In 1970, after The Beatles broke up, George Harrison released his first solo single “My Sweet Lord”. The song was part of his triple album “All Things Must Pass” and became a massive commercial success. It topped the charts in over 15 countries and was the first number 1 hit by an ex-Beatle. In this article, we will dive into the meaning, story, and legacy behind George Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord”.
The Origin of the Song
According to George Harrison, the idea behind “My Sweet Lord” was to write a Western pop equivalent of a mantra (words repeated frequently to aid concentration in meditation). He was inspired to write the song after hearing the Edwin Hawkins Singers’ version of “Oh Happy Day”.
“It really just knocked me out, the idea of that song and I just felt a great feeling of the Lord,” Harrison reflected. “So I thought, I’ll write another ‘Oh Happy Day’, which became ‘My Sweet Lord”.
Harrison started writing the song in December 1969 in Copenhagen, Denmark, when he was a guest artist for Delaney & Bonnie. While the other band members attended a press conference, he bailed out and started playing around with chord changes over the words “Hallelujah” and “Hare Krishna”.
Harrison was initially hesitant about writing the song because of its religious overtone. “Many people fear the words ‘Lord’ and ‘God’—makes them angry for some strange reason,” Harrison stated. He decided to write to song anyway in order to be true to himself. “It was what I felt, and why should I be untrue to myself? I came to believe in the importance that if you feel something strong enough then you should say it.”
The Meaning of the Song
“My Sweet Lord” is a song about George Harrison’s deep desire to connect with the divine. The song reflects his interest in Eastern spirituality, particularly Hinduism.
Harrison gained interest in Indian Culture in the mid-1960s, when he received The Complete Illustrated Book of Yoga by Swami Vishnudevananda during the filming of The Beatles’ Help! in the Bahamas. Thereafter, he made several trips to India to explore Indian music (especially the sitar) and Hinduism. Harrison became a lifelong devotee of Hare Krishna.
The lyrics of the song are relatively simple, giving it a universal appeal. The backing vocals of the song feature the Hebrew phrase Hallelujah and the Hare Krishna mantra. Harrison decided to use both phrases to showcase that they’re ‘quite the same thing’. At the end of the song, Harrison cites another ancient prayer, which serves as a dedication to a spiritual teacher.
Plagiarism
In 1971, Bright Tunes Music sued George Harrison, claiming that “My Sweet Lord” was too similar to the Chiffons’ 1963 hit “He’s So Fine”. The lawsuit was delayed by Bright Tunes’ financial troubles and went to trial in 1976. The court ruled Harrison unintentionally copied the song and was guilty of subconscious plagiarism. Bright Tunes Music was awarded $1.6 million in damages.
But the case didn’t end there. Because Harrison’s former manager Allen Klein – who negotiated with Bright Tunes Music on Harrison’s behalf in the early 1970s – decided to purchase Bright Tunes Music in 1978. After purchasing, Klein started negotiating the sale of “My Sweet Lord” to Harrison. In 1981, a judge ruled Klein had a double role in the case and decreased Harrison’s damages from $1.6 million to $587,000 (the price Klein paid for Bright Tunes). The case was eventually settled in 1993.
The case heavily influenced Harrison and he abstained from writing songs for a while in fear of copywriting someone. His then-wife Pattie Boyd stated they never turned on the radio again after the ruling ‘in case he was unconsciously influenced by a song he had heard’.
In his book I, Me, Mine, Harrison shared his thoughts on the case. “I wasn’t consciously aware of the similarity between ‘He’s So Fine’ and ‘My Sweet Lord’ when I wrote the song as it was more improvised and not so fixed, although when my version of the song came out and started to get a lot of airplay people started talking about it and it was then I thought ‘Why didn’t I realize?’. It would have been very easy to change a note here or there, and not affect the feeling of the record.”
The Legacy of My Sweet Lord
George Harrison released “My Sweet Lord” as the lead single of his album All Things Must Pass in November 1970. The song became a huge success and topped the charts worldwide, including Engeland and the US. It was the best-selling single of 1971 in the UK.
Over the years, “My Sweet Lord” grew out to be Harrison’s signature track. He himself assumably didn’t mind, as he stated on multiple occasions he was proud of the record, both its sound and its words.
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