In 1969, George Harrison finally earned his first Beatles A-side single with the beautiful “Something”. While ‘The Quiet Beatle’ also wrote the band’s classics “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Here Comes The Sun”, it was “Something” that made Paul McCartney and John Lennon aware of Harrison’s songwriting prowess. Oddly enough, Harrison’s masterpiece was influenced by the then-unknown songwriter James Taylor.
In 1968, Taylor auditioned in front of Paul McCartney and George Harrison for The Beatles’ newly-found label Apple Records. Not long before, the American songwriter was still playing in the New York band The Flying Machine with childhood friend Danny Kortchmar. Personal and professional problems, however, led to the disbandment of The Flying Machine.
“When that crashed and burned, I just decided to go to London,” Taylor reflected to Guitar World. “I arrived with my guitar and some songs and no plan at all, beyond trying to get some work in clubs and travel around Europe and see what I could see. I’d met some friends who were very encouraging about my music and got me into a little demo studio I found in the phone book.”
Taylor recorded a demo tape with original songs, which found its way to Peter Asher via Danny Kortchmar. Kortchmar knew Asher from his former band the King Bees, who once opened for Asher’s act Peter and Gordon. After Peter and Gordon broke up in 1968, Peter Asher started scouting talent for Apple Records. “Peter and his wife really heard something in my music. And he took me to Apple, where I played for George and Paul,” Taylor said.
In front of McCartney and Harrison, Taylor played his self-perceived best song “Something in the Way She Moves”. Impressed by Taylor’s performance, McCartney and Harrison permitted Peter Asher to sign Taylor to Apple Records. It made Taylor the first artist to sign with the label.
A few months after Taylor’s audition, George Harrison started working on the composition of what would become “Something”. Unable to come up with words for the song, Harrison decided to borrow the song’s title from the tune Taylor auditioned with. “I thought of trying to change the words, but they were the words that came when I first wrote it, so in the end I just left it as that, and just called it ‘Something,” Harrison later said.
Funnily enough, Taylor wanted to title “Something in the Way She Moves” after the song’s first chorus line “I Feel Fine”, but decided not to because of The Beatles’ hit single with the same name.
Harrison initially intended to give the song to Apple artist Jackie Lomax. He also gave the song to Joe Cocker, who later released it on his second studio album Joe Cocker! Fortunately, Harrison eventually decided to record the song himself for The Beatles’ studio album Abbey Road. According to sound engineer Geoff Emerick, Harrison had a smugness on his face when he took the song into the studio. “He knew it was absolutely brilliant. And for the first time, John and Paul knew that George had risen to their level.”
Paul McCartney and John Lennon agreed with Emerick and selected the song to be released as a single. It became Harrison’s first A-side single with The Beatles. Many covers followed, including one by Frank Sinatra, who called the song “the greatest love song of the past 50 years”.
The then-unknown James Taylor, who provided the lyrical start of ‘the greatest love song of the past 50 years’, went on the become one the best-selling songwriters of all time. While “Something in the Way She Moves” wasn’t as popular as some of Taylor’s later releases, the song will always hold a special place for lyrically inspiring The Beatles’ “Something”. “I had played this song for George and Paul as my audition and I think it had just sort of stuck in his mind,” Taylor stated. “I felt hugely flattered.”
