Something: Encyclopedia II - Something - Initial releases

Something - Initial releases

Strangely, Harrison did not think much of the song at first, offering it to Joe Cocker to record before he decided to produce it for Abbey Road, with the result that Cocker's cover version actually came out before the Beatles' original did. When the Beatles did release "Something," it was on Abbey Road. The song was an instant hit, leading to a record first – the Beatles decided to release "Something" as a single in the United Kingdom, an unprecedented incident, as beforehand, the Beatles and the late Brian Epstein had objected to releasing songs still available on an album as a single.

The single, released on October 31, 1969 by Apple Records, with "Come Together" joining it as a double A-side, was Harrison's first time as the writer of a song on the A-side of a Beatles' single. On November 8, it also became Harrison's first song to chart in the United Kingdom, dropping off the charts 12 weeks afterwards. Despite much critical acclaim, "Something" failed to break the top 3 in the United Kingdom.

The promotional film for "Something" was rather unique – instead of featuring the Beatles as a group, it showed them walking around their respective homes. It turned out the Beatles were so fed up with each other, they couldn't be bothered to waste time recording a promotional film together.

In the United States, "Something" was released as a single (also released by Apple) on October 6, beginning its run in the charts on October 18. However, it took an eternity to lay claim to the number one position, hindered by the fact that it had been paired, like its United Kingdom counterpart, with "Come Together", but this time on the B-side, which drained sales away (Record World's numbers actually indicated that the sales of "Come Together" outnumbered "Something"). At the last minute, Billboard magazine changed its rules for tallying the sales of a single, counting both the A-side and B-side sales together instead of separating them as done previously. This led to "Something" ruling the roost of the American charts for a week from November 29.

Despite both the British and American singles being released by Apple, the real rights to the song actually belonged to Parlophone in the United Kingdom, and Capitol Records in the United States.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Initial releases", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki