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Something - Composing and recording

Something - Composing and recording: Encyclopedia II - Something - Composing and recording

"Something", according to most sources, came about as a tribute to Harrison's then wife, Pattie Boyd. Harrison lifted the first line of his song from James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves" (made popular by Tom Rush's 1968 recording) and used it to write a working lyric ("Something in the way she moves / Attracts me like a pomegranate", in the vein of "Scrambled Eggs," the original lyrics to "Yesterday"). Later in 1969, Harrison offered his story of how he composed it, but oddly didn't make any reference to the numerous anecdotes abo ...

Something: Encyclopedia II - Something - Composing and recording

Something - Composing and recording

I wrote the song "Something" for the album before this one, but I never finished it off until just recently. I usually get the first few lines of words and music together, both at once... and then finish the rest of the melody. Then I have to write the words. It's like another song I wrote when we were in India. I wrote the whole first verse and just said everything I wanted to say, and so now I need to write a couple more verses. I find that much more difficult. But John gave me a handy tip. He said, 'Once you start to write a song, try to finish it straight away while you're still in the same mood.' Sometimes you go back to it and you're in a whole different state of mind. So now, I do try to finish them straight away.

It later transpired that Harrison didn't actually have Boyd in mind. In his words: "Everybody presumed I wrote ['Something'] about Patti, but actually when I wrote it I was thinking of Ray Charles." [1]

The original version, at eight minutes, was even longer than "Hey Jude," featuring Lennon on the piano at the end, with a counter-melody in the middle. These were cut out, the piano part going to a Lennon song, "Remember," and the counter-melody finally appearing on The Beatles Anthology 3.

"Something" was nearly polished by the release of the Beatles' self-titled The Beatles album, as it had been recorded, but eventually dropped for the album's release. Harrison explained it in 1980:

"Something" was written on the piano while we were making the White Album. I had a break while Paul was doing some overdubbing so I went into an empty studio and began to write. That's really all there is to it, except the middle took some time to sort out. It didn't go on the White Album because we'd already finished all the tracks.

The song was later tried as part of the "Get Back" project which eventually became Let It Be, but again failed to make the final cut. Eventually Harrison succeeded in forcing the song's way into a final release, officially recording it for Abbey Road on his 26th birthday. Harrison played lead guitar, accompanied by McCartney on bass and Ringo Starr on drums. Billy Preston, one of the few non-Beatles to have performed with them on a final release, joined them on the organ. George Martin subsequently edited in a string arrangement to the original recording. Harrison later complained about McCartney's 'fussy' bass playing on the track, saying he'd "rather have Willie Weeks playing bass for me than Paul McCartney".

The song runs at a speed of about sixty-six beats per minute and is in common time throughout. The melody begins in the key of C Major. It continues in this key throughout the intro and the first two verses, until the bridge, which is in the key of A Major. After the bridge, the melody returns to C Major for the guitar solo, the third verse, and the outro.