| "My Sweet Lord" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Single by George Harrison | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| from the album All Things Must Pass | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A-side | "My Sweet Lord" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| B-side | "Isn't It a Pity" (US) "What Is Life" (UK) |
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| Released | 23 November 1970 (US) 15 January 1971 (UK) |
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| Format | 7" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Genre | Rock, folk rock | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Length | 4:39 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Label | Apple Records | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Writer(s) | George Harrison | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Producer | George Harrison, Phil Spector |
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| Certification | Gold (RIAA) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| George Harrison singles chronology | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"My Sweet Lord" is a song by former Beatles lead guitarist George Harrison from his UK number one hit triple album All Things Must Pass. The song was written in praise of the Hindu god Krishna.[1] It is ranked #460 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time."
The song was also the center of a plagiarism suit due to its similarity to the song, "He's So Fine," originally recorded by The Chiffons.
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The song was originally intended for Billy Preston, who had a minor hit with it in early 1970, in his album Encouraging Words. It was written in December 1969, when Harrison and Billy Preston were in Copenhagen, Denmark.
The recording of the song took place in London. Preston was the principal musician while Harrison was engineering the sessions.
When released as a single, "My Sweet Lord" became an international #1 hit. In October 1970, Harrison told the British press that it was going to be his first solo single, but a few days later he changed his mind and said it would not be made available thus, as he did not want sales in that format to detract from those of the album. (The other three former Beatles had also released solo albums earlier that year, without releasing a single in Britain from any of them). It was released as a single in the US (Apple 2995) on 23 November 1970. Within a few weeks, EMI and Apple Records bowed to media and public demand, and the UK release (Apple R 5884) followed on 15 January 1971. The single was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America for sales of over one million copies.[2]
Entering the British charts in the first week at number seven and then hitting the summit for five weeks, it was the first single by an ex-Beatle to reach number one. It did so again in the UK when reissued in January 2002 after Harrison's death from cancer. It reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 on 26 December 1970, remaining on top for four weeks.
In Britain, the original single was officially a double-A Side with "What Is Life". In the US it was a double-A-side with "Isn't It a Pity"- with both sides featuring a full Apple label.
The song has also appeared on The Concert for Bangla Desh (1971), The Best of George Harrison (1976), Live in Japan (1992), and Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison (2009).
Following the song's release, musical similarities between "My Sweet Lord" and The Chiffons' hit "He's So Fine" led to a prolonged copyright infringement suit, known as Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs Music, which lasted over 10 years. In 1976, a U.S. district court decision found that Harrison had "subconsciously" copied the earlier song. In 1978, before the court decided on damages in the case, Harrison's former manager Allen Klein, who represented Harrison earlier in the proceedings, purchased the copyright to "He's So Fine" from Bright Tunes. In 1981, the court decided the damages amounted to $1,599,987 but that due to Klein's duplicity in the case, Harrison would only have to pay Klein $587,000 for the rights to "He's So Fine"—the amount Klein had paid Bright Tunes for the song.[3]
Harrison claimed in a BBC interview with Annie Nightingale that the Judge in the case said that he liked Harrison's version of "My Sweet Lord" less.
The Chiffons would later record "My Sweet Lord" to capitalise on the publicity generated by the lawsuit. Country singer Jody Miller recorded a country chart top-five cover of "He's So Fine", which plays on the two songs' similarities by featuring the same guitar breaks played on the Harrison recording.
Shortly after the trial in 1976, Harrison[4] wrote and recorded a song about the court case titled "This Song", which includes "This tune has nothing 'Bright' about it." "I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)" and "Rescue Me" are also mentioned in the song.
