This is the second in hopefully an ongoing series of articles ranking every album from a range of artists that feature heavily in my collection, this time focused on George Harrison’s solo output.
The first piece looked at all the LPs by Michael Head and his previous bands Shack and The Pale Fountains and can be read here. However, that already needs updating with the release of Loophole earlier this year!
I’ve decided to limit these features to bands or singers who have released at least ten regular studio albums, and, crucially, only those whom I own all of them by.
As is often the case, the records I’ve lived with the longest can tend to out-rank the ones that have come to me more recently. This may be partly due to sensible purchasing habits of getting the more well-respected ones first, but also somewhat due to familiarity boosting my opinions.
Interestingly (to me, at least) six of these twelve GH LPs were released in the month of November, no doubt in an attempt to benefit from the traditional Christmas uplift in sales. That compares to just two of Ringo Starr’s twenty studio albums and two of The Beatles’ original twelve.
Feel free to skip to the ‘my history and opinion’ section of each album if you want to avoid getting bogged down in the lengthy ‘key players’ sections.
To cut to the chase entirely, my ranking of George albums is:
12. Electronic Sound (1967)
11. Wonderwall Music (1968)
10. Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975)
9. Living In The Material World (1973)
8. Gone Troppo (1982)
7. Dark Horse (1974)
6. Brainwashed (2002)
5. Somewhere In England (1981)
4. George Harrison (1979)
3. Cloud Nine (1987)
2. Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976)
1. All Things Must Pass (1970)
My history with the artist
My George Harrison CD collection
The Beatles were one of my very first musical loves, with 1966 compilation A Collection Of Beatles Oldies (But Goldies!) being the first ever proper album I bought, in the summer of 1982 for just 50p from the Record & Tape Exchange in Camden.
That gets a shout-out in my look back at My Early Musical Journey (1970-1987), in case you’re a glutton for more of my back story.
George became my favourite of the four for a while, partly as our birthdays are just one day apart, and I had quite a few of his solo albums by the end of the decade, as will be revealed through this piece.
When I looked back at a C90 tape I’d made in around 1986/7 called The Best Of The Beatles – 28 All-Time Classic Tracks in early 2022 for the highly-recommended Teatles fanzine (nay magazine) I discovered that eight of those songs were by George, almost certainly higher than it would be if I repeated the exercise now.
Apart from the main LPs (and some associated discs also mentioned), I have four other George discs in my racks, firstly the then-just-released posthumous Early Takes Volume 1 that I got as an anniversary gift from My Beloved Wife in July 2012 (who it turns out is a key provider of my GH CD’s!), along with albums by Ultravox!, The Monochrome Set and Dinosaur Jr., amongst others.
I burnt a CD in November 2020 of the Pirate Songs bootleg off a memory stick given to me by my American friend Bobby who’s a massive fabs’ nut too. This 1995 release has material from across his career. My most recent addition is a Live In Vancouver bootleg from the opening night of his ill-fated 1974 tour.
The other George album I have is the double Live In Japan recorded in December 1991 that I only got round to picking up from a Discogs seller in November 2017.
I’ve got a total of 31 CDs’ worth of George material, which puts him at #10 artist ranked within my collection, but of course he also features on the 184 (!) CDs I have by his former band, who are comfortably at number one.
Books and DVDs
I ‘only’ have four George-focused books – there are a few others out there, but not nearly as many as about either John or Paul.
I also ought to mention the multi-artist The Concert For Bangla Desh from 1971 that was led by George (who performs nine songs across the two discs), which I bought from HMV in Richmond in a two-for-£22 deal in May 2002 alongside Wings Over America and albums by Eva Cassidy and Alison Krauss & Union Station.
Another notable George-related double is of course the Concert For George tribute recorded at the Royal Albert Hall in November 2002. Although issued a year later, I didn’t get it until December 2021 when I paid musicMagpie £6.07 for it.
Finally, I should note the Traveling Wilburys albums. I had Volume One on CD for many years before replacing this with The Traveling Wilburys Collection from Amazon in July 2007 for £11.48. This 2-disc set also includes Vol.3, some bonus tracks and a DVD.
The key players
As well as describing my history with each LP and my overall opinions, I’ve also detailed where the various other musicians involved feature in the rest of my racks. There’s a lot of people involved, many of whom have multiple entries in my collection!
