The Best of George Harrison is a 1976 compilation album by the English musician George Harrison, released following the expiration of his EMI-affiliated Apple Records contract. Uniquely among all of the four Beatles' solo releases, apart from posthumous compilations, it mixes a selection of the artist's songs recorded with the Beatles on one side, and later hits recorded under his own name on the other.
The song selection caused some controversy, since it underplayed Harrison's solo achievements during the 1970–1975 period, for much of which he had been viewed as the most successful ex-Beatle, artistically and commercially. Music critics have also noted the compilation's failure to provide a faithful picture of Harrison's contribution to the Beatles' work, due to the omission of any of his Indian music compositions. In a calculated move by EMI and its American subsidiary, Capitol Records, the compilation was issued during the same month as Harrison's debut on his Warner-distributed Dark Horse label, Thirty Three & ⅓.
In the United States, The Best of George Harrison peaked at number 31 on Billboards albums chart and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America in February 1977. The album failed to place on Britain's top 60 chart. It is the first of three hits-oriented Harrison compilation albums, and was followed by Best of Dark Horse 1976–1989 and the posthumously released Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison. The album was issued on CD in 1987 featuring the cover artwork from the original British release, rather than the design created in-house by Capitol and used in the majority of territories internationally in 1976. The compilation has yet to be remastered since this 1987 release.
Background Ray Coleman of Melody Maker observed in December 1976 that it was "somehow ironic" that EMI, having made "millions of pounds" from the Beatles' recordings, should put out The Best of George Harrison within days of George Harrison's debut release on Warner Bros.-distributed Dark Horse Records. The compilation was instigated by EMI's US counterpart, Capitol Records, a company with which Harrison had grown disaffected since August 1971,The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 44. due to what author Alan Clayson describes as its "avaricious dithering" over the release of the Concert for Bangladesh album.Clayson, George Harrison, p. 345. In a final effort to force Capitol to distribute that live album at cost price, to generate much-needed funds for the refugees from East Pakistan,Badman, p. 58. Harrison had gone public with the issue and embarrassed the label.Leng, p. 121.Richard Williams, "The Concert for Bangla Desh (album review)", Melody Maker, 1 January 1972; available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required; retrieved 10 August 2012).Madinger & Easter, p. 436.
On 26 January 1976,Badman, p. 175.Woffinden, p. 93. all the former Beatles' contracts with EMI/Capitol expired, and only Paul McCartney had chosen to re-sign with Capitol.Spizer, p. 194. The two record companies were now free to license releases featuring songs from the band's back catalogue and the individual members' solo work (except for McCartney's), without the need for artist's approval.Schaffner, pp. 186, 188.Rodriguez, pp. 124, 126. Following EMI's reissue of the entire Beatles UK singles catalogue in February that year,Woffinden, p. 94. Capitol's first venture under the new arrangement was to release a double album compilation, Rock 'n' Roll Music, along with accompanying singles. Issued in June 1976, Rock 'n' Roll Music contained 28 previously released tracks from throughout the Beatles' career.Badman, p. 186. John Lennon and Ringo Starr both expressed dissatisfaction with the compilation's running order, the reversion to a pre-1967 royalty rate for the band, and what Starr termed Capitol's "craphouse" packaging.Woffinden, pp. 94–95.Badman, p. 195.Clayson, Ringo Starr, p. 262. After the record company had promised "the largest selling campaign in the history of the music business", the album was a commercial success.
Late in 1975, EMI/Capitol had issued greatest-hits collections on the Apple Records imprint for Lennon and Starr – Shaved Fish and Blast from Your Past, respectively.Schaffner, p. 182. Since Lennon and Starr were still nominally Apple artists, they each had input into the content and packaging of their solo compilation,Doggett, p. 252. and Lennon, in particular, was active in promoting his album.Rodriguez, pp. 122–23. Shaved Fish and Blast from Your Past sold reasonably well, in America, but their sales failed to match record-company expectations.Schaffner, pp. 182, 188.Spizer, pp. 109, 335. For Harrison, there had been long delays between releases following the international success of his All Things Must Pass triple album in 1970–71,Woffinden, pp. 72, 83. due first to his commitment to the Bangladesh humanitarian aid projectClayson, George Harrison, pp. 315–16.Rodriguez, p. 51. and later to his production work for Dark Horse Records acts Splinter and Ravi Shankar.Anne Moore, "George Harrison on Tour – Press Conference Q&A", Valley Advocate, 13 November 1974; available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required; retrieved 28 November 2012).Madinger & Easter, p. 442. Harrison issued his final studio album for Apple in the autumn of 1975, Extra Texture (Read All About It).Leng, p. 178.Spizer, p. 275. As a result, by the time that Capitol came to prepare a compilation of his solo work the following year, he had effectively surrendered all artistic control over its content.
