{"id":620297,"date":"2026-05-03T02:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T02:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/620297\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T02:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T02:16:12","slug":"on-this-day-in-1969-the-beatles-recorded-36-takes-of-this-george-harrison-penned-love-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/620297\/","title":{"rendered":"On This Day in 1969, The Beatles Recorded 36 Takes of This George Harrison-Penned Love Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Lennon and Paul McCartney are largely considered the \u201cbrains\u201d behind The Beatles\u2019 lyricism. Between October 1962 and May 1970, the duo penned about <\/a>180 jointly credited songs such as \u201cHelp!\u201d and \u201cEleanor Rigby\u201d. As a result, lead guitarist George Harrison often felt shut out of the creative process, which eventually contributed to him quitting the band for five days during rehearsals for what would become their final studio album, 1970\u2019s Let It Be. He returned, but insisted that his bandmates allow him more songwriting opportunities. On this day (May 2) in 1969, The Beatles recorded \u201cSomething\u201d, the song that proved Harrison\u2019s mettle as a lyricist.<\/p>\n

George Harrison Offered This Beatles Track to Joe Cocker<\/p>\n

Featured on The Beatles\u2019 landmark 1969 album Abbey Road, \u201cSomething\u201d was the band\u2019s first A-side written by George Harrison.<\/p>\n

The most widely accepted interpretation is that Harrison wrote it about his first wife, British model Pattie Boyd, although the ex-Beatle later went on to offer several varying accounts.<\/p>\n

John Lennon and Paul McCartney were initially dismissive of the Harrison composition, as was producer George Martin, who found it \u201ctoo weak and derivative.\u201d In March 1969, Harrison gave the song to Joe Cocker, who later recorded a demo at Apple.<\/p>\n

Later, Harrison played \u201cSomething\u201d for producer Chris Thomas while working on another song, \u201cPiggles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI said, \u2018That\u2019s great! Why don\u2019t we do that one instead?\u2019 and he replied, \u2018Do you like it, do you really think it\u2019s good?\u2019\u201d Thomas later recalled<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After recording 13 takes during an April 1969 recording session, the Fab Four reconvened on Abbey Road to remake \u201cSomething\u201d. The song required 36 takes<\/a>, and overall, the session lasted from 7 p.m. to 3:40 a.m. (with a three-hour break at 11 p.m.)<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, You Wrote That? I Thought It Was Lennon\/McCartney\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething\u201d topped the Hot 100 for one week in 1970. It has since been covered by everyone from Ray Charles to Frank Sinatra, the latter of whom used to introduce the track \u201cas his favorite Lennon\/McCartney song.\u201d<\/p>\n

[RELATED: 3 George Harrison Lyrics That Prove He Was the Most Underrated Songwriting Beatle]<\/a><\/p>\n

Sinatra wasn\u2019t alone. \u201cI met\u00a0Michael Jackson\u00a0somewhere at the BBC,\u201d George Harrison later recalled. \u201cThe fellow interviewing us made a comment about \u2018Something,\u2019 and Michael said: \u2018Oh, you wrote that? I thought it was a Lennon\/McCartney\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI first recognized that he really had a great talent when we did \u2018Here Comes the Sun,\u2019\u201d said <\/a>George Martin, the Beatles\u2019 longtime producer. \u201cBut when he brought in \u2018Something,\u2019 it was something else \u2026\u00a0It was a tremendous work\u00a0\u2013 and so simple.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Featured image by Keystone\/Getty Image<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Lennon and Paul McCartney are largely considered the \u201cbrains\u201d behind The Beatles\u2019 lyricism. Between October 1962 and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[24911,2617,88,10330,216,13979],"class_list":["post-620297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1960s","tag-classic-rock","tag-entertainment","tag-george-harrison","tag-music","tag-the-beatles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}