George Harrison: a Duo Jet, a sitar and All Things Must Pass | Ultimate Guitarist Reunion

Why fans still care

GEORGE HARRISON played lead guitar in the Beatles and wrote Something, While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Here Comes the Sun. That last one is now the most streamed Beatles song on Spotify, with 1.94 billion plays by October 2026.

His first solo single, My Sweet Lord, was the first US number 1 by a former Beatle. All Things Must Pass, the triple album it came from, topped the charts in both the UK and the US. The Rock Hall calls him “the quiet Beatle”.

Early life

He was born on 25 February 1943 at the family home, 12 Arnold Grove in Wavertree, Liverpool, the youngest of Harold and Louise Harrison’s four children. His mother bought him his first guitar.

He joined John Lennon’s, Who’s Who number 5 in · The Ultimate Reunion (story coming soon) Quarrymen, through his schoolfriend Paul McCartney, Who’s Who number 4 in · Ultimate Beatles Reunion (story coming soon); they became the Beatles. On the first Hamburg trip, in August 1960, he was 17, too young for the work permit, and was sent home.

Career chapters

1. 1943Born in Wavertree, Liverpool
2. 1960Sent home from Hamburg for being under age
3. 1961Buys the Gretsch Duo Jet
4. 1965Sitar on Norwegian Wood
5. 1966Marries Pattie Boyd, with Paul McCartney, Who’s Who number 4 in · Ultimate Beatles Reunion (story coming soon) as best man
6. 1968Eric Clapton, Who’s Who number 3 gives him the Les Paul he called Lucy
7. 1970All Things Must Pass; My Sweet Lord goes to number 1
8. 1971The Concert for Bangladesh, Madison Square Garden
9. 1978HandMade Films; marries Olivia Arias
10. 1988Got My Mind Set on You, US number 1; the Traveling Wilburys
11. 2001Dies in Los Angeles, aged 58
12. 2004Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, inducted by Tom Petty, Who’s Who number 2 in · Ultimate Eagles Reunion (story coming soon)

The Beatles 1960 to 1970

He was the band’s lead guitarist, with John Lennon, Who’s Who number 5 in · The Ultimate Reunion (story coming soon), Paul McCartney, Who’s Who number 4 in · Ultimate Beatles Reunion (story coming soon) and Ringo Starr, Who’s Who number 5 in · Ultimate Beatles Reunion (story coming soon), and his own songs grew through the decade. Something went out as a double A-side with Come Together.

He first picked up a sitar on the set of Help!, and in the summer of 1965 he bought one from Indiacraft on Oxford Street. “It was as if I already knew it,” he said of Indian music. He went on to learn from Ravi Shankar.

In 1968 he asked Eric Clapton, Who’s Who number 3 to play on While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Guitar Player reports.

All Things Must Pass 1970

All Things Must Pass came out on 27 November 1970, co-produced with Phil Spector, with Ringo Starr, Who’s Who number 5 in · Ultimate Beatles Reunion (story coming soon), Eric Clapton, Who’s Who number 3 and Billy Preston among the players. It spent eight weeks at number 1 in the UK and seven in the US. The RIAA certified it 7x Platinum in January 2022.

My Sweet Lord went to number 1 in the US from 26 December 1970, for four weeks, and spent five weeks at number 1 in the UK in 1971.

The Concert for Bangladesh 1971

On 1 August 1971 he put on two shows at Madison Square Garden, at 2:30pm and 8pm, with the money going to UNICEF. The idea grew out of Ravi Shankar telling him about the refugee crisis. “The Concert for Bangladesh was just a moral stance,” he said. The live album won the Grammy for Album of the Year.

Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth) was his second US number 1, on 30 June 1973.

HandMade Films and Cloud Nine 1978 to 1988

In 1978 he and Denis O’Brien founded HandMade Films, and its first project was Monty Python’s Life of Brian. He married Olivia Arias that September. Their son Dhani was born that August.

Cloud Nine (1987), made with Jeff Lynne, gave him a third US number 1 when Got My Mind Set on You, a cover of James Ray’s 1962 record, topped the chart on 16 January 1988.

