Which Beatle had the best solo album upon the breakup of the band? Of course, like all musical questions, the answer is truly subjective. Especially when you consider how tightly goddamn contested it is between John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison.
By 1971, just one year after The Beatles broke up, we already had plenty of albums from both McCartney and Lennon, but it was Harrison who arguably overshadowed them. After spending the previous five years doggedly proving to the band that he was, in fact, a worthy songwriter, he finally got his fucking moment in the spotlight with All Things Must Pass.
It was an ambitious triple album, and at times relatively inflated, but it had moments on there that were as iconic as any Lennon and McCartney were lucky enough to enjoy. In fact, in the song ‘My Sweet Lord’, he had a song that they would have desperately envied and a melody that felt so effortlessly easy, yet unique in its delivery. A skill up until that point, McCartney and Lennon had prided themselves on.
Lyrically, it had the religious vignette that made it inherently a Harrison song. While he was largely known for his leanings towards Hindu practices, which were perhaps most noticeable in the song’s reprise, he made it universal by alternating the known Hebrew and Christian phrase ‘Hallelujah’ with the Hindu Vaishnav phrase ‘Hare Krishna, Hare Rama’.
It was during the rendition of those lines that the song broadened into a wider composition, introducing backing vocals to strengthen this idea of religious community.
But who actually provides the backing vocals?
The song was recorded with Phil Spector. The producer is famed for pioneering the “Wall Of Sound” technique, as well as regularly featuring on the work of The Beatles post-breakup, most notably on John Lennon’s music.
So it’s unsurprising, then, that Lennon himself was there in the studio that day. The song was recorded at Abbey Road studios using the same equipment The Beatles used, also. The only difference is that without Starr and McCartney, Harrison and Lennon recruited Yoko Ono, Billy Preston and Eric Clapton. Bobby Whitlock was friends with Harrison and Clapton and played keyboards on the album.
He fondly remembered the recording process: “That whole session was great. George Harrison, what a wonderful man. All the time that I ever knew him, which was from 1969 to his passing, he was a wonderful man. He included everyone in everything he did because there was enough for all.”
Whitlock adds, “All during the sessions, the door would pop open and in would spring three or four or five Hare Krishnas in their white robes and shaved heads with a pony tail coming out the top. They were all painted up, throwing rose petals and distributing peanut butter cookies.”
It was Spector, Clapton and Whitlock who provided those backing vocals on the track, along with Harrison himself. In fact, that troupe regularly provided backing vocals on Harrison’s album, so they decided to dub themselves The George O’Hara-Smith Singers.
