This Song

"This Song" is the fourth track on George Harrison's 1976 album Thirty Three & 1/3. It was written after the week George spent in a New York courtroom, (unsuccessfully) trying to convince a judge that his 1970 song, "My Sweet Lord", did not intentionally infringe the 1963 Chiffons hit, "He's So Fine". According to Harrison, the prosecution got ridiculously in-depth, breaking "My Sweet Lord" down into several melody lines, or "motifs", as they referred to them. Apparently, the prosecution also drew up several charts with large musical notes on it to prove their point. Harrison said in his autobiography, I Me Mine, that after several days, he "started to believe that maybe they did own those notes".

After he lost the case, Harrison wrote "This Song", which released his frustration of the infringement case in the form of an uptempo, piano-driven boogie. "This Song" was released as the leadoff single for Thirty Three & 1/3 and reached #25 on the American pop charts. It features Billy Preston on piano and organ, and Monty Python's Eric Idle calling out the now-famous falsetto "Could be 'Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch'", "No, sounds more like 'Rescue Me'!" interjection right before the instrumental break. The song also has a humorous music video (shown on the November 20, 1976 episode of Saturday Night Live), which features George in a courtroom along with a cast of many of his friends dressed up as the jury, bailiff, defense experts, etc. Drummer Jim Keltner appears as the judge and the Rolling Stones's Ronnie Wood dressed as a pepperpot mimics those aforementioned falsetto words.