♫ Something ♫

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, music, music history

Keith mentioned this as one of his favourites a few days ago, so naturally I’m gonna play it here!  I last played this in 2022, and before that in 2020, so it seems to be one that I play only in even-numbered years!  Anyway, I do like this one … always have … so this one’s for you, Keith!

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 He was also sometimes withdrawn and depressed.”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

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21 thoughts on “♫ Something ♫”

  2. A really great love song, reminds me of a cute scene from the movie “Yesterday”, what if the Beatles never happened, and a struggling musician is the only person in the world who remembered their music 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  4. Wow, and here I thought all along that James Taylor got his idea from George Harrison’s song! (Likely because I heard the Beatles’s version well before I heard James Taylor’s. Interestingly, I don’t know if it will grow into a full earworm, but I’ve got a mashup of the two songs happening in my head… 🙃🙂

    Liked by 3 people

  9. Certainly a great love song. Yet it was probably born in heartbreak of sorts. It Patti knew there were problems, so did George. I think the pain inspired him.
    I wrote one of my favourite poems out of heartbtreak — nothing as good as this, and too long to put here. The title though, was indpired, I think.
    The Pterydactic Ptarmigan.

    Liked by 5 people

  12. Thanks Jill. You are too kind. John was the first to pull the chord, but I think Paul and George had their hands on their chords. Ringo was often the conciliatory one. Keith

    Liked by 6 people

  13. Pingback: ♫ Something ♫ | Filosofa’s Word | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

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