Basics

Full Name: George Harrison*
Pseudonyms: Arthur Wax, Carl Harrison, George Harrysong, George O'Hara, Hari Georgeson, Son of Harry, Spike Wilbury
Date of Birth: February 25, 1943**
Place of Birth: Liverpool, England
Siblings: Harold, Peter, and Louise
Schools: Dovedale Primary; Liverpool Institute
Wives: Pattie Boyd (divorced), Olivia Harrison
Children: Dhani Harrison
Date of Death: November 29, 2001

* George's full name is often given as "George Harold Harrison," but this is incorrect. He had no middle name, according to his birth certificate. Harold was his father's name.

** Louise Harrison, George's sister, has said that their mother wrote in her diary that George was born ten minutes after midnight on February 25, 1943, though George himself claimed that he had been born on February 24 at 11:40 pm.

Did You Know?

During "Beatlemania," George was dubbed "The Quiet Beatle" for his introspective manner and tendency not to speak as much as the others in press conferences.

George's first song, "Don't Bother Me," was written in 1963 when he was feeling under the weather. He said it was an exercise to see if he could write a song. He later dismissed it as "crappy."

George's musical influences included Chet Atkins, Carl Perkins, and Chuck Berry.

Late in The Beatles' career, George became interested in the Indian music and Hinduism. He began to play the sitar and took lessons with Ravi Shankar.

George made a cameo appearance in the Beatles parody film, The Rutles.

Extended Biography

George's childhood home was in 12 Arnold Grove, Liverpool, England. The first school he attended was Dovedale Primary, just off Penny Lane. Later on, he started attending the Liverpool Institute, where he met Paul McCartney and became friends with him.

George picked up the guitar at an early age; his influences were Chuck Berry, Carl Perkins, and Chet Atkins. He was invited to join John's rock'n'roll band, The Quarry Men (later became The Beatles), by Paul McCartney, because the group needed a lead guitarist. John at first thought George was too young to be in the group, but George's age didn't seem to be such a big deal when John heard George's rendition of "Raunchy."

In 1959, George worked briefly as an apprentice electrician at Blackler's Store in Liverpool. Because of this, George later became the member of The Beatles who knew the most about rigging their sound equipment.

The first song George ever wrote was "Don't Bother Me," in 1963. It was an exercise to see if he could write a song. "Don't Bother Me" later went on the second Beatles album, With the Beatles. After that, The Beatles did not record another of his songs until 1965 when he contributed "I Need You" and "You Like Me Too Much" to the Help! album. The Beatles' producer, George Martin, admitted, "I was always rather beastly to George," because he would veto a lot of George's songs and instrumental ideas.

George became fascinated with Indian music in 1965 when his friend David Crosby of The Byrds introduced him to the Indian classical music and work of legendary sitar player Ravi Shankar. George quickly became fascinated with the sitar and Indian music and would later take lessons with Shankar to learn how to play.

George became the first Western popular musician to play a sitar on a pop record, on the Rubber Soul song "Norwegian Wood."

Also in 1965, during the filming of Help!, a Hindu devotee presented each of The Beatles with a book on reincarnation. This was how George started to get into the religion, and towards the end of 1966 when The Beatles decided to stop touring, George spent the free time in India meeting with gurus and visiting holy places. When he returned for the Sgt. Pepper sessions later that year, he was a changed man.

George married Pattie Boyd in January of 1966. Pattie was a model whom he had met on the set of The Beatles' first movie, A Hard Day's Night. He reportedly wrote the song "Something" for her in 1969, but he denied this, saying it was simply just a song he wrote picturing Ray Charles singing it.

In 1967, while in England George met the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, who introduced The Beatles to transcendental meditation. When The Beatles parted company with the Maharishi months later, George continued to believe and follow Eastern spirituality.

Towards the end of the sixties, George became good friends with Eric Clapton and co-wrote the song "Badge" with him; the song later appeared on Cream's farewell album in 1969. Ironically, Pattie divorced George for Clapton later on, but the two men remained close friends and called themselves "husbands-in-law."

