During his time in the British-born rock band the Beatles, George Harrison was the group’s secret weapon. However, frontmen Paul McCartney and John Lennon didn’t always consider him as valuable to the group as he was. As evidenced in the hit docu-series The Beatles: Get Back, in which Harrison leaves the band briefly.
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Harrison was, no matter how you slice it, an excellent songwriter. “Here Comes the Sun,” “My Guitar Gently Weeps” and more songs are clear indications of his talent. Subtle and clear, Harrison was also an expert electric guitar player, one of the instrument’s best ever.
But did you know that the former Beatle helped to write songs for other artists, including his Beatle brother Ringo Starr? It’s true. In fact, below are three songs you likely didn’t know Harrison wrote for other artists.
1. “Cry for a Shadow,” Tony Sheridan
Written by John Lennon, George Harrison
While this song was written for Tony Sheridan, it is really an instrumentalist Beatles song. “Cry for a Shadow” has one of the most interesting histories of any of the tunes touched by the former Mop Tops. Tracked by the Beatles in the summer of 1961 in Hamburg, West Germany, at the time, the band was playing as Tony Sheridan’s backing group, the Beat Brothers. The song, which was written almost as an homage to the British band The Shadows as it was inspired by them, is the only Beatles-composed song credited to the pair of John Lennon and George Harrison. Listening to it, you can hear that the guitars are the main driving force behind the song, Lennon’s rhythm guitar, and Harrison’s lead.
2. “So Sad (No Love Of His Own),” Alvin Lee & Mylon LeFevre
Written by George Harrison
While Harrison released “So Sad (No Love of His Own) on his 1974 LP, Dark Horse, he’d originally written it for his 1973 album, Living in the Material World. But after the track didn’t make the cut for that record, Harrison passed it over to English artist Alvin Lee, who tracked it with Mylon LeFevre for the 1973 record, On the Road to Freedom, which includes Harrison (and Mick Fleetwood and Ron Wood) on the recording.
Harrison wrote the song in 1972 while he was splitting up with his then-wife, Pattie Boyd. Less than a year after he’d written it and tracked a demo, Boyd left Harrison for guitarist Eric Clapton, who had been madly in love with her for years despite the fact she was wed to Harrison.
Now the winter has come
To eclipse out the sun
That has lighted my love for sometime
And a cold wind now blows
Not much tenderness flows from
The heart of someone feeling so tired
And he feels so alone
With no love of his own
So sad, so bad, so sad, so bad
3. “Photograph,” Ringo Starr
Written by George Harrison and Ringo Starr
The lead single from Ringo Starr’s 1973 self-titled album, Ringo, “Photograph” is the lone song formally credited to Starr and former Beatle bandmate George Harrison. The track, which was a hit for Ringo, hitting No. 1 on the U.S. singles chart, is about loss, and how a photograph is sometimes the one thing left behind to help us remember a person. The two former Mop Tops began writing the song in 1971 on a yacht in the South of France, during the Cannes Film Festival at which time Starr was working on his acting career.
Every time I see your face
It reminds me of the places we used to go
But all I’ve got is a photograph
And I realize you’re not coming back anymore
I thought I’d make it
The day you went away
But I can’t make it
‘Til you come home again to stay
I can’t get used to living here
While my heart is broke, my tears I cry for you
I want you here to have and hold
As the years go by, and we grow old and gray
Photo by Dave Hogan/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
