You know you’ve written a good song when Frank Sinatra cites it as “the greatest love song of the past 50 years”. Sinatra initially thought “Something” was a Lennon-McCartney song. But “Something” is written by The Beatles’ lead guitarist George Harrison. With the song, Harrison emerged himself as a songwriter of the caliber of bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney. “Something” appears on The Beatles’ eleventh studio album “Abbey Road” and was released as a single in 1969. But what’s the story and meaning behind the song? Let’s find out!
The Meaning of Something
The Beatles’ “Something” is considered a love song George Harrison wrote for Pattie Boyd. Harrison and Boyd were married from 1966 to 1977. In Pattie Boyd’s book “Wonderful Tonight”, she wrote: “George wrote a song called ‘Something.’ He told me in a matter-of-fact way that he had written it for me. I thought it was beautiful and it turned out to be the most successful song he ever wrote, with more than 150 cover versions.”
Paul McCartney believed the song was written for Pattie Boyd too. Harrison himself was more conservative about “Something’s” meaning. When David Wigg asked him about the meaning behind the song in a 1969 interview, Harrison replied: “Maybe Pattie, probably.”
When Harrison’s marriage with Pattie Boyd fell apart, his opinion about the song’s meaning changed. In an interview with Paul Cashmere in 1994, Harrison denied the song was written for Boyd: “I just wrote it, and then somebody put together a video. And what they did was they went out and got some footage of me and Pattie, Paul and Linda, Ringo and Maureen, it was at that time, and John and Yoko and they just made up a little video to go with it. So then, everybody presumed I wrote it about Patti, but actually, when I wrote it, I was thinking of Ray Charles.”
It is known Harisson imagined Ray Charles singing “Something” when he wrote the song. But this doesn’t mean Charles is the inspiration behind the song’s meaning. Besides that, changing your mind about a love song after a divorce isn’t an uncommon practice in the music scene (Elton John’s Tiny Dancer for instance). So the song is most likely just a love song written for Pattie Boyd.
The Story Behind the Song
George Harrison wrote the melody to “Something” at the end of recording The Beatles’ ninth studio album “The Beatles” (the white album). But Harrison struggled to finish the song because he couldn’t come up with suitable lyrics. The only words that came to Harrison’s mind were “Something in the way she moves”, which was the song title of a James Taylor song. Although he desired to change the words, Harrison eventually decided to leave the lyrics as is and titled the song “Something”.
The recording of “Something” took place over several sessions. At one point, the song ran over 8 minutes long due to an extended John Lennon jam. Eventually, the extended jam was removed, reducing the song to just over 3 minutes.
The other Beatles held the finished song in high regard, with John Lennon stating it was the best song on “Abbey Road”. As a result, “Something” was released as an A-side single. A unique occurrence, for a George Harrison song was never assigned as an A-side Beatles single before.
Read more: The Story Behind “Here Comes The Sun” by The Beatles
The Song’s Legacy
The song topped the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1969. It also topped the charts in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and West Germany.
Read more: The 10 Best Beatles Songs of All Time
The Beatles’ “Something” is one of the most covered songs of all time, with over 200 known covers. George Harrison initially gave “Something” to Joe Cocker. But Cocker didn’t release the song until late 1969, a month after The Beatles released “Abbey Road”. Cocker’s cover of the song was the first of many. Other notable covers are by Shirley Bassey, Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, and Elvis Presley. George Harrison’s favorite cover, however, was James Brown’s version of the song.
When George Harrison passed away in 2001, many artists played “Something” as a tribute to the Beatle. Bruce Springsteen started the tribute train, followed by Elton John, Paul McCartney with Eric Clapton, and Bob Dylan.
“Something” is considered one of the finest compositions in The Beatles’ repertoire. It is arguably Harrison’s greatest contribution to the most influential band of all time.
Something didn’t go to number 1. Ir stalled st number 3 and dropped to number 5 before Come Together went to number 1 the first week of November 1969 when Billboard combined the A and B sides of singles for the first time. The entry read Come Together/Something and was there for one week.
Wow, you’re right. How did I miss that? Thanks for the correction, William.
Enjoy your day!