Jim Keltner drums on seven of these records, as well as both Traveling Wilburys albums as Buster Sidebury. He’s also worked with John, Yoko and Ringo, also being scattered through my collection on LPs by the likes of Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan, Conor Oberst and Lucinda Williams.
Willie Weeks plays bass on six of these albums, also appearing on Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions and albums by Randy Newman, David Bowie and John Mellencamp that I have.
Billy Preston features on five LPs. He’s obviously in my racks on Let It Be (and various associated boots), as well as through his two Apple albums, The Complete Vee-Jay Recordings and by playing on many other records, including ones by John, Ringo, The Rolling Stones, Johhny Cash and Neil Diamond.
Drummer Ray Cooper is also on five GH records. He’s on four Elton John albums I have, Macca’s Press To Play, and other stuff by the likes of Ringo, Nilsson and Roy Orbison.
There are two other musicians who play on four George albums, saxophonist Tom Scott (who can also be heard in several other spots in my collection, including Ringo, Steely Dan, Tim Buckley and Jimmy Webb) and Klaus Voormann on bass, who is scattered elsewhere on my shelves, including as part of Manfred Mann as well as Lou Reed and Van Dyke Parks LPs.
12. Electronic Sound (1969)
Electronic Sound
History and charts
George’s second solo album was released in May 1969 on the experimental Zapple label and amazingly managed to trouble the US chart compilers, peaking at a lofty #191 during its two-week stay. Less surprisingly, it failed to chart in the UK.
The personnel
It is just two side-long pieces performed on a Moog 3-series synthesizer, with Harrison owning only the third one ever imported into the UK.
Side one is Under The Mersey Wall, recorded at his house Kinfauns in Esher in February 1969, and is marginally preferable to the longer No Time Or Space, allegedly a recording of Bernie Krause demonstrating the Moog to Harrison in Los Angeles in November 1968, without his consent.
Back cover
The Moog was later used quite extensively, and much more tunefully on Abbey Road.
My history and opinion
I only got round to adding this to my collection when I received it for my birthday in 2019 from My Beloved Wife, along with a whole host of other musical goodies including a Roy Acuff box set, new albums by Bob Mould and The Long Ryders and Arthur Alexander and Gladys Knight & The Pips compilations.
I quite like the cover, with the two sides apparently both being from a larger artwork created by Harrison himself.
I’d say it’s an album worth listening to by any fabs obsessive, as long as you’re not expecting anything approaching a tune. However, both The Chemical Brothers and Julian Cope have cited it as an influence.
11. Wonderwall Music (1968)
Wonderwall Music
History and charts
This was George’s first ever solo album, released in November 1968, three weeks before the White Album, to far lesser commercial success.
As well as being the first solo album by any of the fab four, it was also the first Apple Records LP.
It reached as high as #49 in the US, failing to enter the UK charts. Amazingly, it breached the Top 30 in both Germany and Canada.
It’s a soundtrack to a film I’ve not yet managed to see, but which sounds like a typically bizarre late 60’s movie, as detailed in the excellent The Beatles Films Podcast.
The personnel
A lot of the mostly very short pieces are Indian, recorded in Bombay, while members of The Remo Four (including Colin Manley and Tony Ashton, who’s also in my collection on Wings’ Back To The Egg) feature on several of the Western tunes, with Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr both playing on Ski-ing.
Inner sleeve
Instruments featured include the oboe-like shehnai, a bow-played string instrument called the tar shehnai and the sarod, closest in Western music to a lute.
Apparently, George was approached to write the soundtrack after the first choice Bee Gees became unavailable. I expect theirs would have been a very different contribution!
He was given carte blanche to do what he liked, but the £600 budget he was allocated was well and truly blown, with Harrison subsidising the rest of the £15,000 cost himself.
John Barham did the orchestral arrangements, as he then did on All Things Must Pass as well as working on Billy Preston’s That’s The Way God Planned It and John Lennon’s Imagine. Big Jim Sullivan plays bass on On The Bed – I have his version of Within You Without You from 1967 on the triple Looking Through A Glass Onion – The Beatles’ Psychedelic Songbook 1966-72 CD.
My history and opinion
I got this as a Valentine’s gift from My Beloved Wife in 2018, along with a Buck Owens comp and The Blue Beat Explosion! The Birth Of Ska.
