The feud between George Harrison and The Hollies
In December 1965, The Beatles released Rubber Soul, an early glimpse of the psychedelic era to come. The album gathered a robust collection of Lennon-McCartney concoctions, including ‘Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)’, ‘Drive My Car’, ‘Girl’ and ‘In My Life’. The album was also home to George Harrison’s love song for Pattie Boyd, ‘If I Needed Someone’.
The track was widely considered Harrison’s greatest songwriting contribution to date and caught the eye of established chart-topper Graham Nash. On the day of Rubber Soul’s release, December 3rd, 1965, The Hollies issued their cover of the single. Sadly, despite receiving royalties from the cover, Harrison wasn’t best pleased.
In December 1965, New Musical Express writer Alan Smith accompanied The Beatles on one of their final tours of the UK. During the circuit, he asked Harrison about the Hollies’ version of ‘If I Needed Someone’. He reported: “George was getting ready for the first house performance, and I asked him about songwriting. ‘I see you’ve written one for the Hollies.’ George turned sharply away from the mirror. ‘Tell people that I didn’t write it for the Hollies,’ he said bluntly. ‘It’s called ‘If I Needed Someone’ and they’ve done it as their new single, but their version is not my kind of music. I think it’s rubbish the way they’ve done it! They’ve spoilt it. The Hollies are all right musically, but the way they do their records, they sound like session men who’ve just got together in a studio without ever seeing each other before. Technically good, yes. But that’s all.’”
A week later, Graham Nash, lead singer of The Hollies, responded to Harrison’s dismissive appraisal. “Not only do these comments disappoint and hurt us, but we’re sick and tired of everything the Beatles say or do being taken as law,” he told New Musical Express. “The thing that hurt us the most was George Harrison’s knock at us as musicians. And I would like to ask this: if we have made such a disgusting mess of his brainchild song, will he give all the royalties from our record to charity?
“I’ll tell you this much: we did this song against a lot of people’s advice. We just felt that after nine records, we could afford to do something like this without being accused of jumping on the Beatles’ bandwagon. We thought it a good song. And still do”.
Adding: “About the crack about us sounding like session men, I suppose he means we don’t have any soul in our discs. Rubbish. We don’t profess to be a soul R&B-type group, and we never have. My opinion of the Beatles hasn’t changed. I still think they’re great, and I’m not going to say anything stupid like, ‘I’m going to burn all their records in my collection’. No. I Like their music. But knocking comments like the one about us are a load of bollocks.”
A week thereafter, the letters segment of the New Musical Express was inundated with readers’ comments on the feud. A reader named Mick Foxcroft wrote: “So George Harrison thinks that the Hollies’ version of ‘If I Needed Someone’ is a load of rubbish. Comparing the two versions, I find that the drumming of Bobby Elliott is far better than that of Mr. Starr and the Hollies’ vocal harmony is superior to the Beatles.”
Another reader, called Linda Marks, commented: “How dare George Harrison run down the Hollies. The Hollies are a fantastic group with a great sound, and they have made a great job of their new single.”
Towards 1966, The Hollies’ cover single stalled at number 20 on the UK charts and was considered a flop, given that all of the band’s singles since mid-1963 had hit the top ten.
In January 1966, Beat Instrumental magazine interviewed the Hollies, asking them about the controversies of a month prior. “The controversy that surrounded their single, plus its slow progress up the charts, had the boys on tenterhooks, and they are going to make sure they look closely at what they choose to record in the future,” writer Brian Clark wrote. “Graham told me they don’t just intend to hit with the next one, they plan to smash the charts in two.”
“After the fuss and disappointment of the last one, we realise that the next one must do something really good, so we’re going to launch a major attack on the charts,” Nash said. “The next song we record as a single is going to be so strong, it’ll split the top ten in two! No, seriously, we are determined to find a really strong number, and if it means waiting for months on end, we don’t mind. But all that waiting might not be necessary. The right one might even come along tomorrow.”
This level of cockiness often foreshadows a comic fall from grace, but Nash and his group stuck to their promise and their follow-up single, ‘Can’t Let Go’, reached a respectable number two for three weeks in which none of the Beatles’ catalogue appeared in the top ten.
In his 2013 autobiography, Wild Tales: A Rock & Roll Life, Nash re-examined wounds of the past: “In those days, tweaking a Beatle was like blaspheming the pope … Every English group owed them a huge debt, but I had no intention of kissing their asses … Besides, last I looked, the Hollies were holding down places on the same top ten as the Beatles, so pardon me if you don’t like our fucking record but keep it to yourself, if you please.”
Hear The Hollies’ version of Harrison’s ‘If I Needed Someone’ below.
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