How many number one singles did George Harrison have?
George Harrison naming one of his albums Dark Horse wasn’t necessarily an accident. Through his time with The Beatles and even during his solo career, he always seemed to be the one Fab with the odds stacked against him, but that didn’t stop him from notching up one hit after another once All Things Must Pass was released. However, when looking at the massive singles that he released with The Beatles, only a handful of Harrison’s greatest moments managed to hit the top of the hit parade.
Granted, Harrison wasn’t simply after chart success throughout his career. He was more interested in making sponges that were indebted to his spiritual side, and listening back to most of his albums, there are tunes that take a lot more time for people to fully comprehend rather than the immediate hooks that you’d get out of one of Paul McCartney’s granny songs.
That’s not to say that some of Harrison’s songs couldn’t get stuck in one’s head right off the bat. Considering how many great tracks are on it, All Things Must Pass could be a glorified greatest hits album, and even the deep cuts from the record, like ‘Awaiting On You All’ or ‘Run of the Mill’ are so good you’d have to wonder what the hell John Lennon and McCartney were thinking not including them on Beatles projects.
But while McCartney had more years to work with than Harrison as a pop superstar, the guitarist did manage to get three of his singles on top of the hit parade on either side of the Atlantic. While that kind of success wasn’t what he was after, it’s nice to see how each of these standout tracks helps tell a bit more of the story behind the reserved member of one of the greatest bands to walk the Earth.
So which George Harrison singles reached number one?
Right as Harrison struck out on his own, it was clear All Things Must Pass was going to be an album to contend with. While McCartney was releasing glorified demos and Lennon was getting his inner demons out of his system, Harrison’s ‘My Sweet Lord’ introduced everyone to a post-Beatles world perfectly. The tune might be a little bit tainted by his accidental plagiarism of the doo-wop classic ‘He’s So Fine’, this is Harrison through and through, down to that classic two-part guitar harmony that plays throughout the tune.
Despite making a song odyssey that’s impossible to top on his debut, ‘Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)’ marked a rare record for The Beatles’ family. After making another intimate album in Living in the Material World, the opening track marked the first time the Top Three singles in the US were all under the Apple banner, with Harrison taking the number one spot followed by Wings’ ‘My Love’ and honourary Fab Billy Preston’s knockout tune ‘Will It Go Round in Circles’.
From there, the number one hits seemed to dry up in the UK and the US, but right as the 1960s nostalgia started coming back in the late 1980s, Harrison scored one last number one in America with his cover of ‘Got My Mind Set On You’. Even though this tune was practically timestamped in the 1960s, hearing Harrison revamp the tune with Jeff Lynne’s ear for production led to him having the final number one from any Beatle, with McCartney not being able to surpass him.
While Cloud Nine would be the last time Harrison would see one of his own albums released, that didn’t mean that he suddenly stopped creating great music. No matter what ended up on the charts, hearing him play on his own, reunite with the remaining Beatles, or strum along with his buddies in the Traveling Wilburys was always a joy to see, knowing that Harrison was finally making music because of the genuine fun he had making it.