My favourite cuts are the honky-tonk ragtime Drilling A Home, two fast-paced Indian pieces in Gat Kirwani and Glass Box, Party Seacombe that recalls the fabs’ instrumental Flying and contemporary Pink Floyd, and the Tony Ashton-led Wonderwall To Be Here.
Overall, it’s quite a hodgepodge and doesn’t really flow as an album all that well. One for completists only again, I’d say.
10. Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975)
Extra Texture (Read All About It)
History and charts
His sixth album came out in September 1975, being the last studio LP released by Apple.
It seems to be the least spiritually focused of any of his (vocal) records, perhaps suggesting his sense of being lost and uncertain of his place following the debacle of the Dark Horse tour in 1974.
It has more of a soul influence than his other records, being mostly recorded in Los Angeles. The album peaked at #8 in the US and #16 in the UK.
The personnel
David Foster was a key collaborator on this record, also playing on some Ringo records, Michael Jackson’s Off The Wall and Thriller (including both Macca-related tracks), Flowers In The Dirt and a whole host of less interesting MOR.
Jesse Ed Davis plays guitar on half the album, having previously played at The Concert For Bangla Desh. He’s also in my collection on records by John, Ringo, Gene Clark, Bryan Ferry and Daughters Of Albion, amongst many others.
Side one label
Leon Russell plays piano on three cuts, another veteran of the Bangla Desh concerts. I have his eponymous debut album, while he’s also on records by The Byrds, The Beach Boys, Frank Sinatra and Badfinger that I own, and lots more besides.
Chuck Findley plays trumpet and trombone on some songs. He’s also on some Steely Dan albums I have, as well as ones by Ringo, The Rolling Stones, Rickie Lee Jones, Tom Waits and Neil Young.
Jim Horn, a fine example of nominative determinism, blows sax on a couple of different tracks, and I can also hear him on Pet Sounds, albums by McCartney, Starr, Van Dyke Parks and Buffalo Springfield.
Drums are shared by Jim Keltner, Jim Gordon (who’s on records by John, Yoko, The Beau Brummels, Emitt Rhodes, Art Garfunkel and Judee Sill that I own) and Andy Newmark, who also played with John and Yoko, Randy Newman, ABC and on David Bowie’s Young Americans.
Bassist Carl Radle who appears on two songs was born on the exact same day as Paul McCartney, being part of the band Colours, whose self-titled 1968 album I have. He also spent a long time playing with Eric Clapton, but I’ll try not to hold that against him.
Inner sleeve
Other musicians include Billy Preston, Tom Scott, Nicky Hopkins (who’s on records by The Who, The Kinks, The Rolling Stones and all three other Beatles – and the band themselves’ Revolution – and plenty more in my collection), “Legs” Larry Smith from Bonzo Dog Doo/Dah Band, who also features on songs by Elton John and John Cale in my racks, Norm Kinney (who engineered stuff by Carole King and Carpenters that I own) and Willie Weeks.
My history and opinion
This was one of those albums I never got round to getting in my first phase of vinyl-focused fabs passion, only getting it via Amazon for £8.81 in April 2013, also getting Ron Sexsmith’s thirteenth LP Forever Endeavour in the same parcel.
My favourite songs are the lead single You (a Top 20 hit in the US, Top 10 in Canada but only #38 in the UK), This Guitar (Can’t Keep From Crying) (the second single, and the last from the initial incarnation of Apple, which failed to chart on either side of the pond) and Can’t Stop Thinking About You (written while his marriage to Pattie was collapsing, around the time he was having an affair with Ringo’s wife Maureen). Sadly, the album has too many pretty forgettable numbers.
You was actually first recorded by Ronnie Spector in 1971 for a proposed Apple album, but this recording remains unreleased and (amazingly) unleaked.
9. Living In The Material World (1973)
Living In The Material World
History and charts
The follow-up to All Things Must Pass (and then the multi-artist The Concert For Bangla Desh), this came out in May 1973, hitting the top spot in the US, Canada, Australia, Belgium and Spain.
It was only kept from #1 in the UK by the soundtrack to That’ll Be The Day, the film that featured his ex-bandmate Ringo in a major supporting role.
