Notes and Quotes: "Something"

One of reasons the Beatles fell apart was the lack of room for Harrison's growing aspirations and abilities as a songwriter. Harrison quips in The Beatles Anthology that Frank Sinatra has identified "Something" as his favorite Lennon-McCartney song.

Despite the reputation of the song, this recording is made by McCartney's sophisticated counter melody that weaves around in solo fashion, complementing Harrison's vocal. Other nice touches are the careful use of double tracking and unison singing. Finally, Harrison's guitar playing had also evolved over his years in the studio, and "Something" provides a nice example of the way he likes to combine slide and regular-fingered guitar playing.

Harrison: I wrote "Something" while we were still recording the White Album, but I never finished it off. I could never think of words for it. Also, there was a James Taylor song called "Something in the Way She Moves," which is the first line of [my song]. So I thought I should try to change the words, but they were the words that came when I wrote it. In the end I left it as that and just called it "Something." Actually I think Joe Cocker has recorded this song, but when I wrote it I imagined someone like Ray Charles doing it. That's the feel I imagined. But I'm not Ray Charles. I'm much more limited in what I can do, so it came out like this. It's probably the nicest melody I've written. (Pritchard and Lysaght, 288)

Harrison: "Something" was written on the piano while we were making the "White" album. I had a break while Paul was doing some overdubbing so I went into an empty studio (studio 1) and began to write. that's really all there is to it, except the middle took some time to sort out! It didn't go on the "White" album because we'd already finished all the tracks. I gave it to Joe Cocker a year before I did it. It's probably got a range of five notes which fits most singers' needs best. This I suppose is my most successful song with over one hundred and fifty cover versions. My favourite version is the one by James Brown—that was excellent. When I wrote it, in my mind I heard Ray Charles singing it, and he did do it some years later. I like Smokey Robinson's version too. (2002: 152)

McCartney: George's "Something" was out of left field. It was about Pattie, and it appealed to me because it was a very beautiful melody and it's a really structured song. I thought it was great. I think George thought my bass-playing was a little bit busy. Again, from my side, I was trying to contribute the best I could, but maybe it was his turn to tell me I was too busy. But that was fun; that went off well. I thought it was George's greatest track—with "Here Comes the Sun" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." They were possibly his best three. Until then he had only done one or two songs per album. (Anthology, 340)

Schedule

23 April, 2012