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Former Beatle George Harrison’s classic “My Sweet Lord” turns half a century after its successful 1970 appearance, still surrounded by controversy over allegations of plagiarism and the spiritual aura of its Hindu inspiration.
Harrison was known as the “quiet Beatle” for his preference for staying away from fame despite being a rock star and for his interest in Hinduism, which began to mark his life after the American tour of the Beatles in 1966.
The guitarist of the Liverpool quartet released the hit single “My Sweet Lord” on his first solo album. Everything must pass (1970), after the separation of the Beatles.
The song, recorded in the Abbey Road studios in London under the production of Phil Spector, featured musicians such as guitarist Eric Clapton and former Beatle Ringo Starr on drums.
The song became a worldwide hit and was positioned as the most popular song on that first album. However, shortly thereafter, the musician was accused of plagiarism by American songwriter and singer Ronnie Mack.
She accused him of copying the musical composition of her song “He’s So Fine”, performed by the female group The Chiffons.
The former Beatle denied the allegations and assured that his inspiration for the song came, in any case, from The Edwin Hawkins Singers’ “Oh Happy Day,” and his ties to Hindu and Christian religious songs.
However, in 1976 Harrison was found guilty of “unconscious plagiarism” and had to pay a hefty fine to regain the rights to his great subject.
Protagonist of “beatlemania”
George Harrison, born into a working-class family in Liverpool, joined the group then called Quarry Men in 1958, which two years later, with John Lennon at the helm, changed their name to The Beatles.
This precise moment marked a point in the history of music in the world, something that those young people with so much enthusiasm and passion could not imagine at that moment.
A few years later, the expression known as beatlemania emerges in the United Kingdom, thanks to the great fame that the group acquires and its popularity, which exploded around the world with the single “I Want to Hold Your Hand”.
The group spearheaded a British musical invasion of the United States, with various island bands having had success in that country.
Within a few years from those first singles, some of the band’s compositions took a turn because of Harrison’s Indian inspirations, who introduced, among other innovations, the use of the sitar, an instrument that renewed the sound of the Beatles.
The Hindu Beatle
Harrison had his first contact with Hinduism in the mid-1960s, following a book on reincarnation given to the Beatles by a devotee of that religion in the Bahamas while they were shooting the film. Help!.
Years later, the entire band traveled to India to practice transcendental meditation, but none of them would be as deeply influenced by this culture as Harrison.
One of the defining moments for the ex-Beatle’s spirituality was the meeting in the United States with Hare Krishna, a religious movement based on Hinduism, which marked his life and work until the end of his days.
Not surprisingly, one of his greatest musical hits, “My Sweet Lord”, is a composition with which he tried to connect the Christian “Hallelujah” with Hare Krishna chants and Vedic prayers, with which the musician wanted to launch a call against religious sectarianism.
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