7 Songs You May Not Know George Harrison Wrote

George Harrison was a consummate songwriter, blessing the world with classics such as “Something” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” Yet during his time as a member of the Beatles, his talent was often overshadowed by that of Paul McCartney and John Lennon—two difficult songwriters to compete with, to say the least. Still, this fact caused some tension among band members over the years.

Harrison did get a later start at songwriting than Lennon and McCartney, who cut their teeth as teenagers. In the Beatles’ early years, Harrison fancied himself as more of a guitarist, and it took him a little while to develop confidence as a songwriter. “I wasn’t Lennon, or I wasn’t McCartney. I was me,” he said in 1969. “And the only reason I started to write songs was because I thought, ‘Well, if they can write them, I can write them.’”

The first song of Harrison’s that was released by the Beatles was “Don’t Bother Me,” which appeared on the band’s second album, With The Beatles, in 1963. In total, Harrison wrote a total of 24 songs for the group—significantly more than Ringo Starr’s two credited contributions to the band, but a small fraction of the 229 songs the group released while they were together.

Still, some of the songs Harrison penned are now recognized by some fans as among the Beatles’ best. Following the quartet’s breakup, Harrison also went on to enjoy a successful career as a solo artist and a member of the band The Traveling Wilburys. Many of his post-Beatles works continued to fuse his love of Indian and devotional music with folk and rock and roll, and his song “My Sweet Lord” made him the first Beatle to reach number one on the U.S. charts as a solo act following the Beatles’ breakup.

Harrison also released a number of songs as a solo artist that were originally intended for Beatles albums, including “Isn’t It a Pity” and “All Things Must Pass.” Additionally, he wrote numerous songs for other artists. Here are some Harrison originals that may have slipped under your radar.

“Here Comes the Sun” // The Beatles
“Badge” // Cream
“Try Some, Buy Some” // Ronnie Spector
“Photograph” // Ringo Starr
“Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)” // Ringo Starr
“Sour Milk Sea” // Jackie Lomax
“That Kind of Woman” // Gary Moore

“Here Comes the Sun” // The Beatles

“Here Comes the Sun” is one of the Beatles’ biggest and most beloved songs, which is saying something. Widely considered a standout on Abbey Road—which is of course an album of standouts—the eternally sweet tune remains a core part of the Beatles’ musical legacy. It is indeed a Harrison composition, and one that emerged from a series of frustrations he experienced with the band.

Before “Here Comes the Sun,” Harrison was feeling frustrated by his difficulty getting the Beatles to record his own compositions. He spent some time recording a solo record and hanging out in Woodstock in late 1968, and threatened to leave the band in early 1969. In April of that year, Harrison excused himself from a business meeting and drove out to his friend Eric Clapton’s home in Surrey.

There, Harrison sat in the garden and began playing one of Clapton’s acoustic guitars. Inspired by the early spring weather, he began writing “Here Comes the Sun.” He completed the song on a trip to Sardinia and shared it with the band upon his return.

“It reminds me of Buddy Holly, in a way,” Lennon said of the song that year. “This song is just the way he’s progressing, you know. He’s writing all kinds of songs and once the door opens, the floodgates open.”

“Badge” // Cream

Harrison wrote several songs with or for other notable artists, including the track “Badge,” which was recorded by Eric Clapton’s supergroup, Cream. The track was a collaboration between Harrison and Clapton, who shared a deep friendship that lasted even as Clapton pursued and married Harrison’s first wife, Pattie Boyd.

Apparently, the song emerged when Harrison was helping Clapton write his track for the Cream album Goodbye. Harrison wrote down the word “bridge,” but Clapton—who was sitting across from him—read “Badge,” and the song’s title was born. Meanwhile, a subsequent conversation between Harrison and a drunken Ringo Starr allegedly resulted in the lyric about swans living in the park.

“Try Some, Buy Some” // Ronnie Spector

Harrison penned the song “Try Some, Buy Some” for his fourth solo album. Before he released it, he gave it to Ronettes member Ronnie Spector for what was intended to be a comeback album. The track wasn’t a commercial success for Spector, but Harrison later took the backing track Spector had recorded, redid the vocals, and released it on his fourth album, Living in the Material World.

“Photograph” // Ringo Starr

This song marks the sole collaboration between Harrison and Starr alone, and it also managed to become a number-one hit on the U.S. singles chart for Starr. The duo began writing the song while on a yacht in the South of France during the Cannes Film Festival. It became the lead single on Starr’s third solo album, Ringo, which came out in 1973.

“Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)” // Ringo Starr

This was another track that Harrison penned for Starr’s third solo effort. Harrison wrote it while on a trip to Ireland with his wife at the time, Pattie Boyd, amid some legal issues related to the Beatles’ breakup. He drew inspiration from sea shanties and Irish folk music, among other folk genres. A version recorded by Harrison, Starr, and members of the supergroup the Band was released on the 50th anniversary edition of Living in the Material World in 2024.

“Sour Milk Sea” // Jackie Lomax

Singer Jackie Lomax released this track in 1968 as his debut single on the Beatles’ Apple record label. Harrison penned this tune while the Beatles were staying in Rishikesh, India, and the song is often interpreted as an advertisement of sorts for transcendental meditation, which Harrison and the Beatles were studying with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the time.

The track was considered for the album The Beatles, also known as the White Album, but it wasn’t chosen. It seems to describe how meditation can improve people’s lives, and also marks the beginning of Harrison’s transition back to guitar after spending some time attempting to master the sitar.

“I wrote ‘Sour Milk Sea’ in Rishikesh, India,” Harrison wrote in his autobiography. “I never actually recorded the song—it was done by Jackie Lomax on his album Is This What You Want? Anyway, it’s based on Vishvasara Tantra, from Tantric art. ‘What is here is elsewhere, what is not here is nowhere’. It’s a picture, and the picture is called ‘Sour Milk Sea’—Kalladadi Samudra in Sanskrit. I used Sour Milk Sea as the idea of —if you’re in the s**t, don’t go around moaning about it: do something about it.”

“That Kind of Woman” // Gary Moore

Harrison wrote four songs for his friend Eric Clapton to consider using on his album Journeyman. One of them was “That Kind of Woman,” a song that Clapton recorded but that ended up being released by the Irish musician Gary Moore—a guitarist Harrison greatly admired—on his album Still Got the Blues. Clapton ultimately wound up releasing Harrison’s track “Run So Far” on Journeyman.