The Great Beatles Songs: Something

Down to #8 in the great Beatles songs list. This finds the first of two George Harrison-penned songs. Something was inspired by the first line of James Taylor's Something in the Way She Moves. It would become released as a double A sided single with Come Together in England and would be the B side in America. It would also be Harrison's first #1 hit.

It is considered to be Harrison's masterpiece, a beautifully moving love song that even John, Paul and George Martin all considered to be remarkable. It was McCartney who would push for Something to be released as a single. For a while Harrison's material was album filler, not really in the same league as Lennon-McCartney tunes. But Harrison has four songs that stand out and alongside most Lennon-McCartney songs. Something is one of those three, along with Taxman, Here Comes the Sun and another song on this list, to be revealed later.

In its review of the album Abbey Road, Time magazine simply said Something was "the best song on the album." It was the first George song I really liked. It is also interesting to think that the woman who inspired this song also inspired Layla and Wonderful Tonight by Eric Clapton. Patty Boyd Harrison (Patty Clapton later on after she and Eric had an affair) appears in the Beatles movie A Hard Day's Night. That is where she and George met and would be married until she left him for Clapton. But George was not badly effected. He and Clapton would continue to be close friends. And George would have the last laugh at Eric's expense. He asked Patty and Eric to sing backup to Bye Bye Love on a later solo album in the 70's.

But in 1969 Something was one of the greatest Beatles songs. The fact that George was late coming to the party only means that for a few years in the late 60's and early 70's George wrote and performed some of the greatest songs ever. And it all started with the line, "Something in the way she moves..."