George Harrison MBE (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) born in Liverpool, UK, was an English musician, singer-songwriter and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist in The Beatles, along with mainstream success as a solo artist. Initially writing few songs, by 1965 Harrison was allowed two songs per album and begun to lead the Beatles’ sound into folk rock and Indian classical music because of his use of the sitar and tambura. Although John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the bulk of the Beatles’ output, Harrison’s later compositions such as “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” and “Here Comes The Sun” have achieved immense popularity in the streaming era.
Harrison was the first Beatle to debut as a solo artist in 1968 with the film score “Wonderwall Music”. Harrison released one more album during his time with the Beatles, “Electronic Sound”, solely consisting of the moog’s instrumental capabilities.
By the time of the Beatles’ breakup, Harrison had amassed a large amount of written songs and released many of them on the 1970 critically acclaimed triple album All Things Must Pass. The album, produced by Phil Spector, contains the two-time number one hit, "My Sweet Lord".
Harrison is also credited for creating the first benefit concert, the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh. Harrison played beside Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Billy Preston and Ringo Starr, to a crowd of 40,000 in Madison Square Garden, New York. The show raised over $240,000 benefiting the George Harrison Fund for Bangladesh relief.
Harrison went on to release several successful solo albums starting with 1973’s Living In The Material World, which stayed at Billboard’s #1 spot for 5 weeks and produced the #1 single “[track artist=Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)[/track]”.
