♫ Something ♫

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Day #4 of Beatles’ Week …

This was the only song written by George Harrison released as a single by The Beatles.  Harrison wrote this during a break while they were working on The White Album. It was not recorded in time for the album, so Harrison gave this to Joe Cocker, but Cocker didn’t release it until after The Beatles did.

This seemed to be inspired by Harrison’s wife, Pattie, but he claimed he did not have anyone in mind when he wrote it. In her 2007 book Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me, Pattie Boyd 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. George’s favorite version was the one by James Brown. Mine was the one by George Harrison, which he played to me in our kitchen. But, in fact, by then our relationship was in trouble. Since a trip to the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s ashram in India in 1968, George had become obsessive about meditation. He was also sometimes withdrawn and depressed.”

Harrison came up with the title and the first line after listening to a James Taylor song called Something In The Way She Moves.

There are over 200 cover versions of this song on record, making it The Beatles’ 2nd most covered song, after Yesterday, which has … wait for it … over 1,600!!!  The question here becomes, is there anyone who hasn’t covered Yesterday?

Frank Sinatra called this “The greatest love song ever written.” He often performed it in the ’70s.  High praise indeed!

The video is from the promotional clip for Something that was shot in late October 1969, not long after Lennon privately announced that he was leaving the band. By this time, the individual Beatles had grown apart and so the film consisted of separate clips of each Beatle walking around his home, accompanied by his wife, edited together. The four segments were edited and compiled into a single film clip by Neil Aspinall.

Something
The Beatles

Something in the way she moves
Attracts me like no other lover
Something in the way she woos me

I don’t want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

Somewhere in her smile she knows
That I don’t need no other lover
Something in her style that shows me

Don’t want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

You’re asking me will my love grow
I don’t know, I don’t know
You stick around, now it may show
I don’t know, I don’t know

Something in the way she knows
And all I have to do is think of her
Something in the things she shows me

I don’t want to leave her now
You know I believe and how

Songwriter(s) George Harrison
Producer(s) George Martin

19 thoughts on “♫ Something ♫”

  1. George was always struggling to get anything he wrote onto a Beatles album, after all with Lennon and McCartney composing almost all of their number 1 singles (apart from Something) why wouldn’t they hog the majority of the album? However, from about 1966 onwards the songs were either written solely by Lennon or McCartney, mainly McCartney but both shared the royalties equally.
    The rift between all four of the Beatles started when John and George had been at a Drs home for dinner and he slipped some LSD into their coffee without telling them he had done so. When they left George was driving until he couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t then he pulled over and all four (Pattie Boyd and Cynthia Lennon were also there and also tripping) waited until they had returned to normal before continuing home. The next day the four Beatles met up again and John and George told the other two about their trip and Ringo wanted to try some, however, Paul was reticent. He didn’t take any LSD until almost a year later.