In the second half of 1976, thanks to the success of both Rock 'n' Roll Music and McCartney's world tour with his band Wings, the public's nostalgia for the Beatles was at a peak.Schaffner, pp. 186–87.Badman, pp. 190–91. Examples of this heightened interest included the increasingly generous offers from rival promoters Bill Sargent and Sid Bernstein for a one-off Beatles reunion concert;Carr & Tyler, pp. 118, 122.Badman, p. 191.Huntley, pp. 140–41. 20th Century Fox's musical documentary All This and World War II, for which, as with the 1974 stage play John, Paul, George, Ringo … and Bert, Harrison would refuse permission for any of his songs to appear;Badman, p. 196.Woffinden, p. 102. and Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel having a top-ten hit in the UK with a cover of Harrison's composition "Here Comes the Sun".Clayson, George Harrison, pp. 285, 362.Schaffner, pp. 171–72, 190. The planned Harrison greatest-hits compilation then became an experiment by Capitol whereby Beatles tracks were mixed with solo hits on the one album.Rodriguez, p. 126.Schaffner, p. 188. Harrison immediately disavowed the venture,Inglis, p. 65. he being the least attached to the band's legacy of all the former Beatles.Woffinden, pp. 83–84, 98.The Editors of Rolling Stone, p. 40.
Song selection To fill one side of the LP, Capitol selected Harrison-written songs that had been released by the Beatles between 1965 and 1970. A risk-free approach prevailed, commentators have noted, both with the unimaginative album title and with the predictable selection of songs. Nowhere was Indian music represented,Rodriguez, p. 127. a musical genre in which Harrison was deeply involved via his long association with Ravi Shankar,Philip Glass, foreword in Collaborations, p. 1. and which various authors, and Shankar himself,Shankar, pp. 101, 102.Collaborations, p. 11. credit Harrison with introducing to Western popular music.The Editors of Rolling Stone, pp. 34, 36."George Harrison biography" , rollingstone.com (retrieved 25 July 2014).Lavezzoli, pp. 172–73.Paul Theroux's introduction, in Olivia Harrison, p. 12. In this way, what McCartney has termed Harrison's "landmark" Indian compositions,Michael Simmons, "Paul McCartney on George Harrison: Part 2", Mojo, September 2011 (archived version retrieved 25 July 2014). "Within You, Without You" and "The Inner Light", were overlooked while "Taxman" received its second album release in six months (having been issued on Rock 'n' Roll Music).Schaffner, pp. 207, 209.Rodriguez, p. 125. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something" were also among the tracks selected, even though they had all appeared on the 1973 Beatles compilation 1967–1970.Castleman & Podrazik, p. 124.Rodriguez, pp. 121, 127.
Side two was made up of Harrison's biggest solo hits: "My Sweet Lord" and "What Is Life" from All Things Must Pass (1970), "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" from Living in the Material World (1973), the title track from Dark Horse (1974), and "You" from Extra Texture (1975). The sixth solo song was the non-album single "Bangla Desh", released in 1971.Rodriguez, p. 128.
Aside from the financial benefits of repackaging Beatles-era songs,Huntley, p. 140. part of the reason for Capitol reducing Harrison's mostly successful solo years thus far to six album tracks was due to the "lackluster" commercial fate of the Lennon and Starr compilations, author Nicholas Schaffner wrote in 1977. Another factor was Harrison's tendency to limit his single releases to a minimum: he had been reluctant to issue any single from All Things Must Pass originally,Badman, p. 15. and the scheduled second single from Material World, "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" – a "certain #1", in biographer Simon Leng's opinionLeng, p. 128. – was cancelled altogether.Madinger & Easter, pp. 440–41, 456. In addition, authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter write, a potentially offensive reference to the Catholic Church in "Awaiting on You All", from All Things Must Pass, prevented that song from "being the hit single it could have been otherwise".Madinger & Easter, p. 431. The big-hits requirement was not applied to the Beatles selections, only one of which, "Something", had been issued as the A-side of a single.
In November 1976, while promoting his new album, Thirty Three & ⅓,Clayson, George Harrison, p. 360. Harrison claimed that Capitol had ignored his suggested track list and alternative title for the collection. He compared the format unfavourably with the Starr and Lennon compilations, saying that "a lot of good songs" from his solo career could have appeared, rather than "digging into Beatles records".Badman, p. 197.