The Traveling Wilburys 1988 to 1990

With Tom Petty, Who’s Who number 2 in · Ultimate Eagles Reunion (story coming soon), Jeff Lynne and others he formed the Traveling Wilburys. Traveling Wilburys Volume One won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1990.

Last years 1998 to 2001

He announced in 1998 that he had throat cancer, and had surgery for lung cancer in May 2001. He died in Los Angeles on 29 November 2001, aged 58, with Olivia and Dhani with him.

In January 2002 My Sweet Lord went back to number 1 in the UK. In 2004 Tom Petty, Who’s Who number 2 in · Ultimate Eagles Reunion (story coming soon) inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Craft, sound and style

The Duo Jet

His first real American guitar, as he called it, was a black 1957 Gretsch 6128 Duo Jet, serial 21179. In the summer of 1961 he bought it from a Liverpool cab driver, Ivan Hayward, for £70 and a £20 IOU. Hayward had bought it new in New York. It carried him through the Cavern and Hamburg years and onto the early records.

He gave it to Klaus Voormann in the mid-1960s. It came back to him in the mid-1980s, and Alan Rogan restored it around 1985 and 1986. After mid-1963 his main guitars were Gretsch’s Country Gentleman and Tennessean.

The Gibson J-160E

He and John Lennon, Who’s Who number 5 in · The Ultimate Reunion (story coming soon) ordered Gibson J-160E acoustic-electrics from Rushworth’s in June 1962, and he collected his on 10 September 1962. It was there for the Love Me Do sessions.

The 12-string

His Rickenbacker electric 12-string on A Hard Day’s Night changed another band’s sound. Roger McGuinn saw it in the film, traded his Gibson 12-string for a Rickenbacker 360/12, and the Byrds’ sound came out of it. “I had to find out how they were getting that sound,” McGuinn told Guitar Player.

Tom Petty, Who’s Who number 2 in · Ultimate Eagles Reunion (story coming soon) singled out the 12-string riff on You Can’t Do That, which Harrison told him he’d come up with.

Rocky, Lucy and the Rosewood Telecaster

Rocky was a Sonic Blue 1961 Stratocaster, one of two bought in 1965 for him and John Lennon, Who’s Who number 5 in · The Ultimate Reunion (story coming soon). He painted it in Day-Glo colours during the Sgt. Pepper sessions and played it on All You Need Is Love on 25 June 1967.

Lucy was a 1957 Les Paul that started life as a goldtop and went through John Sebastian and Rick Derringer, who refinished it red, before Eric Clapton, Who’s Who number 3 gave it to him in August 1968. It’s on the White Album, Let It Be and Abbey Road.

Late in 1968 Fender built him a Rosewood Telecaster prototype, which he used on the Let It Be and Abbey Road sessions. He gave it to Delaney Bramlett in December 1969, and his estate later got it back. He also had a sunburst Gibson J-200, used on the 25 July 1968 acoustic demo of While My Guitar Gently Weeps and later given to Bob Dylan.

The sitar

His sitar part on Norwegian Wood in October 1965 is widely credited as the first time the instrument was heard on a pop record, Guitar Player says. The Rolling Stones’ Paint It Black followed.

Slide in standard tuning

In his solo years he became known for slide. Premier Guitar describes him as typically a standard-tuning slide player, with melodic lines that spell out the chords and land notes cleverly over diminished harmony. It counts him among the distinctive voices of slide guitar.

Stories people still tell

1. McCartney the best man.

   He married Pattie Boyd at Epsom register office on 21 January 1966, with Paul McCartney, Who’s Who number 4 in · Ultimate Beatles Reunion (story coming soon) as best man.

2. A Python film.

   HandMade Films was founded to get Monty Python’s Life of Brian made, and it became the company’s first film.

Legacy

The Rock Hall credits him with bringing Eastern music and spirituality to Western audiences. The Concert for Bangladesh started a UNICEF fund, and his solo songs have passed 2.5 billion Spotify streams. When he died, Paul McCartney, Who’s Who number 4 in · Ultimate Beatles Reunion (story coming soon) called him “a lovely guy and a very brave man”.