Paul McCartney is an impressive musical talent who knows how to play numerous instruments, including the guitar, the bass guitar, the piano, and the drums. He hasn’t played the ukulele much in his songs, but he once surprised George Harrison by playing one of his most famous Beatles songs on the instrument.
Paul McCartney played ‘Something’ for George Harrison on the ukulele
George Harrison wrote “Something” for The Beatles’ Abbey Road. It’s a stunning love ballad that proved Harrison was capable of writing hit songs for the band, since his songwriting talents were limited with the fab four. Many famous artists, such as Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles, have covered it. However, the most surprising rendition might have come from his fellow bandmate, Paul McCartney.
McCartney performed the song in 2022 at Glastonbury, but before playing it, he told the crowd about a time when he played it on the ukulele for Harrison.
“I was round at his house one day,” McCartney said. “We were sitting there just jamming, and I said to him, ‘I’ve learned one of your songs on the ukulele. So we played it together that day, and we’d like to play it for you now.”
McCartney said ‘Something’ is Harrison’s best Beatles song
George Harrison wrote over 20 songs for The Beatles, but Paul McCartney believes “Something” is his best. Others include “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, “Here Comes the Sun”, and “Within You Without You”. However, McCartney believed “Something” was Harrison’s “greatest track” with The Beatles.
“I thought it was George’s greatest track – with ‘Here Comes The Sun’ and ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’. They were possibly his best three,” McCartney said in Anthology. “Until then, he had only done one or two songs per album. I don’t think he thought of himself very much as a songwriter, and John and I obviously would dominate – again, not really meaning to, but we were ‘Lennon and McCartney’. So when an album comes up, Lennon and McCartney go and write some stuff – and maybe it wasn’t easy for him to get into that wedge. But he finally came up with ‘Something’ and a couple of other songs that were great, and I think everyone was very pleased for him.”
‘Something’ is the biggest hit Harrison wrote for The Beatles
Out of the 22 songs Harrison wrote for The Beatles, “Something” is the only one that became a No. 1 hit. It was released in 1969 as a double A-side single with “Come Together”. While it peaked at No. 4 in the U.K., it reached No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and spent 16 weeks on the chart.
While it was his only No. 1 hit with The Beatles, he would have more in his solo career. He became the first member of The Beatles to have a solo No. 1 hit with “My Sweet Lord”. He had two more, including “Give Me Love” and “Got My Mind Set On You”. While his songwriting was limited in his time with The Beatles, “Something” was an indicator of the success he would have as a solo artist.
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