Harrison stated in his autobiography that he was not consciously aware of the similarity when he wrote the song and was inspired to write "My Sweet Lord" by the Edwin Hawkins Singers' version of "Oh Happy Day".[5] In a 1980 interview with Playboy magazine, John Lennon expressed his doubt of the notion of "subconscious" plagiarism: "He must have known, you know. He's smarter than that. It's irrelevant, actually—only on a monetary level does it matter. He could have changed a couple of bars in that song and nobody could ever have touched him, but he just let it go and paid the price. Maybe he thought God would just sort of let him off."[6]
Both songs have a three-syllable title refrain ("My Sweet Lord" and "He's so fine") followed by a 5-3-2 descent of the major scale in the tonic key (E major for "My Sweet Lord" and G major for "He's So Fine"). Respective tempos are similar: 121 and 145 bpm.[7] In the respective B sections ("I really want to see you" and "I dunno how I'm gonna do it") there is a similar ascent through 5-6-8, but the Chiffons distinctively retain the G tonic for four bars and, on the repeat of the motif, uniquely go to an A note 9th embellishment over the first syllable of "gonna". Harrison, on the other hand, introduces the more complex harmony of a relative minor (C#m) as well as the oft-repeated, fundamental and distinctly original slide guitar motif.[8]
Early in the song, the background singers repeat the Hebrew word of praise, "Hallelujah", common in the Christian and Jewish religions. Later, the background singers chant two Vaisnava Hindu prayers, including
This prayer consists of part of the principal mantra of devotees of the Gaudiya Vaisnavite faith, popularised in the Western world by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), colloquially known as the 'Hare Krishnas'. Harrison was a devotee of this religious path.
The mantra in full is "Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna, Krishna, Krishna, Hare, Hare, Hare Rama, Hare Rama, Rama, Rama, Hare, Hare."
This prayer is chanted by Hindu devotees prior to beginning any action, after hymns to Ganesha and Sarasvati. The prayer is dedicated to the spiritual teacher of the devotee which is equated with the Hindu Trimurti Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva (Maheshvara) and with the Supreme Cosmic Spirit or Absolute Reality (Brahman). The prayer is the first verse of the Guru stotram, a fourteen verse hymn dedicated to the spiritual teacher.[9]
During his live performances of "My Sweet Lord", Harrison tried to engage his audience into the practice of "chanting the holy names of the Lord" (kirtan):
Breaking into the thundering rhythm guitar intro to “My Sweet Lord,” Harrison would soon begin to invite the cheering, largely stoned crowd to “chant the holy name of the Lord.” Few responded. Switching messiahs midstream, he would then rocket into the famous Krishna Hallelujah chorus and begin singing, “Om Christ, Om Christ, Om Christ” over and over, adding, “I know a lot of you out there think that’s swearing, but it’s not! If we all chant together purely for one minute, we’ll blow the roof off this place.[10]
Various Christian fundamentalist anti-rock activists have objected to the chanting of 'Hare Krishna' in the song as anti-Christian or satanic while some born-again Christians appear to have adopted the song as an anthem.[11]
The musicians who performed on the original recording were as follows:[12]
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Harrison himself performed the song in a self-parody for Eric Idle and Neil Innes' Rutland Weekend Television Christmas special, broadcast 26 December 1975 on BBC2. Harrison closed the show performing lip-sync'ed to a previously recorded track which started with the song, and changed to a pirate shanty once Harrison started 'singing'. A clearly befuddled "Fatso" (Innes' band on the show backing Harrison) stop and eventually follow along and a group of dancers come out to join in the fun as the closing credits roll, while "host" Idle frequently walks onscreen, bewildered at Harrison's performance. This version is known as "The Pirate Song".
With re-issued All Things Must Pass for its thirtieth anniversary in 2000, surfaced a new version of the song, added as a bonus track, with Harrison sharing vocals with Sam Brown.
| Preceded by "The Tears of a Clown" by Smokey Robinson & the Miracles |
Billboard Hot 100 number-one single 26 December 1970 (4 weeks) |
Succeeded by "Knock Three Times" by Dawn |
| Preceded by Grandad by Clive Dunn |
UK Singles Chart number-one single 30 January 1971 (5 weeks) |
Succeeded by Baby Jump by Mungo Jerry |
| Preceded by More Than a Woman by Aaliyah |
UK Singles Chart number-one single 20 January 2002 (1 week) |
Succeeded by Hero by Enrique Iglesias |
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