“I forgot about it”: the song George Harrison thought was too high to sing
There aren’t many facets of pop vocals that The Beatles haven’t covered in some capacity. Even though every one of them could have claimed to be a virtuoso singer, George Harrison always seemed to have a different approach, usually having a certain conviction in his voice that went much further than the typical exercises everyone else goes through. When he kicked off one of his albums with this knockout single, though, ‘The Quiet Beatle’ managed to swing for the fences with a song that he couldn’t properly sing.
Looking through all of Harrison’s best material, though, there are never too many songs that are specifically designed to test his vocal range. The whole point behind his tracks was to make songs that served as prayers to a higher power, so that meant trying to avoid the Freddie Mercury-style high notes that most people tried to wow crowds with.
And it’s not like Harrison needed to worry about his superior vocal method, either. People were more than happy to hear him play through albums like All Things Must Pass while keeping everything fairly simple. After becoming one of the most famous ex-Beatles, though, Harrison had to be put through the wringer like he had never been before, going through a triple album, making a follow-up, and setting up The Concert For Bangladesh all in one go.
Naturally, anyone who does that much is probably going to collapse, and by the time Dark Horse came out, Harrison was left with a throaty croak half the time. Right before he was about to record vocals, he contracted laryngitis, leading to him sounding like a soppy lounge singer going through half the album. While Extra Texture saw him back in true form, ‘You’ was the moment everyone realised his vocals were back.
Written for Ronnie Spector, Harrison tried his best to capture the feelings of those early girl groups in this song, thinking it would be recorded by Spector later. Once it got lost in the shuffle, Harrison figured it’d be better to record it himself but didn’t account for the fact that the key was miles away from what he was used to.
Even though Harrison does hit every note perfectly, he said that it didn’t come without a bit of a struggle, saying, “I forgot about it and years later dug the tape out and re-worked it, overdubbed on it and did it myself even though it was recorded in Ronnie’s register – a bit high for me.” Given the hoarse delivery of the last album, though, this kicks everything off with a reminder of what Harrison sounded like at his best.
As it turns out, ‘You’ may have done its job a little too well. The single itself feels like it belongs in the same conversation as Paul McCartney’s greatest sentimental love songs, but considering the rest of the album is a meandering slog from start to finish, this is the only piece that’s worth salvaging, especially with Harrison bringing back the song for a few seconds at the beginning of the flip side of the record.
So, while it’s great to have had Harrison’s voice back in full force, ‘You’ feels like a happy face being pasted on top of a fairly dire album. Still, it’s better to have more George Harrison music out in the world than to have had him take years off to figure out what his next move was going to be.