The personnel
The core musicians were Nicky Hopkins, Jim Keltner, Gary Wright (whose first two solo albums I have on a twofer I got for Christmas 2014 from guess who, while he’s also on Nilsson Schmilsson and Ringo and The Move albums I have) and Klaus Voormann.
Inner sleeve
Other contributors include Badfinger lead singer Pete Ham (whose posthumous 7 Park Avenue album I have, as well as Badfinger’s own releases, while he also plays on Nilsson and Ringo tunes I own), Ringo, Jim Gordon, Leon Russell and Jim Horn.
My history and opinion
This is another record I never got until much later on, picking up a version with two bonus tracks from Amazon in July 2008 for £7.73.
My favourites are the rather groovy title track (with its nice tabla and very 70’s sax solo) and three of the opening four cuts – the somewhat croaky Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) which has hints of Dylan’s I Want You in it and some lovely, subtler-than-usual slide guitar playing (a US #1 single that also hit the Top 10 in the UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, Norway and the Netherlands), the tart Sue Me, Sue You Blues and Don’t Let Me Wait Too Long.
However, I’d also like to extend a nod to the lyrics of The Light That Has Lighted The World, such as “The thoughts in their heads manifest on their brow” and “It’s funny how people just won’t accept change, as if nature itself they’d prefer re-arranged.”
This album would rank a lot higher if side two was as strong as side one!
Gone Troppo
8. Gone Troppo (1982)
History and charts
This LP completely missed the chart in his homeland upon its November 1982 release, and only hit #108 in the US, making it his poorest-performing standard LP ever.
The personnel
There are several drummers on this record – Ray Cooper, Jim Keltner, Dave Mattacks (who can be found on Macca, Nick Drake, John Martyn, XTC and The Chills albums in my collection) and Henry Spinetti (who’s also on Paul’s CHOBA B CCCP).
Keyboard players include Billy Preston, Mike Moran, Neil Larsen (who is on Leonard Cohen and Rickie Lee Jones LPs I have), Jon Lord (whom I have on tracks by The Kinks and Ride, if not any Deep Purple or Whitesnake) and Gary Brooker (who plays on Procol Harum stuff I own, as well as Kate Bush’s Aerial, Wings’ Back To The Egg and at the Concert For George).
Herbie Flowers appears on bass (also playing on Paul, Ringo, David Bowie and Lou Reed albums on my shelves), with Joe Brown (whose double The Joe Brown Story comp I have, while he’s also on Billy Fury’s excellent debut LP The Sound Of Fury I own) also on the record, with “Legs” Larry Smith designing the cover.
Back cover
Those adding vocals include Willie Greene and Bobby King, who both appear on Jennifer Warnes’ Famous Blue Raincoat album of Leonard Cohen covers, with the latter also on LPs by Richard Thompson and Bruce Springsteen.
Also singing is Joe’s wife Vicki Brown (formerly of The Vernons Girls and The Breakaways, who also pipes up on a Bryan Ferry album I have) and Syreeta, who is on several Stevie Wonder albums.
My history and opinion
I had this on vinyl back in the late 1980’s but didn’t get round to acquiring it on CD until July 2013 when I got the version with one bonus track via Amazon for £6.04.
That’s The Way It Goes is my favourite song (complete with some subtle bass vocal backing by Willie Greene), with the remarkably peppy, synth-heavy opener Wake Up My Love (the first single off the record, failing to chart in the UK and peaking at #53 in the US) and Mystical One also strong numbers, with the latter featuring Joe Brown on mandolin and it’s slightly unusual line, “I’m happier than a willow tree”.
While I understand it was never all that likely to be a massive chart smash due to George’s status in the pop world at the time, despite his previous LP being a hit, his complete lack of promotion for it didn’t help one bit.
7. Dark Horse (1974)
Dark Horse
History and charts
This was released in December 1974, in the midst of his poorly-received American tour when he was suffering from laryngitis, heavily featured Ravi Shankar in the shows and treated the few Beatles songs he performed with less reverence than was expected.
It made it as high as #4 in the US but failed to chart in the UK. Quite the discrepancy.
It also made the Top 10 in Austria, Norway and the Netherlands. The title track made #15 in the US but was his first single not to chart in the UK.
The personnel
Plenty of the usual suspects are on this record, including Ringo, Billy Preston, Jim Keltner, Nicky Hopkins, Klaus Voormann, Tom Scott, Gary Wright and Willie Weeks.
