In the studio
‘My Sweet Lord’ was recorded at London’s Trident Studios during the sessions for All Things Must Pass. The backing vocals and the lead slide guitar were overdubbed after the rest of the track had been completed.The recording was perhaps the most successful deployment of Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound on All Things Must Pass. The maverick producer deftly wrought clarity from a panoply of musical instruments, over which George Harrison’s vocals and slide guitar combined to irresistible effect.
As far as I’m concerned, ‘My Sweet Lord’ was a hit because of the sound and its simplicity. The sound of that record, it sounds like one huge guitar. The way Phil Spector and I put that down was we had two drummers, a bass player, two pianos and about five acoustic guitars, a tambourine player and we sequenced it in order. Everybody plays live in the studio. I spent a lot of time with the other rhythm guitar players to get them all to play exactly the same rhythm so it just sounded perfectly in synch. The way we spread the stereo in the recording, the spread of five guitars across the stereo, made it sound like one big record. The other things, I overdubbed, like I overdubbed the voices, which I sang all the back-up parts as well and overdubbed the slide guitars, but everything else on it was live. There’s Ringo and a drummer called Jim Gordon.
Harrison’s use of electric slide guitar on the song gave him an original sound previously unheard on his recordings. The style became his signature sound; clearly identifiable as Harrison’s work, and with no obvious precedents.
In the ’60s, I forget exactly which years, there was a period where I really got into Indian music. I started playing the sitar and hanging out with Ravi Shankar, and I took some lessons for a couple of years. Then after that period, I thought, “Well, really, I’m a pop person. I’m neglecting the guitar and what I’m supposed to do.” I knew I was not going to be a brilliant sitar player, because I’d already met a thousand of them in India, and Ravi thought one of them was going to make it as a really top class player. I still play the sitar now for my own amusement, and I enjoy it, but I thought I’d better get back on the guitar.By that time there were all these people like 10 years old playing brilliantly. I just thought, “God, I’m so out of touch. I don’t even know how to get a half-decent sound.” The result of that was I thought, “Oh, I’ll see what happens here with this slide.” And it sort of sounded funkier than what I could with my fingers at this time. It developed from that, without me realizing it. Then people would come up and say, “Would you play slide on my record?” I’m thinking, “Really? Are you sure?” Then, I don’t know, I started hearing people sort of imitating me doing slide, which is very flattering. But, again, like I was saying about the sound – “How did you get that sound?” – I didn’t think it was that good.
Guitar Player, November 1987
Part of the appeal of slide guitar for Harrison was the microtonal range and use of vibrato, which allowed him to replicate some of the sound of Indian instruments on western instruments. His brief slide work in ‘My Sweet Lord’ was supremely effective and memorable, becoming one of the best-known examples of the style in popular music.
Ringo came in the day we were doing ‘My Sweet Lord’. I said, ‘George, Ringo’s here – why doesn’t he play the drum part?’ He said, ‘No, I want you to play the drums. Ringo can play tambourine.’ It didn’t make me feel that comfortable! It was very casual like that.
Uncut, May 2020
On 17 August 1970 Phil Spector typed a letter to Harrison in which he outlined his thoughts on the initial mix of the All Things Must Pass album. He gave specific suggestions on 18 of the songs, and an overview of how he envisaged the final release sounding.
MY SWEET LORD:This still needs backing vocals and also an opening lead vocal where you didn’t come in on the original session. The rest of the vocal should be checked out but a lot of the original lead vocal is good. Also an acoustic guitar, perhaps playing some frills should be overdubbed or a solo put in. Don’t rush to erase the original vocal on this one as it might be quite good, since background voices will have to be done at Trident Studios, any lead vocals perhaps should be done there as well.
Harrison performed ‘My Sweet Lord’ during each of his infrequent solo live performances. Recordings, dating from August 1971 and December 1991 respectively, are available on The Concert For Bangla Desh and Live In Japan.
Single release
George Harrison initially decided not to issue any singles from All Things Must Pass, in case it lessened the impact of the triple album. However, he had a change of heart and ‘My Sweet Lord’ was released as a single in the United States on 23 November 1970, four days ahead of the album.
It was a double a-side with ‘Isn’t It A Pity’, with a full Apple logo on both sides. The single was certified gold by the RIAA and spent four weeks at number one.
‘My Sweet Lord’ received considerable radio play in the United Kingdom, and public demand meant it was issued on 15 January 1971. It spent five weeks at the top of the chart. Its b-side was another album track, ‘What Is Life’.
The single sold particularly well in France and Germany, where it spent nine and 10 weeks at the top of their respective charts. Other countries in which it was a number one included Australia, Austria, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway and Switzerland.
‘My Sweet Lord’ was the first single by a former Beatle to become an international number one. Its popularity was such that John Lennon told Rolling Stone’s Jann S Wenner:
Every time I put the radio on it’s ‘Oh my Lord’ – I’m beginning to think there must be a God! I knew there wasn’t when ‘Hare Krishna’ [‘Hare Krishna Mantra’ by Radha Krishna Temple] never made it on the polls with their own record, that really got me suspicious. We used to say to them, ‘You might get number one’ and they’d say, ‘Higher than that.’
