Written by: Harrison
Recorded: 5 May – 27 August 1982
Producers: George Harrison, Ray Cooper, Phil McDonald
Released: 5 November 1982 (UK), 8 November 1982 (US)
Available on:
Gone Troppo
Personnel
George Harrison: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, synthesizer, bass guitar
Billy Preston: organ, piano
Mike Moran: keyboards
Jon Lord: synthesizer
Henry Spinetti: drums
Ray Cooper: percussion, synthesizer
‘Circles’ is the final song on George Harrison’s tenth solo album Gone Troppo.
Harrison wrote the song in 1968 while The Beatles were studying Transcendental Meditation in India with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
Upon their return from India, all four Beatles gathered at Kinfauns, Harrison’s Esher bungalow, and recorded demos of 27 songs. One of the discarded titles was ‘Circles’, seemingly recorded alone by Harrison with just an organ accompaniment.
The May 1968 recording was eventually released, along with the other Kinfauns demos, on the 50th anniversary super deluxe reissue of the White Album.
Harrison revisited ‘Circles’ in 1978 during the sessions for his George Harrison album, but it was again left unfinished.
He returned to it a final time during the Gone Troppo sessions. The musicians included his former Beatles collaborator Billy Preston on organ and piano.
Curiously, Harrison’s 1982 vocal style recalls that of Harry Nilsson, who had visited The Beatles during the making of the White Album.
In February 1983 ‘Circles’ was the b-side of ‘I Really Love You’, the second single from Gone Troppo in the USA and the Netherlands. It failed to chart.
