The 1960s were defined by innovation and cultural development, with youth-led fashion, art and musical movements reinventing the wheel. The United Kingdom became an epicentre of new bands and styles, which soon made their way over the pond – a phenomenon known as the British Invasion.
From mini skirts and dramatic eye makeup to the sounds of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, the ‘60s was arguably the most influential decade of the 20th century. Beatlemania took its hold during the earlier half of the decade, as the mop-topped Liverpool lads entered the scene singing sweet love songs and classic rhythm and blues covers. It wasn’t long before The Beatles were the biggest band in the world, releasing pioneering albums that introduced new recording techniques and instruments to popular Western music.
The band released one of their most iconic albums, Abbey Road, in 1969, which features well-loved tracks such as ‘Here Comes The Sun’, ‘Come Together’ and the beautiful love song, ‘Something’. Written by George Harrison, the track is widely believed to be about his wife, Pattie Boyd, whom he married in 1966 before divorcing in 1974. In Boyd’s book Wonderful Today, she recalled, “He told me, in a matter-of-fact way, that he had written it for me. I thought it was beautiful.”
Yet, Harrison has often disputed the claim that he wrote the song about Boyd. In 1996, he revealed in an interview, “I just wrote it. And then somebody put together a video. And what they did was they went out and got some footage of me and Pattie, Paul and Linda, Ringo and Maureen, it was at that time, and John and Yoko, and they just made up a little video to go with it. So then, everybody presumed I wrote it about Pattie, but actually, when I wrote it, I was thinking of Ray Charles.”
Regardless, talking to Ronnie Wood about the song, Boyd explained: “I’m deeply, deeply honoured that George wrote that seriously beautiful song.” She also revealed how he played the track for her once he returned from recording, and she instantly fell in love with it.
“He was quite shy, and he didn’t really tell me straight away that he’d written it for me. He waited until he’d got back from the studio, and they’d put it down on a cassette […], and so he played it and said that he’d written it for me, and I was just completely blown away.”
Harrison played it to Boyd in the kitchen of their home, as she recalled in her book, “My favourite [version of ‘Something’] was the one by George Harrison, which he played to me in the kitchen at Kinfauns.” Since then, the song has become one of the most iconic love songs of all time, acting as definitive proof of Harrison’s incredible songwriting skills.