Lennon Remembers, Jann S Wenner
EMI reissued ‘My Sweet Lord’ as a single in the UK on Christmas Eve 1976, again with ‘What Is Life’ on the b-side. This was partly to capitalise on the controversy surrounding the Chiffons lawsuit, and also because Harrison had recently begun issuing recordings on his own Dark Horse Records, distributed by rival label Warner Bros.
‘My Sweet Lord’ was reissued again in January 2002, following Harrison’s death from cancer the previous November. Also featuring two bonus tracks from the 2001 reissue of All Things Must Pass – a ‘Let It Down’ demo and ‘My Sweet Lord (2000)’ – it topped the charts in the UK and Canada.
A demo recording of ‘My Sweet Lord’, featuring Harrison, Voormann and Starr and dating from an early All Things Must Pass session, was included on a compact disc included with the deluxe edition of Martin Scorsese’s documentary George Harrison: Living In The Material World. It was subsequently released on the Early Takes Volume 1 album.
My Sweet Lord (2000)
A remastered version of All Things Must Pass was released in 2001. The two-CD set included a bonus track, a re-recording of ‘My Sweet Lord’ with Harrison sharing vocals with Sam Brown.
To create something extra for the Anniversary issue, I decided to have a new look at ‘My Sweet Lord’ and change it from the original version. Sam Brown sings lead and backing vocals with me, and most of the other instruments have been replaced.
The re-recording retained some of the original instrumentation, but also featured Harrison’s son Dhani on acoustic guitar, and Ray Cooper on tambourine.
A section of ‘My Sweet Lord (2000)’ was played on a loop on Harrison’s official website following his death.
I have read differently about the “George O’Hara-Smith Singers” in other sources. This was just a pseudonym for George Harrison singing along, via overdub. Most of the vocals and backup vocals for the ATMP sessions took place in late August and September 1970 (At this time, Eric Clapton and Bobby Whitlock were in America on tour with Derek & The Dominoes). George was having a bit of studio fun by himself doing a lot of overdubbing.
“Cyril and Betty” were mentioned in the liner notes of the ATMP remaster (released in 2001) and was probably just a joke. I don’t think Cyril and Betty actually existed.
January of 1970 the 4 BEATLES HAD SEVERAL CHESTNUTS IN THE BAGtowards a new album. What might have been
Maybe I’m amazed
My sweet lord
Instant karma
Back sear of my car
Junk
It don’t come easy
Isolation
Working class hero
Hear me lord
That would be something
Love
I found out
All things must pass
Mother
Cold turkey and Art of dying as a single
Alan White (not Andy, although that would have been cool) played drums on MSL
@archie – as a matter of fact, it is Andy, not Alan, White who claimed to have drummed on this track in an interview in Uncut magazine. But most other sources I’ve found say it’s Ringo and Jim Gordon.
Bobby Whitlock plays harmonium
The fact that Alan Klein became involved for money as well as revenge surprised no-one and as Harrison later said ” it just proved that Paul ( McCartney ) was right about him all along “
I’m convinced there are some errors in the list of contributions on the track. For a start, George played acoustic guitar also (he added the slide guitars much later). As he says: “I spent a lot of time with the OTHER rhythm guitar players to get them all to play exactly the same rhythm so it just sounded perfectly in synch.”
Also, I’m surprised to see Alan White’s recollection being taken as gospel. He’s given the very same story about If Not for You (and I think it is that track he’s thinking of, which fits with Simon Leng and Bruce Spizer’s song credits), and he’s also sworn blind that Lennon played rhythm guitar on one of the ATMP songs (which would’ve been impossible, because John was in LA with Arthur Janov when the basic tracks were recorded!). Anyway, White keeps changing his mind about which songs he played on; from what I read, most Beatles biographers ignore what he says. Besides, George named the drummers as Ringo and Jim Gordon – how can White’s version overrule that?
Peter Frampton added more acoustic guitar, with George again, towards the end of production. Someone also added those lovely zithers – George once again, I guess (they sound like the autoharp(s) he plays on Ravi’s I Am Missing You).
I agree with Barry Smith about the backing vocalists. “Cyril” and “Betty” were just examples of George joking in his 2001 credits, along with the credit for Phil Collins on Art of Dying; ditto for George saying something about how working with Spector helped him “realise the full potential of the Hare Krishna Mantra”. (I didn’t get that last joke until I read a couple of authors pointing it out.)
Whitlock may have been one of the singers, although I always get an uncomfortable feeling he’s a little too ready to credit himself for all and everything. But I don’t where the idea came from that he *and* Clapton sang on this song – Whitlock doesn’t say that, and Bruce Spizer only mentions them as singing on “some of the songs”, but not necessarily My Sweet Lord. (Whitlock and Clapton sing on All Things Must Pass, Let It Down and Awaiting on You All.)
I agree with you and I myself noticed the omission of George’s acoustic guitar credit.
I found a second-hand copy of the 45 “My Sweet Lord” from the late Bev Benson amongst a pile of records that she gave me when I was 11 1/2 years old. I remember when I first played the 45 on my record-player, I found that I rather liked the song.