Best of George Harrison - Harrison, George (Cassette 1990)

GEORGE HARRISON was a member of the GREATEST MUSIC GROUP OF ALL TIME, THE BEATLES . He was once considered the quiet Beatle early in his career with the group. George is the youngest of the FAB FOUR which also consisted of PAUL MCCARTNEY , RINGO STARR and the murdered JOHN LENNON . Not only were these four young singers from Britain the Great Music Group but each member went on to there own very good music career after the group disbanded.

BACKGROUND:

George was considered the Lead Guitar Player for The Beatles who played a regular guitar, an electric guitar and a slide guitar at different times during his career. He was born on 25 February 1943 in Liverpool, England. He was inspired to learn to play the guitar by a British artist named Lonnie Donegan . Lonnie had recorded a Skiffle version of a Johnny Cash hit called Rock Island Line . Skiffle is considered a high animated, heavily rhythmic variant of American Folk and country music. He went to school with Paul Mccartney who encouraged him to continue learning and soon mastered the guitar. George followed the music very closely of Carl Perkins , Duane Eddy , Chet Adkins , Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran .

He joined The Quarry Men also spelled Quarrymen which was the first incarnation if you will of the Beatles at age 15. The group was founded by John Lennon and was also comprised of Paul Mccartney. The group was formed in 1957 and had many different members who would come and go quiet often. The only stable members were John and Paul. George joined on a part time basics at age 14 in February 1958 as he was also playing part-time in a second skiffle band called THE REBELS . George left the Quarrymen for a short while to join another group called LES STEWART QUARTET .

In 1959 the Quarrymen added a new member on bass Stu Sutcliffe and they changed their names to JOHNNY AND THE MOONDOGS and had Pete Best as their Drummer. In 1960 they renamed the group once again to THE SILVER BEETLES (the first spelling was different they changed it later to BEATLES). Pete left the group and the new drummer was Norman Chapman. He left the group and Pete returned and the band changed their names one last time to THE BEATLES . In 1962 Pete Best was kicked out of the group and enter Ringo (Richard Starkey) Starr. Ringo was in another very popular British group at the time called Rory Storm and the Hurricane . Ringo was only with the group for a very few short weeks before they recorded their very first single LOVE ME DO backed by P.S. I LOVE YOU in September 1962.

The Beatles first single was a mild hit on the British record charts reaching the low part of the Top 20. Their first big hit was PLEASE PLEASE ME which went to #1 on the British charts for 30 weeks. Capitol records declined the Beatles first few singles so they were released on small American independent labels. Their first single for Capitol Records was I WANT TO HOLD YOU HAND that went to #1 within weeks of it s US release 26 December 1963. They starred on TV on THE ED SULLIVAN SHOW in February 1964 and the rest as they say is History.

As an individual George s voice could be distinctively heard on 2 songs on The Beatles REVOLVER album with TAXMAN and LOVE YOU TOO . He also started to write a lot of the songs on the albums to include major contributions on the last 3 before the split. His first solo so to speak was SOMETHING which was released as the B side of COME TOGETHER . The Beatles officially broke up in 1970 and George released his first solo album that same year called ALL THINGS MUST PASS . His first single from this album was My Sweet Lord . This was a soft and beautifully soothing song that shows how much he really cared about his music and GOD. He was however successfully sued by the publisher of He s So Fine that was sung by the CHIFFONS in 1962 because of the similarities of the song lyrics and music.

His second album was a major charity event and was considered one of the first done by a rock celebrity. It was called THE CONCERT FOR BANGLEDESH and was recorded in two shows in New York City s Madison Square Garden in 1971. This was a benefit to raise money for a famine ravaged nation. It was a 3 CD set and had songs from his previous album songs he recorded while with The Beatles and new songs. Three hit singles came for this album and were re-recorded in the studio the biggest was GIVE ME LOVE (GIVE ME PEACE ON EARTH) another very beautiful song by George. His 3rd album was LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD (way before Madonna) but not the same. His first two albums did very, very good as well as his first 6 singles but after that his music slowly faded from popularity.

In 1987 he did have a album that finally made it big again called CLOUD NINE which had a great remake version of a song called GOT MY MIND SET ON YOU . That song was his first big hit in over 10 years and went to number one on the music charts. I wish that song was also on this CD but the song was released way after the release of this greatest hits CD. In 1998 he joined Bob Dylan , Tom Petty , Jeff Lynne (formerly of E.L.O.) and Roy Orbison to form the group THE TRAVELING WILBURYS . As a group they released 6 albums of which 2 were very big hits as well as a few very big singles. The better known singles were HANDLE WITH CARE , MARGARITA , and END OF THE LINE

George has also had a fairly good Movie career as well as Music career. His first Movie appearance was with The Beatles in A HARD DAYS NIGHT in 1964. He of course starred in all The Beatles Movies but was also in TIME BANDITS in 1981, GOODFELLAS in 1990 and EVEREST in 1998. He has been in a total of 51 films some of those Made for TV only. A Hard Days Night will be re-released to Theaters on 8 December this year. This version is said to have digitally restored footage as well as a digitally enhanced soundtrack.

GREATEST HITS:

This CD has 13 songs on it of which the first 7 songs are Beatle songs that George was lead singer on. The last 6 songs are solo songs by George in order of their release on singles. This CD is on the Apple label which was a subsidiary of Capital records. The list of songs include:

1. SOMETHING
2. IF I NEEDED SOMEONE
3. HERE COMES THE SUN
4. TAXMAN
5. THINK FOR YOURSELF
6. FOR YOU BLUE
7. WHILE MY GUITAR GENTLY WEEPS
8. MY SWEET LORD
9. GIVE ME LOVE (GIVE ME PEACE ON EARTH)
10. YOU
11. BANGLA DESH
12. DARK HORSE
13. WHAT IS LIFE

JAG S FINAL THOUGHTS:

The Beatles have always been my favorite music group and it was because of them that I got into collecting music in 1965. I have always loved them as well as their music. When I had one of the largest music collections in upstate New York in 1970 I had every single and album they ever put out. I followed each member s solo career almost as close. I picked up everything on George for about 5 years or so than I got so tied up with my career in the Army that my collecting stopped. I was a Disk Jockey on the weekends at Military Clubs from about 1975 to 1980. The moving from one location to another started to get a little expensive having my thousands of records transported as well so I sold off 98% of my collection. I started collecting CD s after being out of the service for a few years in the early 90 s and now have a very large CD collection. I have quiet a few Beatles and solo member CD s in my collection. This CD is positively one of my top 40 favorites in my collection of almost 1000.

My favorite songs on this CD are MY SWEET LORD , GIVE ME LOVE (GIVE ME PEACE ON EARTH) and one of my favorite Beatle songs SOMETHING . This album has 14 great songs with the only weak song in my opinion being Dark Horse . This is another great HITS CD that has a lot of good songs on it and well worth the money to purchase. As I have said before and will say again it s hard sometimes these days to find a hits CD with so many really good songs as most have 3 or more that really shouldn t even be on the CD at all. It s like in the last 5 to 10 years greatest hits CD s are rushed out quickly to make money and they just don t have enough good songs yet to really have a Best Of CD. My recommendation on this CD is that it is good for all ages, young and old alike. Beatles fan or don t even know who the Beatles are (heaven forbid). No violence, no drugs, no guns, no bad language and no sex or bad connotations that I can interpret. If you buy this CD someday I know you will love it. Thanks for dropping by once again to JAG s little corner of the community. Have A Wonderful and Safe Thanksgiving and God Bless You All, Ron.