Guitarist Robben Ford also played on Famous Blue Raincoat as well as Bob Dylan’s Under The Red Sky.
Back cover
This was the first of three GH albums that percussionist Emil Richards appeared on, while he’s also on Frank Sinatra, Emitt Rhodes, Van Dyke Parks, Marvin Gaye, Dion, Blondie, Bee Gees and Judee Sill LPs I have!
Also banging and hitting things was John Guerin, who’s also on LPs I have by The Beach Boys, Phil Everly, Art Garfunkel, Nilsson, Gram Parsons, Todd Rundgren and Frank Zappa.
Ronnie Wood, Alvin Lee from Ten Years After and Foreigner’s Mick Jones all contribute guitar. I don’t think I have anything featuring the latter two, but I have Ronnie Wood on albums by Faces, Rod Stewart, Kinky Friedman, Rick Danko, The Creation, David Bowie, Bob Dylan and Ringo – but not the Stones, perhaps contrarily.
Max Bennett plays bass on two tracks, a musician who’s also on Don Everly, Michael Nesmith, The Monkees, Frank Zappa and Art Garfunkel records in my racks, while Lon & Derrek Van Eaton contributed some vocals, also having done so on Ringo.
My history and opinion
This is an album I had never heard until I got it from 101cd.com for £5.99 in March 2003.
For me, the best numbers are the country-esque Simply Shady that namechecks Sexy Sadie, Māya Love (described by GH as “purely a slide guitar tune with the words added later,” though it’s Billy Preston’s electric piano that makes the song for me), the rather slight Dong Dong, Ding Dong, which suffers from vocal strain (creeping into the Top 40 singles chart on both sides of the Atlantic) and the title track (whose unusual arrangement includes a trio of flutes and a percussion instrument called a crochet).
This LP gets a lot of love from some corners of his fan base, but for me it’s one of his lesser works, as can be seen by its place at the top of the bottom half of this ranking. I find So Sad to be particularly uninspiring and gloomy, with the whole album really in need of a shot of something to dial it up a notch – rather ironic, considering the alleged heavy cocaine use at this time.
6. Brainwashed (2002)
Brainwashed
History and charts
Recordings for this album began over a decade before his death, but overdubs were completed by his son Dhani, Jim Keltner and Jeff Lynne following his demise in November 2001.
His 1990’s were fairly tumultuous as he suffered a frenzied knife attack at home and battled throat cancer, then later succumbing to lung cancer.
The album reached #18 in the US and #29 in the UK when it was issued in November 2002. It made the Top 10 in Norway and the Top 20 in Germany and Sweden.
The personnel
I have two Electric Light Orchestra collections which obviously greatly feature Jeff Lynne, while I also have The Best Of Idle Race Featuring Jeff Lynne and he’s also represented in some way on stuff I have by The Beatles, The Move, Tinkerbells Fairydust, Brian Wilson, Randy Newman and Duane Eddy, and many more.
Other contributors included Joe Brown and his daughter Sam (who can also be heard on songs by Kevin Rowland And Dexys Midnight Runners and Jools Holland & His Rhythm & Blues Orchestra in my collection), Mike Moran, Herbie Flowers, Ray Cooper and Jon Lord.
Jools Holland plays piano on Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea, a song originally recorded by Cab Calloway way back in 1931. As well as his album that features Sam Brown (and a George-sung tune, hence its presence in my collection), Jools is also on some Squeeze records I have, as well as ones by The The, Alternative TV and Paul Weller.
My history and opinion
CD label
I got this a month after it came out for a pretty hefty £14 from Mister CD in Soho on a day I also returned home with a few albums by female singers from Virgin on Oxford Street, including Gemma Hayes and The Be Good Tanyas.
This is a very consistent album, without as many real peaks as the ones higher up the list. Opener, the countrified Any Road (his most recent single release which hit #37 in the UK) is my pick of them all.
The groovy P2 Vatican Blues (Last Saturday Night) is one of his many songs to reference his lapsed Catholic faith but is a real toe-tapper. Rising Sun has perhaps a little too much slide guitar, but also some nice Beatle-y orchestration, while the title track has more nasal than usual vocals as George sounds quite a lot like his old mate Bob Dylan, a short yoga aphorism read by Izabela Borzymowska and a very Indian outro.
