George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian culture and helped broaden the scope of popular music through his incorporation of Indian instrumentation and Hindu-aligned spirituality in the Beatles' work.
Although most of the band's songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contained at least two Harrison compositions. His songs for the group include "Taxman", "Within You Without You", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something". Harrison's earliest musical influences included George Formby and Django Reinhardt; subsequent influences were Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins and Chuck Berry. By 1965, he had begun to lead the Beatles into folk rock through his interest in Bob Dylan and the Byrds, and towards Indian classical music through his use of Indian instruments, such as the sitar, which he had become acquainted with on the set of the film Help! He played sitar on numerous Beatles songs, starting with "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)". Having initiated the band's embrace of Transcendental Meditation in 1967, he subsequently developed an association with the Hare Krishna movement.
After the Beatles disbanded, Harrison released the triple album All Things Must Pass, a critically acclaimed work that produced his most successful hit single, "My Sweet Lord", and introduced his signature sound as a solo artist, the slide guitar. He also organised the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh with Indian musician Ravi Shankar, a precursor to later benefit concerts such as Live Aid. In his role as a music and film producer, Harrison produced acts signed to the Beatles' Apple record label before founding Dark Horse Records in 1974. He co-founded HandMade Films in 1978, initially to produce the Monty Python troupe's comedy film The Life of Brian (1979).
Harrison released several best-selling singles and albums as a solo performer. In 1988, he co-founded the platinum-selling supergroup the Traveling Wilburys. A prolific recording artist, he was featured as a guest guitarist on tracks by Badfinger, Ronnie Wood, and Billy Preston, and collaborated on songs and music with Dylan, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, and Tom Petty. Rolling Stone magazine ranked him number 31 in their 2023 list of greatest guitarists of all time.[4] He is a two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee – as a member of the Beatles in 1988, and posthumously for his solo career in 2004.
Harrison's first marriage to model Pattie Boyd in 1966 ended in divorce in 1977. In the following year he married Olivia Arias, with whom he had a son, Dhani. A lifelong cigarette smoker, Harrison died of numerous cancers in 2001 at the age of 58, two years after surviving a knife attack by an intruder at his home, Friar Park. His remains were cremated, and the ashes were scattered according to Hindu tradition in a private ceremony in the Ganges and Yamuna rivers in India. He left an estate of almost £100 million.
Harrison was born at 12 Arnold Grove in Wavertree, Liverpool, on 25 February 1943. He was the youngest of four children of Harold Hargreaves (or Hargrove) Harrison (1909–1978) and Louise (née French; 1911–1970). Harold was a bus conductor who had worked as a ship's steward on the White Star Line, and Louise was a shop assistant of Irish Catholic descent. He had one sister, Louise (16 August 1931 – 29 January 2023), and two brothers, Harold (20 July 1934 - February 1999) and Peter (20 July 1940 – 1 June 2007).
According to Boyd, Harrison's mother was particularly supportive: "All she wanted for her children is that they should be happy, and she recognized that nothing made George quite as happy as making music." Louise was an enthusiastic music fan, and she was known among friends for her loud singing voice, which at times startled visitors by rattling the Harrisons' windows. When Louise was pregnant with George, she often listened to the weekly broadcast Radio India. Harrison's biographer Joshua Greene wrote, "Every Sunday she tuned in to mystical sounds evoked by sitars and tablas, hoping that the exotic music would bring peace and calm to the baby in the womb."
Harrison lived at 12 Arnold Grove for the first four years of his life. A terraced house on a cul-de-sac, it had an outdoor toilet, and its only heat came from a single coal fire. In 1949, the family was offered a council house and moved to 25 Upton Green, Speke. In 1948, at the age of five, Harrison enrolled at Dovedale Primary School.[20] He passed the eleven-plus exam and attended Liverpool Institute High School for Boys from 1954 to 1959. Though the institute did offer a music course, Harrison was disappointed with the absence of guitars, and felt that the school "moulded [students] into being frightened".
McCartney and his friend John Lennon were in a skiffle group called the Quarrymen. In March 1958, at McCartney's urging, Harrison auditioned for the Quarrymen at Rory Storm's Morgue Skiffle Club, playing Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith's "Guitar Boogie Shuffle", but Lennon felt that Harrison, having just turned 15, was too young to join the band. McCartney arranged a second meeting, on the upper deck of a Liverpool bus, during which Harrison impressed Lennon by performing the lead guitar part for the instrumental "Raunchy". He began socialising with the group, filling in on guitar as needed, and then became accepted as a member. Although his father wanted him to continue his education, Harrison left school at 16 and worked for several months as an apprentice electrician at Blacklers, a local department store. During the group's first tour of Scotland, in 1960, Harrison used the pseudonym "Carl Harrison", in reference to Carl Perkins.
In 1960, promoter Allan Williams arranged for the band, now calling themselves the Beatles, to play at the Indra and Kaiserkeller clubs in Hamburg, both owned by Bruno Koschmider. Their first residency in Hamburg ended prematurely when Harrison was deported for being too young to work in nightclubs. When Brian Epstein became their manager in December 1961, he polished up their image and later secured them a recording contract with EMI. The group's first single, "Love Me Do", peaked at number 17 on the Record Retailer chart, and by the time their debut album, Please Please Me, was released in early 1963, Beatlemania had arrived.[43] Often serious and focused while on stage with the band, Harrison was known as "the quiet Beatle". That moniker arose when the Beatles arrived in the United States in early 1964, and Harrison was ill with a case of Strep throat and a fever and was medically advised to limit speaking as much as possible until he performed on The Ed Sullivan Show as scheduled. As such, the press noticed Harrison's apparent laconic nature in public appearances on that tour and the subsequent nickname stuck, much to Harrison's amusement.[46] He had two lead vocal credits on the LP, including the Lennon–McCartney song "Do You Want to Know a Secret?", and three on their second album, With the Beatles (1963). The latter included "Don't Bother Me", Harrison's first solo writing credit.
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- SERVES
- 8-12
- COOK TIME
- 1 Hr 15 Min
We've added just a hint of flavorful Dijon-style mustard to these French Roasted Potatoes to give them that special pizzazz that makes everyone go "OOH!" We know you're going to want to serve these during the holidays, but they're great anytime, too!
- 24 small red-skinned potatoes, quartered
- 4 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
- 2/3 cup Dijon mustard
- 1 stick butter, melted
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
- Preheat oven to 350º.
- Place potatoes and garlic in a lightly greased roasting pan; cover tightly with foil. Bake 60 minutes or until potatoes are just fork-tender.
- In a medium-sized bowl, blend mustard, butter, and parsley; toss with hot potatoes.
- Bake, uncovered, an additional 15 minutes or until potatoes are crisp. Serve immediately.
***Did you know that potatoes are an excellent source of vitamin C, with one potato providing 45 percent of your daily recommendation?
1922 – Rory Calhoun, American actor (d. 1999)
