Something (Beatles song)
"Something" is a song written by George Harrison, originally released on the Beatles' last chronological album, Abbey Road by Apple Records. It is the Beatles' song with the second-most cover versions – about a thousand – trailing behind "Yesterday," which has three times that number. BMI has certified "Something" as the 17th most performed song of the 20th century, with over five million performances.
"Something," together with "Here Comes the Sun," another song from Abbey Road, thrust Harrison into the limelight as a full-fledged songwriter. Beforehand, his compositions were mostly lacklustre, overshadowed by the collaborative works of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Composing and recording
"Something", according to most sources, came about as a tribute to Harrison's then wife, Pattie Boyd. Harrison lifted the first line of his song from James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves," and used it to write a working lyric ("Something in the way she moves / Attracts me like a pomegranate"), in the vein of "Scrambled Eggs," the original lyrics to "Yesterday". Later in 1969, Harrison offered his story of how he composed it, but oddly didn't make any reference to the numerous anecdotes about "Something":
- I wrote the song "Something" for the album before this one, but I never finished it off until just recently. I usually get the first few lines of words and music together, both at once... and then finish the rest of the melody. Then I have to write the words. It's like another song I wrote when we were in India. I wrote the whole first verse and just said everything I wanted to say, and so now I need to write a couple more verses. I find that much more difficult. But John gave me a handy tip. He said, 'Once you start to write a song, try to finish it straight away while you're still in the same mood.' Sometimes you go back to it and you're in a whole different state of mind. So now, I do try to finish them straight away.
However, it eventually came out that Harrison didn't actually have Boyd in mind. In his words: "Everybody presumed I wrote ['Something'] about Patti, but actually when I wrote it I was thinking of Ray Charles." [1]
The original version, at eight minutes, was even longer than "Hey Jude," featuring Lennon on the piano at the end, with a counter-melody in the middle. These were cut out, the piano part going to a Lennon song, "Remember," and the counter-melody finally appearing on The Beatles Anthology 3.
"Something" was nearly polished by the release of the Beatles' self-titled The Beatles album, as it had been recorded, but eventually dropped, for the album's release. Harrison explained it in 1980: :"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 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.
The song was later tried as part of the "Get Back" project which eventually became Let It Be, but again failed to make the final cut. Eventually Harrison succeeded in forcing the song's way into a final release, officially recording it for Abbey Road on his 26th birthday. Harrison played lead guitar, accompanied by McCartney on bass and Ringo Starr on drums. Billy Preston, one of the few non-Beatles to have performed with them on a final release, joined them on the organ. Later on, George Martin edited in a string arrangement to the original recording. Harrison later complained about McCartney's bass playing, saying he'd "rather have Willie Weeks playing bass for me than Paul McCartney".
Initial releases
Strangely, Harrison did not think much of the song at first, offering it to Joe Cocker to record before he decided to produce it for Abbey Road, with the result that Cocker's cover version actually came out before the Beatles' original did. When the Beatles did release "Something," it was on Abbey Road. The song was an instant hit, leading to a record first – the Beatles decided to release "Something" as a single in the United Kingdom, an unprecedented incident, as beforehand, the Beatles and the late Brian Epstein had objected to releasing songs still available on an album as a single.
The single, released on October 31, 1969 by Apple Records, with "Come Together" joining it as a double A-side, was Harrison's first time as the writer of a song on the A-side of a Beatles' single. On November 8, it also became Harrison's first song to chart in the United Kingdom, dropping off the charts 12 weeks afterwards. Despite much critical acclaim, "Something" failed to break the top 3 in the United Kingdom.
The promotional film for "Something" was rather unique – instead of featuring the Beatles as a group, it showed them walking around their respective homes. It turned out the Beatles were so fed up with each other, they couldn't be bothered to waste time recording a promotional film together.
In the United States, "Something" was released as a single (also released by Apple) on October 6, beginning its run in the charts on October 18. However, it took an eternity to lay claim to the number one position, hindered by the fact that it had been paired, like its United Kingdom counterpart, with "Come Together", but this time on the B-side, which drained sales away (Record World's numbers actually indicated that the sales of "Come Together" outnumbered "Something"). At the last minute, Billboard magazine changed its rules for tallying the sales of a single, counting both the A-side and B-side sales together instead of separating them as done previously. This led to "Something" ruling the roost of the American charts for a week from November 29.
Despite both the British and American singles being released by Apple, the real rights to the song actually belonged to Parlophone in the United Kingdom, and Capitol Records in the United States.
A runaway hit
"Something" was well-received by almost all quarters, compared to "Yesterday" which had been accused of being too ordinary a composition. John Lennon declared that "Something" was the best song on Abbey Road, going on to state:
- There was an embarrassing period when George's songs weren't that good and nobody wanted to say anything. He just wasn't in the same league for a long time – that's not putting him down, he just hadn't had the practice as a writer that we'd had."
McCartney emphatically echoed Lennon's opinion, saying, "I like George's song 'Something.' For me I think it's the best he's written."
In the ten years following its release, "Something" accumulated 150 cover versions. While recording his own cover version in the 1970s, no less than Frank Sinatra announced that "Something" was "the greatest love song of the last fifty years." However, Sinatra made a gaffe – in his original statement, he mistakenly attributed it to the Lennon / McCartney partnership, which wrote much of the Beatles' material. Sinatra also made an innovation of his own on the song, changing one of its lines to "You stick around, Jack / And she might show" which Harrison loved – in all his future performances of "Something", he used Sinatra's modified lyric instead of his original.
Of the numerous cover versions of "Something", Harrison's personal favourites were those by James Brown and Smokey Robinson.
In 1970, "Something" won the Ivor Novello award for "Best Song Musically & Lyrically", unfortunately being overshadowed elsewhere by other Beatles' songs from Let It Be, notably the title track.
But what's it all about anyway?
"Something" is a song wherein the narrator agonises about falling in love. He isn't sure if this passing romance will last, or if he really even loves her. Regardless, he doesn't want her to leave, even though he's not sure their love will grow. A rising hook phrase opens and closes the song. An undertow in the bassline evokes a falling motion throughout the song.
A sample from the song is available.
References
- The Beatles official website. Retrieved Aug. 17, 2004.
- The Beatles Ultimate Experience. Retrieved Aug. 17, 2004.
- beatles-discography.com. Retrieved Aug. 17, 2004.
- beatles-discography.com. Retrieved Aug. 17, 2004.
- beatles-discography.com. Retrieved Aug. 17, 2004.
