George and Ringo both long expressed
their highest preference at creating music leaned toward Revolver as most favorite album, much more
than Pepper. For George, Revolver sounded even better than Rubber Soul, where
George praised Run For Your Life and
Norwegian Wood, the very same release that blew away Brian Wilson on its
merits and influenced the Beach Boy genius to create Pet Sounds. Before that, good old George
mentioned how much he loved Yes It Is, better
than Ticket To Ride, the current
single. And in 1964, His favorite song hands down was, You Can't Do That. Much later, we can hear George say he liked Every Little Thing, in the movie, Let
It Be. He also admits to a very early song calling it great, seen on the documentary 'Living In A Material World...where Harrison praises 'This Boy', my favorite Beatles Song,
After the release of the White Album, demand
for a soundtrack album ordered by United Artist per the Yellow Submarine film
that premiered six months earlier, produced an LP flop, duped with sub-par
substance driven by a rushed deadline. Haste
pretty much caused the lads to pick from the bottom of the barrel’s throw away
tunes––tunes even they termed as lousy.
Beatle George didn’t care for the Yellow Submarine album at
all, and I agree somewhat. For example, during the Sgt. Pepper sessions, Only A Northern Song found some potential but Producer Martin refused to
add it to the new line up and told George to come back with something better.
Hence, Within You Without You made
the grade. Truth be told, my favorite song on the Y. S. LP shared with George
Martin’s background soundtrack heard throughout the animated film happens to
be, It’s All Too much, composed by
the quiet Beatle.
I guess titles like, Something,
Here Comes The Sun, and While My Guitar Gently Weeps probably rank high at
reaching Harrison’s favorite Beatles Song, however, we would all be wrong. You
see, back in 1997, George stated while interviewed that he considered each of his original compositions as a George
Harrison song, not a Beatle Song. It didn’t matter if other Beatles joined in
on the track or if Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, and Billy Preston joined in on his
recordings beyond 1970. But getting back to their final days as a band with the
Abbey Road LP, George thought Octopuses’
Garden was lovely, (He helped compose this with Ringo but took zero credit)
and preferred the song Because, written by Lennon, as the best track from the
current album.
Many do know his favorite color, purple, his favorite guitar,
Gretsch G6128T, his favorite guitarist, Jimmy Hendrix, his favorite sport,
motor racing, his favorite comics, the Monty Python gang, and his favorite
movie, The Producers by Mel Brooks––it’s Springtime for Hitler. Speaking of
movies, did you know that Richard Lester, who directed Hard Day’s Night and
Help named George as the best Beatle actor, saying, “George nails every line.”
If I had to nail his favorite Beatles song, I’d point my
finger to, Everybody’s Trying To Be My
Baby, by Carl Perkins. . . Why? George idolized Carl Perkins and even changed his name
to Carl during the band’s brief Scotland tour backing Johnny Gentle in May 1960. Years later, when he
recorded the song for their fourth album titled, Beatles For Sale, released
December 4, 1964, he then added it to the playlist for the world excursion and
sang it live on the lad’s 1965 concert journey. By coincidence, in 1970,
following the publicized departure Beatles break-up, my favorite song on the All
Things Must Pass LP turned out to also be Harrison’s favorite song––I’d Have You Anytime, found on Side 1,
Track 1. Great minds think alike.
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