in love with Pattie Harrison and wrote 'Layla', developing a heroin addiction when she refused to leave George. By 1974, feeling abandoned by George's obession to the Indian culture, Pattie left George to be with Eric and the Harrisons' divorce was finalized in 1977. Two years later, Pattie and Eric were married - until 1988. Through it all, George, Eric, and Pattie remained best of friends - George attended the Claptons' wedding reception and George commented "I rather she was with him than some dope".
A vegetarian.
(Jan 2002) Re-release of "My Sweet Lord" reaches #1 in the UK replacing Aaliyah's "More Than A Woman". It is the first time there has been two consecutive posthumous number 1s in the UK.
Was the first of the Beatles to produce a "solo" album, with his soundtrack album to Joe Massot's film Wonderwall (1968). (Paul McCartney had earlier composed the score for _Family Way, The (1966)_, but did not produce or play on the recordings.) Songs were recorded both in India (featuring Ashish Khan and guests) and England; the English tracks featured Harrison, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Peter Tork (each performing under pseudonyms), and former Beatles rivals The Remo Four, from Liverpool.
Wrote an autobiography titled 'I Me Mine' in the late 1970s (which Harrison described in the introduction as "the small change of a short lifetime"), and included reproductions of the original handwritten lyrics to nearly all his songs. The book was originally issued as an exclusive leather-bound edition by Genesis Books for about $350 per copy; a less-expensive hardback edition was later published by Simon and Schuster.
Personal quotes
"All things must pass."
"I'd rather be a musician than a rock star."
"Everything else can wait but the search for God cannot wait, and love one another. "
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