The mellow Stuck Inside A Cloud was placed as track seven by Dhani as it was his favourite on the album, with George apparently always placing his preferred song at that point on his LPs. That would suggest his favourites on my five top albums of his are That Which I Have Lost, Dark Sweet Lady, Devil’s Radio, True Love and Behind That Locked Door. I definitely don’t agree with him!
5. Somewhere In England (1981)
History and charts
Somewhere In England
This was originally rejected by his record label Warner Bros., with four tracks replaced before it was accepted, one of which was All Those Years Ago, his tribute to John Lennon who had been killed in the meantime.
That tune features Ringo on drums, with vocal contributions from Paul, Linda and Denny Laine, making it the first song to feature Paul, George and Ringo since I Me Mine from 1970.
That song reached #2 for three weeks in the US (behind Bette Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes), hitting the same spot in Norway. It peaked at #13 in the UK, reaching the Top 10 in Australia, Canada, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland.
The LP was issued in June 1981, reaching #13 in the UK, his highest charting album since Living In The Material World, also just missing the Top 10 in the US and several other countries.
CD reissue cover
The personnel
Many of the regulars returned in the form of Willie Weeks, Herbie Flowers, Jim Keltner, Tom Scott and Ray Cooper.
The legendary Al Kooper is also on keyboards. I have the Super Session album from 1968 that he recorded with Stephen Stills and Mike Bloomfield, while he was also a member of The Blues Project, whose first two LPs I also own.
He’s also scattered through my collection on stuff by Bob Dylan, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Green On Red and Ringo, amongst others.
My history and opinion
Another album I originally had on vinyl, which I bought the remastered CD of with a bonus track, again from Amazon, for £10.45 in January 2009.
All Those Years Ago is of course a poptastic highlight, with opener Blood From A Clone (complete with slightly farty synths and rather bitter lyrics), Teardrops (the second single that only made #102 in the US, getting nowhere at all in the UK), the bopping That Which I Have Lost, Hoagy Carmichael’s Hong Kong Blues and the closing, ecological Save The World (with great brass work and sound effects, and great words like “We’ve got to save the whale, Greenpeace they’ve tried to diffuse it, but dog food salesmen persist on kindly to harpoon it”) other strong songs.
Interestingly, all four of the replacement songs feature in my five favourites, so either the record label was right, or their rejection of the album galvanised George into upping his game a little.
In fact, the four dumped songs have crept out, three on limited releases that I don’t have, so I’m not very familiar with most of them. However, on recently listening to them all I’d say they all deserve something a little better, although I don’t think any of them are amongst his first-tier songs, with Tears Of The World that appeared as a bonus track on the Thirty Three & 1/3 CD the pick of them, and I believe the changes made to the album improved it.
4. George Harrison (1979)
George Harrison
History and charts
This album was recorded while he got married to Olivia and became a father for the first (and only) time. It peaked at #39 in the UK and #14 in the US after being released in February 1979.
The personnel
Several familiar faces like Ray Cooper, Emil Richards and Willie Weeks were involved, while the record also features Steve Winwood who used to be in both The Spencer Davis Group and Traffic who are in my racks, as well as playing with the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Lou Reed and Talk Talk. His great mate Eric Clapton also plays on one tune.
Del Newman did the string and horn arrangements, also being represented on my shelves on songs by Cat Stevens, Elton John and Nilsson.
Back cover
Gayle Levant plays the harp, as she did on Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle, also appearing on the Grease soundtrack album and material by Randy Newman, The Chills, Dennis Wilson, Wings and Tom Waits that I have, and more.
My history and opinion
I had an original cassette of this back in the day, replacing it with a CD (again, with one bonus track) when I received it for Christmas from My Beloved Wife in 2009, a year that she brought me a whole host of other musical goodies including most of the remastered Beatles CDs and albums by Au Pairs, The Nightingales and Ella Fitzgerald.
Opening single Blow Away (a Top 20 hit in the US, but only going to #51 in the UK – I once bought the 7” second hand) which closes side one is probably the pick of the songs (I especially love the phrasing in the chorus of “All I got to do is to, to love you. All I got to be is, be happy”), but second single Love Comes To Everyone, Not Guilty (originally recorded back in 1968 by The Beatles, a version that is unsurprisingly even better), third single Faster (which failed to chart in the UK or US, like its predecessor) and the final two cuts, the gorgeous Soft Touch and If You Believe, are also excellent.
