| "What Is Life" | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by George Harrison | ||||||||||||
| from the album All Things Must Pass | ||||||||||||
| A-side | "My Sweet Lord" (UK) | |||||||||||
| B-side | "Apple Scruffs" (except UK) | |||||||||||
| Released | 15 February 1971 | |||||||||||
| Format | 7" | |||||||||||
| Genre | Rock | |||||||||||
| Length | 4:22 | |||||||||||
| Label | Apple Records 1828 | |||||||||||
| Writer(s) | George Harrison | |||||||||||
| Producer | George Harrison, Phil Spector | |||||||||||
| George Harrison singles chronology | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
"What Is Life" is a song by George Harrison and is the first track on side two of his 1970 solo album All Things Must Pass. It was released as the second single from that album in the United States on February 15, 1971 with another album track, "Apple Scruffs," as the B-side. On March 27, "What Is Life" peaked at #10 in the Billboard Hot 100, making Harrison the first member of the Beatles to log two Top 10 solo hits on that chart.[1]
The song was written for Billy Preston in 1969, but Harrison decided not to ask Preston to record the song during his "funky" phase, seeing the song as too much of a "catchy pop tune".[2]
The song was co-produced by George Harrison and Phil Spector, who also produced the rest of the All Things Must Pass album.
An instrumental outtake version of the song appears on the 2001 re-release of All Things Must Pass. Featuring a piccolo trumpet and oboe, it was discarded because Harrison "didn't like the feel".
In 2010, AOL radio listeners chose "What Is Life" as one of the 10 Best George Harrison Songs, appearing at #3 on the list.[3]
Contents |
Harrison's original version is featured in the movie Goodfellas, during the "May 11th, 1980" sequence. It is also featured in Away We Go, Big Daddy, and Patch Adams.
Ronnie Aldrich, British easy listening pianist, covered the song, as well as "My Sweet Lord" on his 1971 album, entitled Love Story.
German studio trio The Discothèques made a cover of the song, making the Swedish charts in the winter of 1972.
Australian pop singer Olivia Newton-John recorded a cover of "What Is Life" and reached the UK top 20 and the US Adult Contemporary singles chart in 1972.
Nicola Sirkis covered the song in 1992 on Dans La Lune... album.
A cover version by Shawn Mullins appears over the closing credits of Big Daddy from 1999.
Les Fradkin has a cover version included on his 2005 tribute CD, Something for George.
| Chart (1971) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Swiss Singles Chart[4] | 1 |
| Dutch Singles Chart[5] | 2 |
| German Singles Chart | 3 |
| Austrian Singles Chart[6] | 5 |
| Norwegian VG-lista Singles Chart[7] | 7 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100[8] | 10 |
| Japanese Oricon Singles Chart[9] | 19 |
| Chart (1972) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot Adult Contemporary Tracks | 34 |
| UK Singles Chart[10] | 16 |
| Preceded by "Butterfly" by Danyel Gérard |
Swiss Music Charts number-one single April 6, 1971 |
Succeeded by "Rose Garden" by Lynn Anderson |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||