1969 Soft Rock Track, Inspired by a Bandmate's Wife, Became a No. 1 Anthem About Love
George Harrison was ready to prove he was just as good a songwriter as his Beatles bandmatesJohn Lennon and Paul McCartneywhen he wrote the track "Something," which became one of their biggest love songs of all time.
While the Beatles undoubtedly have plenty of love songs, "Something" has quite an interesting backstory about its inspiration based on certain accounts, even Harrison's. The track's development began in September 1968 while the band was working on their self-titled double album. It wasn't released until 1969 as part of Abbey Road before it became a single.
According to reports, Harrison stopped working on the track when he felt the lyrics were coming to him too easily and worried he was taking the melody from another song. In reality, the opening lyrics were taken from James Taylor's "Something in the Way She Moves," with a composition inspired by Ray Charles.
Believe it or not, "Something" was rejected by the band at the time due to Lennon and McCartney showing little interest in his ideas. Producer George Martin was also unimpressed and called it "too weak and derivative." By the time Abbey Road was worked on, Harrison became more assertive about including his work.
"Something" was originally eight minutes long due to a jam-session piano solo by Lennon. It was later cut down to the released version by almost three minutes. The track was considered the best from the album by Lennon and landed at No.1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Tagged as one of the Beatles' greatest love songs, its inspiration has a few different stories. Many believe "Something" was written about Pattie Boyd, Harrison's first wife, with her even claiming the musician told her it was about her.
"George wrote a song called ‘Something,'" wrote Boyd in her 2007 book, Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me. "He told me in a matter-of-fact way that he had written it for me. I thought it was beautiful and it turned out to be the most successful song he ever wrote, with more than 150 cover versions."
Well, Harrison would debunk what she said and give another backstory behind the track's inspiration. He would at first claim it was "maybe Pattie, probably" that inspired the classic. Harrison would later reveal to a friend from the Hare Krishna Movement that the song was about the Hindu deity Krishna, and told Rolling Stone that his love songs focused on "all love is part of a universal love. When you love a woman, it's the God in her that you see."
By the late 1990's, Harrison would deny "Something" being about Boyd because "everybody presumed I wrote it about Pattie." He explained it was likely due to how the film that accompanied the track showed scenes of them and other couples together.
Related: 1978 Rock Ballad, Written as an Apology to a Bandmate, Remains a Classic Soft Rock Anthem
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This story was originally published July 7, 2026 at 8:56 AM.