If I was including the Traveling Wilburys albums in this ranking, then Volume One would slot in right at this point. For the very curious amongst you, the follow-up Vol. 3 would sit between Dark Horse and Brainwashed.
3. Cloud Nine (1987)
History and charts
Cloud Nine
Although the album peaked at #8 in the US and #10 in the UK it sold more copies in both markets than any of his albums since All Things Must Pass, including over a million in the US.
Got My Mind Set On You spent four weeks at #2 in the UK, kept off the top spot by T’Pau’s overwrought China In Your Hand. It made #1 in the US, Australia, Canada and Ireland, also making the Top 10 in many other countries.
Second single When We Was Fab (which used to be in my singles box) made the Top 30 on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as Canada and Ireland, with the final 7” issued being This Is Love, which only made #55 in the UK, not charting in the US Hot 100.
The personnel
Jeff Lynne co-produced the record with George, also playing and singing on it a lot. Other big names to feature were Eric Clapton and Elton John, while some of the usual suspects appeared such as Jim Horn, Gary Wright and drummers Ray Cooper, Jim Keltner and Ringo Starr. Also appearing was cellist Bobby Kok, who also played on Hey Jude.
Back cover
My history and opinion
I recorded a Simon Bates With George Harrison show off BBC Radio 1 three days before the album came out.
I bought the cassette on day of release in November 1987, also getting Paul McCartney’s All The Best! comp on tape on the same day.
I played those cassettes an awful lot over the next year at least.
I then recorded an hour-long On Cloud Nine show off Radio 1 a month after the album came out. Both those tapes are still in my old cassette cases in the garage.
I got the album again for Christmas in 2013 from My Beloved Wife, a remastered version with two extra cuts, replacing a normal CD version.
She also gifted me Yoko Ono’s Approximately Infinite Universe, the fabs’ On Air – Live At The BBC Volume 2 and a box set of albums by The Fall, amongst others that day.
I’ve also now got a triple CD bootleg called Cloud Nine Mixing Desk courtesy of an extremely generous poster on the Facebook page of the wonderful Nothing Is Real Beatles podcast.
My favourites are the three singles, narrowly ahead of the title track, Fish On The Sand, Devil’s Radio and Wreck Of The Hesperus.
Overall, the album suffers slightly to my ears from its very 80’s/Jeff Lynne production style, but the songs still manage to shine through.
Thirty Three & 1/3
2. Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976)
History and charts
This record made it to #11 in the US but only #35 in the UK upon its November 1976 release.
Three singles were released from it in the UK (with none charting) and two in the US.
The personnel
Regulars include Tom Scott, Billy Preston, Gary Wright, Emil Richards and Willie Weeks, with other returnees including David Foster,
Richard Tee plays some keys, also playing on Aretha Franklin’s Amazing Grace, additionally appearing in my collection with Daryl Hall/John Oates, Billy Joel, Peter Gabriel, Nina Simone and Art Garfunkel as well as on Ringo The 4th.
My history and opinion
Another LP I used to have on vinyl, but one I didn’t get on shiny disc until I picked up the remastered version with a bonus track from the Music & Video Exchange in Notting Hill for £8 in April 2009, also picking up the self-titled The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart album at the same time.
This has my favourite cover of all of his albums, not that it really counts for much, but he has a pretty poor set of album sleeve images over the years.
Inner gatefold
My two favourite songs are This Song (#25 in the US, failed to chart in the UK and incorporates the voice of Eric Idle) and It’s What You Value (the third UK single).
There’s plenty more really good numbers on the LP, notably the opening trio (Woman Don’t You Cry For Me, Dear One and Beautiful Girl) and another run of three on side two (Cole Porter’s True Love, which was the rather surprising choice for second UK single, Pure Smokey and Crackerbox Palace, which hit #19 in the US singles chart).
1. All Things Must Pass (1970)
History and charts
All Things Must Pass
A no-doubt-highly-unsurprising choice as my number one, this remains by far his most commercially successful album.
It was issued in November 1970, hitting #1 in the UK, US, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, Norway and Sweden, being certified seven times platinum in America, meaning it has sold at least seven million units there.