During the making of The White Album, things were very tense among the four Beatles, and George threatened to leave the group on several occasions. In 1969, Paul expressed dissatisfaction with George's guitar playing, and quite a few Beatles songs from that period feature John or Paul on lead guitar. The tension between George and Paul became so bad during the filming of Let It Be that George briefly left the group.

After the Beatles split in 1970, George released many solo albums that were successful. His first major solo work released after the breakup was All Things Must Pass. It was the first triple album by a single artist in rock history. The album included the hit "My Sweet Lord," over which George was sued for copyright infringement due to the similarities between it and The Chiffons' single "He's So Fine." George denied deliberately stealing the song, but lost the court case in 1976.

George was probably the first modern musician to organize a major charity concert when, in 1971, his Concert for Bangladesh drew over 40,000 people to two shows in Madison Square Garden with the intention of aiding starving refugees from the war in Bangladesh. The concert included Ravi Shankar, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Badfinger, and Ringo Starr.

George's next album, released in 1973, was Living in the Material World. "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" was a huge hit from this. Dark Horse followed in 1974 and at the same time George went on a tour in the United States which was criticized for its long opening act of Ravi Shankar & Friends and George's hoarse voice. It was during the period of preparation for the tour in 1974 that he opened offices for his new Dark Horse Records in LA. It was in those offices that he met Olivia Trinidad Arias, who George later married in 1978. They had one son together, Dhani, who now looks so much like his father that Paul McCartney once joked on stage at Concert for George: "Olivia told me that it looks like George stayed young and we all got old."

Thirty Three & 1/3 was George's most successful album from the late 70s. It included "This Song," a satire of the "My Sweet Lord" ruling, and "Crackerbox Palace."

In 1980, George became the only former Beatle to write an autobiography, I Me Mine. Derek Taylor, The Beatles' former publicist, helped him with the book. The book said very little about The Beatles and focused on George's hobbies, like gardening and Formula One auto racing.

Following the death of John Lennon in 1980, George immediately modified the lyrics of a song he had written for Ringo Starr to turn it into a tribute to John and titled it "All Those Years Ago." It became a single, and all three remaining Beatles performed on it. "Teardrops" was released as a follow-up single, but it wasn't as successful as the previous one had been. Both singles were pulled from the 1981 album Somewhere in England.

George released no new records for five years after 1982's Gone Troppo seemed to be met with indifference. In 1987, George returned with the successful Cloud Nine album. George's cover version of James Ray's early sixties number "Got My Mind Set on You" was released as a single and became a hit, and the single "When We Was Fab" also became a minor hit. MTV regularly played the two videos, and the album got up to #8.

During the late 80s, George formed the Traveling Wilburys with Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne, Bob Dylan, and Tom Petty. Their album, Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1 released in October 1988, was named one of the Top 100 albums of all time by Rolling Stone magazine.

In the early 90s, Roy Orbison died, so the rest of the Traveling Wilburys asked Del Shannon about replacing Roy, but it wasn't long before he, too, died. The band recorded their new album as a four-piece. The second album was not as successful as the first, although it did manage to stay on the charts for quite some time.

In 1991, George went on a tour of Japan with Eric Clapton. It was his first tour since the 1974 one, and although George seemed to enjoy it, there would be no other tours. The Live in Japan recording came from the Japan shows.

In 1995, George became involved in a feud with Oasis' Gallagher brothers. The brothers were offended when George called them "silly" and "a passing fad." Noel Gallagher responded by saying, "George was always the quiet Beatle - maybe he should keep that up." Apparently the feud was very short-lived, and when Noel and George actually met, they got on well.

George fought a constant battle with cancer throughout the 90s, having growths first removed from his throat, then his lung. There was also an attempt on George's life in 1999 by a crazed fan who broke into George's home in Friar Park and stabbed him multiple times, ultimately puncturing his lung. George and wife Olivia fought the intruder and detained him for the police. The intruder was later acquitted on the grounds of insanity.

George's death in 2001 was ascribed to lung cancer. After his death, his family released the following statement: "He left this world as he lived in it: conscious of God, fearless of death and at peace, surrounded by family and friends." George's final album, Brainwashed, was completed by son Dhani and released in November of 2002.

George was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist on March 15, 2004.