George Harrison did write several great songs for The Beatles, but “Something” was the most successful track he wrote for the band. Many listeners were awed by Harrison’s sweeping love ballad, and many musicians were impressed by Harrison’s work. The track has been covered hundreds of times, and Harrison once named his favorite cover of his Beatles hit.
‘Something’ is the only No. 1 hit George Harrison wrote for The Beatles
Harrison didn’t contribute the same number of songs for The Beatles as Paul McCartney and John Lennon did, but he did have a few great tracks, such as “Here Comes the Sun” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”. However, “Something” is the biggest hit he wrote for The Beatles. Released as a double A-side single with “Come Together”, “Something” topped the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1969.
It was also included on Abbey Road, a massive chart success. Many other musicians loved the song and decided to record their own versions. Artists who covered it include Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, James Brown, Smokey Robinson, and Elvis Presley. Sinatra once declared it as “the greatest love song of the past 50 years.”
Harrison said his favorite cover of ‘Something’ was by James Brown
https://youtu.be/OJQJXDaKZCI
James Brown released his cover of “Something” in 1973. His cover of the Beatles hit does diverge from the original, as Brown converts the song into a slow blues ballad infused with his signature soul vocals. In an interview with MuchMusic, George Harrison said Brown’s version of “Something” was the “best one” he’d heard. He was amazed by his cover and even tried to convince him to make it the A-side of his single.
“The best one I ever heard was (from) James Brown, and he did it in 1972, but he did only as the B-side of a re-recorded version of ‘Think’, which is a very old song of his,” Harrison said. “So it was only on the B-side. I sent him a postcard and said: ‘You should make it the A-side, it’s a killer! It’s really good.”
In the same interview, Harrison also said he liked Smokey Robinson’s version and had changed his mind on Sinatra’s cover, which he initially didn’t like.
Harrison was influenced by Ray Charles but was disappointed by his cover
https://youtu.be/PvZBeU-HniI
In the novel George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters, Harrison discussed a few renditions of “Something”. He said that he wrote the song with Ray Charles in mind. However, he was disappointed with Charles’s version of “Something”, possibly because his expectations differed from what Charles did with it.
“Actually, when I was writing that song, in my mind, I was thinking of Ray Charles singing it,” Harrison explained. “As it happened, the song ended up with over 150 cover versions, but when Ray Charles did it, I was really disappointed, except for the middle, the bridge to it, he sings great. But it was a bit of a corny sort of way he did it.”