This is a triple album, including a standard double LP of songs and a third disc of jams, which may test the patience of some more casual listeners, but still has much to like about it and isn’t something I typically skip over.
As wasn’t that unusual at the time, only one single was pulled from this in the UK, with My Sweet Lord topping the charts both here and in the US, as well as a multitude of other countries. It was in fact the biggest selling single of the year in his homeland.
My Sweet Lord was also the second biggest seller of 1971 in both Australia (behind Eagle Rock by local band Daddy Cool. Me neither.) and Austria – being outsold there by Hier Ist Ein Mensch by Vienna-born Peter Alexander, another record I’m not at all familiar with.
What Is Life was the second single in the US, having been the b-side to My Sweet Lord in the UK, hitting #10. It made it to #1 in Australia in Switzerland, also going Top 10 in many other places.
The personnel
30th anniversary reissue cover
There’s a humungous number of people playing on this album, with many of the usual suspects starting their GH journey here, such as Eric Clapton, Billy Preston, Gary Wright, Klaus Voormann and Ringo, while John and Yoko add handclaps to one of the tracks on the Apple Jam disc.
There’s a couple of other very famous names on here, Peter Frampton and Cream’s Ginger Baker. Frampton also features in my racks on songs by Ringo, Nilsson and Tim Hardin, as well as the Grease soundtrack, while Baker’s on things I have by The Graham Bond Organisation, Billy Preston and Macca.
Others to appear include Bobby Whitlock, Jim Price and Bobby Keys, who are all also on Exile On Main St., with Keys also on stuff by Gary Wright, Graham Nash, Nilsson, Warren Zevon, John, Ringo, Yoko and several others that I own.
Pete Drake plays some pedal steel, also appearing on three Dylan albums as well as Ringo’s Beaucoups Of Blues, Tammy Wynette’s Stand By Your Man and Simon And Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water as well as things by both Elvis Presley and Costello.
Dave Mason from Traffic is one of the countless guitarists on this LP. He’s also in my collection on songs by Family, Jimi Hendrix, The Rolling Stones, Graham Nash and Wings. Also on board are the whole of the classic Badfinger line-up.
Alan White (later of prog behemoths Yes) drums, as he also does on two John Lennon albums, also featuring on Terry Reid, Billy Preston and Gary Wright records I have.
My history and opinion
This was one of the very first George albums I ever acquired, no doubt getting the triple vinyl set as a birthday or Christmas gift back in the mid-1980’s as it would have been pretty pricey.
Side six label
I got a CD copy of it fairly soon in my digital journey, but I foolishly parted with that version once I got the remastered version (with five bonus tracks) from HMV in Richmond for £14.99 in September 2001, as I now want to get hold of the original CD version again as that mix is quite different.
I also bought Syd Barrett’s Opel, The Specials’ debut, a Roots Manuva album and Quadrophenia – Original Soundtrack from HMV that day.
That’s far from where my collection ends relating to this album, as I burnt copies of three bootlegs from Bobby’s memory stick over 2020-21, 1994’s Beware Of ABKCO! and Songs For Patti [sic], and the triple The Making Of All Things Must Pass from three years later.
Finally, My Beloved Wife gave me the 5-CD All Things Must Pass – 50th Anniversary for my birthday in 2022, along with albums by Cat Power, Eels, Professor Longhair and Tom Tom Club.
This is one my very favourite ever records. If you exclude the third disc of jams, then it would just squeeze into my My Top 25 Albums Of All Time, but that would be cheating. It’s definitely in my Top 100, with only Band On The Run outranking it amongst solo Beatles output.
There’s nothing approaching a poor song on this album, but my absolute favourites are Isn’t It A Pity (Version One), Beware Of Darkness (which was the song I featured on my Best Of 1970 double CD, as discussed in detail here) and the title track.
It’s really ridiculous to pick a favourite side of this record, but it might well be side four – I Dig Love, Art Of Dying, Isn’t It A Pity (Version Two) and Hear Me Lord. But that might well change the next time I listen to this masterpiece.
Next time
The subject of the next feature in this series is yet to be decided but will probably be somebody American based on the likeliest options. Stay tuned.
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Playlist
Here are highlights from all of these albums on Spotify:
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