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  3. I have been somewhat remiss during this Tribute to the Beatles Week and my apologies are most sincerely offered. My only comment was on Wednesday’s “Here, There And Everywhere” which is really neither here, there nor anywhere at this point. For Thursday’s “Eleanor Rigby”, which by the by is a very good song, I was caught up in a particular song by Phil Collins. Time got away from me yesterday, politics and all that, so yesterday’s “Nowhere Man” from the wondrous “Rubber Soul” album went by without a comment too. Therefore…today, I shall set my Propensity for Loquacity free to wander where and when it will! Before I get to the chosen song of the day I must take you back to January 1964 when I received my first Beatles album “Meet the Beatles”, albeit that was actually the second album released in the U.S. due to their “Introducing The Beatles” album that was released 10 days earlier by a different company. That was the beginning of a collection that continued right up to the May 1970 “Let It Be” album. But, I digress. Back in 1964, I was part of a tight knit group of four girlfriends. One of them, Sharon, was a friend since first grade and the other two, Susie and Judy, we met at the beginning of the ninth grade in high school. All of us were on the school newspaper and by our junior year also on the yearbook staff. Three of us had aspirations of becoming nurses whilst the other had the higher goal of becoming an obstetrician. However, it was music that bonded us more than any other thing. We all played instruments, we all loved to dance and we all Loved the Beatles! So much so that we formed our own Fan Club naming ourselves “The Fab Foursome”. Originally, each member was to choose one of the Beatles as their “main man”. I chose Paul because he was the best and the cutest too. Susie chose Ringo mostly because he was the smallest and a drummer like herself or as she put it “because he was the Ringo”! Sharon chose John most likely because she was our leader and John was the bold outspoken Beatles leader. Unfortunately, Judy wanted John too and poor George had no takers. Judy, and I suppose the rest of us, saw George as the quiet one of no particular importance at the time…not as cute as Paul, not outstanding like Ringo, not an unapologetic bold leader like John, just a George. Sharon proved herself to be a wise and generous leader by deciding that Judy and she would equally share both John and George. Our fan club stuck together beyond high school into our adult years. Sadly, not unlike the Beatles, The Fab Foursome has dwindled in numbers as Sharon and Susie are gone whilst in the mid 80’s Judy moved back to London where she had been born. My point, there is one hiding in here somewhere, is that we underestimated George’s talent and worth as an artist and as an integral part of the Beatles. Admittedly, I only really recognized his genius after the group’s split with the release of his 1970 huge 3 album set “All Things Must Pass”. It is of note that Clapton, Frampton and Ringo contributed musically on that album. Sadly, my original also passed along with other albums ( Rubber Soul, etc.) and the replacement of it finally arrived in a 2 CD set from the perpetrator in 2001. Patti Boyd’s book is a good revelatory read. But, I suggest Harrison’s “I, Me, Mine” book titled from his eponymous song…not the book that was published in an expensive limited edition in 1980, but the 2017 republished version by his widow on the anniversary of George’s 74th birthday. I will finally draw my memoir to a close by adding that “Something” is an excellent song and an excellent addition to this Week of The Beatles! The video is the frosting on the cake! Thank-you!

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    • No apologies needed, my friend, for you’ve had enough on your plate this week. I do so love it when you unleash your propensity for loquacity! This was a wonderful story of you and your three friends and I enjoyed it so much, I went back and read it again! I think that George was largely underestimated by the world as a whole. Paul & John sucked the air out of the room, leaving little for George. I read this week that at one point he walked out, but came back soon thereafter. The perpetrator, eh? Sounds mysterious. Sounds like the work of … the ex! I’m glad whomever it was replaced them … eventually. I’m also glad you’ve been enjoying Beatles week. Had I been thoughtful, I would have played a certain Phil Collins song for you, but I remembered (only after your mention in email) too late. Nonetheless … hugs, my friend.

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  4. Jill, George was an underrated songwriter toiling in the shadow of the more famous duo in the band. This is a marvelous song as is “Here comes the Sun.” But, to get the full breadth of Harrison’s work, watch the special tribute led by Eric Clapton after Harrison’s passing. The great songs abound. Keith

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    • You’re so right! I never really thought much about George ‘back in the day’ … he was always just sort of there. It was Paul and John we were all enamoured of. I did as you suggested and was quite moved by it … in fact, I’m thinking about playing it tomorrow night for the final song of Beatles week, though I’m undecided as yet. Thanks for the heads up on that!

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      • Jill, what is interesting, George Martin first heard George’s guitar playing as he walked down the hall as a colleague was dismissing the band as a consideration. His working on blending eastern and western music to create a unique sound is an exemplar. Keith

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  6. Of course I was in love with Paul McCartney ( when I was eleven ) and in the long term, with his farm and horses he would have been the best one to marry! But the most interesting thing is what a short time The Beatles were actually together and even within those years their appearance and lifestyles changed completely, presumably because they were so creative they were always searching for something new. I imagine being married to any of them was never going to be easy!

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    • As was I, only when I was 13 or so. I still am, actually! My heart melts when I see him performing “Ebony and Ivory” with Stevie Wonder, or “Fool on the Hill”. I still think of him as being the most down to earth of the four. Yes, they underwent significant changes in both appearance and music style over those relatively short years. And left a legacy that will far outlast them all. But no, I would not have wished to be married to any of them. I can’t imagine being married to any entertainer or actor … I think their egos are almost always large.

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  7. Pingback: ♫ Something ♫ — Filosofa’s Word – Friggin' Doo-A!

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