You

‘You’ is the opening track on George Harrison’s sixth solo album Extra Texture (Read All About It).

Written in 1970, Harrison recorded a demo of the song during the All Things Must Pass sessions.

It was recorded properly in February 1971 at Abbey Road, when Harrison and Phil Spector were co-producing several songs for Ronnie Spector including ‘Try Some, Buy Some’. As with that song, Harrison reused the backing track some years later, adding new vocals and releasing it himself.

‘You’ was written for Phil Spector’s wife Ronnie. I wrote it and laid the track down with Leon Russell. I tried to write a Ronette sort of song. We never got to make a whole album because we only did four or five tracks before Phil fell over, and then he decided to release ‘Try Some, Buy Some’ as a single.

I forgot about it and years later dug the tape out and re-worked it, overdubbed on it and did it myself even though it was recorded in Ronnie’s register – a bit high for me.

The basic track featured Ronnie Spector on vocals, Leon Russell on piano, Jim Gordon on drums, Carl Radle on bass guitar, and Gary Wright on electric piano. Despite a planned single release, it was left in the vaults after the commercial failure of Spector’s single ‘Try Some, Buy Some’.

Harrison revived ‘You’ in 1975 at A&M Studios in Los Angeles. The new overdubs included Harrison’s vocals and acoustic guitar, saxophone by Jim Horn, organ and synth by David Foster, and drums by Jim Keltner. Ronnie Spector’s guide vocals can be heard on the final version, most notably from the two-minute mark onwards.

‘You’ was also reprised as Extra Texture’s sixth track, ‘A Bit More Of You’.

The song was released as a single on 12 September 1975 in the UK, and three days later in the USA, as the lead single from Extra Texture. The b-side was another album track, ‘World Of Stone’.

The single was most successful in Canada, where it reached number nine on the RPM singles chart. In the US it spent two weeks at its number 20 peak on the Billboard Hot 100, but in the UK it went no higher than 38.