Information AboutSomething |
"Something" is a Single released by The Beatles in 1969, and featured on the album '' Abbey Road ''. "Something" was the first Song written by George Harrison to appear on the A-side of a Beatles single, sharing top billing on the Double A-side single with " Come Together " in the United Kingdom. In the tracks already available on a Long Playing (LP) Album , with both "Something" and "Come Together" having appeared on '' Abbey Road ''. "Something" was the only Harrison composition to top the American charts while he was a Beatle. Although John Lennon and Paul McCartney — the two principal songwriting members of the band — both praised "Something" as among the best songs Harrison had written, the recording of the song was marked by acrimonious spats; The Beatles officially dissolved a year after the song's release. Despite this, the single managed to top the Billboard charts in the United States, and also entered the top 10 in the United Kingdom. After the breakup of The Beatles, the song was covered by many artists including Shirley Bassey , Frank Sinatra , James Brown , Julio Iglesias , Smokey Robinson ; becoming the second-most covered Beatles song after " Yesterday ." WRITING AND RECORDING During the 1968 recording sessions for '' collection, released in 1996. It is commonly believed that Harrison's inspiration for "Something" was his wife at the time, Pattie Boyd . However, Harrison himself later denied this, saying that "Everybody presumed I wrote about Pattie, but actually when I wrote it I was thinking of Ray Charles ."Hammond, Ian (2001). [http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/VOLUME05/Oldsweetsongs.html "Old sweet songs" . Retrieved March 30, 2006. The original intention had never been for The Beatles to release the song. Instead, Harrison had planned to offer the song to '' that The Beatles began seriously working on "Something". The original draft that the Beatles used lasted eight minutes, with John Lennon on the Piano towards the end. The middle also contained a small Counter-melody section. Both the counter-melody and Lennon's piano piece were cut from the final version. Still, Lennon's piano was not erased totally. Some bits can be heard in the middle eight, in particular the line played downwards the C major scale, i.e. the connection passage to George's guitar solo. The erased parts of Lennon's piano section later became the basis for Lennon's song " Remember ". RELEASE AND ACCLAIM ''Abbey Road'' was released on , "Something" was released as a single in the United States, becoming the first Harrison composition to receive top billing on a Beatles single.Cross, Craig (2006). "American Singles" . Retrieved March 30, 2006. Although it began charting two weeks after its release on 18 October , doubts began to arise over the possibility of "Something" topping the American charts. It was the prevailing practice at the time to count sales and airplay of the A- and B-sides separately, and with "Come Together" rivaling "Something" in popularity, it was hardly certain that the single would reach number one. However, on 29 November , '' Billboard '' started factoring the performance of both A- and B-sides into their calculations. The result was that "Something" topped the American charts for a week, before eventually falling out of the charts about two months later(on the concurrent Cash Box singles chart, which continued to measure the performance on both sides of a single separately, "Something" peaked at number two while "Come Together" spent three weeks at number one). The single was certified Gold just three weeks after its initial release, but was not heard of again sales-wise until 1999, when it was declared Platinum . 's first time as the writer of a song on the A-side of a Beatles single.]] In the United Kingdom, "Something" came out on 31 October . It was the first Beatles single there to have a Harrison song on the A-side, and it was also the first single also feature songs already available on an album." Love Me Do " and " Please Please Me " were released before ''Please Please Me'' and then included on it, but "Something" was issued on '' Abbey Road '' before its release as a single. Although "Something" began to chart on 8 November , it was not a major hit with the British public. It eventually peaked at number four in the charts, before eventually falling out three months after its initial release. In the UK Shirley Bassey 's version also reached #4.Cross, Craig (2006). "British Singles" . Retrieved March 30, 2006. Although Harrison himself had been dismissive of the song—he later said that he "put it on ice for about six months because I thought 'that's too easy'" "Something" . Retrieved April 2, 2006.—Lennon and McCartney both stated that they held "Something" in high regard. Lennon said "I think that's about the best track on the album, actually", while McCartney said "For me I think it's the best he's written." "Album: Abbey Road" . Retrieved March 30, 2006. Both had largely ignored Harrison's compositions prior to "Something", with their own songs taking much of the limelight. Lennon later explained: "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." Despite this, things were not going well for the band. The recording of ''Abbey Road'' had been marked by numerous arguments among the band members, and their last album — '' Let It Be '' — comprised abandoned recordings from the ''Get Back'' sessions instead of any new work. By the time the promotional video for "Something" was being shot, the individual Beatles had drawn apart; the film consisted of separate clips of each Beatle walking around his home, accompanied by his wife, edited together. Shortly after the release of ''Let It Be'' in 1970, The Beatles announced their break-up. That same year, "Something" received the (B-Side of 45 Think {Link without Title} /Something; Polydor PD-14185; 1973) and Smokey Robinson . Frank Sinatra was particularly impressed with "Something". Calling it "the greatest love song ever written", he sang it hundreds of times at various Concert s. However, he once made the comment that "Something" was his all-time favorite Lennon/McCartney song, and frequently introduced it as a Lennon/McCartney composition. Harrison did not appear to mind this, and instead borrowed an alteration to the lyric that Sinatra had made. Where the original song was "You stick around now it may show", Sinatra sang "You stick around, Jack, she might show." This change was eagerly adopted by Harrison, who used the same lyrics whenever he performed "Something" as part of his touring repertoire.Marck, John T. (2006). "Oh Look Out! Part 12, Abbey Road" . Retrieved April 1, 2006. "Something" continues to garner accolades from the musical establishment years after its release, with the (BMI) named "Something" as the 17th-most performed song of the 20th century, with five million performances in all. Other Beatles songs on the list were " Yesterday " and " Let It Be ", both attributed to Lennon and McCartney. "Awards: The BMI Top 100 Songs" . ( From the Internet Archive .) Retrieved February 11, 2004. ( From the Internet Archive .) Retrieved June 3, 2004. In 2002, after George Harrison's death, McCartney and also played the song live as a tribute for Harrison following his death. Pareles, Jon. "Dylan's After-Hours Side," ''New York Times'' . Retrieved February 28, 2007. Bob Dates Set Lists Fall 2002 Tour (November 13, 2002) . Retrieved February 28, 2007. McCartney also performed a cover of the song using just a Ukulele within his 'Back in The US' and 'Back in the World' tours; as George Harrison was a fan of ukuleles, this would often get a good response with the audience. COVER VERSIONS "Something" has been covered by these artists, and others: STRUCTURE AND LYRICS The lead vocalist for "Something" was version of the song, this was dropped along with the counter-melody. A demo of the acoustic version with the counter-melody included was later released as part of '' Anthology 3 ''. On the final release, the counter-melody was replaced by an Instrumental Break , and the song was given a softer tone with the introduction of a string arrangement by George Martin , The Beatles' producer. The theme of the song is the singer's affection for his beloved, and his uncertainty about the direction of the relationship. One reviewer described it as "an unabashedly straightforward and sentimental love song" at a time "when most of The Beatles' songs were dealing with non-romantic topics or presenting cryptic and allusive lyrics even when they were writing about love". A is available. NOTES AND REFERENCES
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