‘Here Comes The Sun’, George Harrison’s second song on Abbey Road, was written on an acoustic guitar in the garden of Eric Clapton’s house in Ewhurst, Surrey.
The song expressed Harrison’s relief at being away from the tensions within The Beatles, the troubles with Apple and the various business and legal issues which at the time were overshadowing the group’s creativity.
‘Here Comes The Sun’ was written at the time when Apple was getting like school, where we had to go and be businessmen: ‘Sign this’ and ‘Sign that’. Anyway, it seems as if winter in England goes on forever; by the time spring comes you really deserve it. So one day I decided I was going to sag off Apple and I went over to Eric Clapton’s house. The relief of not having to go and see all those dopey accountants was wonderful, and I walked around the garden with one of Eric’s acoustic guitars and wrote ‘Here Comes The Sun’.
Anthology
Harrison’s understated use of a Moog synthesiser was a key feature of ‘Here Comes The Sun’. Robert Moog’s then-recent invention was a rarity in the UK at the time, and The Beatles were keen to experiment with its sounds.
I first heard about the Moog synthesiser in America. I had to have mine made specially, because Mr Moog had only just invented it. It was enormous, with hundreds of jackplugs and two keyboards.But it was one thing having one, and another trying to make it work. There wasn’t an instruction manual, and even if there had been it would probably have been a couple of thousand pages long. I don’t think even Mr Moog knew how to get music out of it; it was more of a technical thing. When you listen to the sounds on songs like ‘Here Comes The Sun’, it does do some good things, but they’re all very kind of infant sounds.
Anthology
A transitional track on 2006’s Love album combined ‘Here Comes The Sun’ with Harrison’s song ‘The Inner Light’.
In the studio
John Lennon didn’t appear on ‘Here Comes The Sun’; he was recovering from a car accident at the time of the first sessions, and later on George Harrison largely completed the song alone.
The rhythm track was recorded in 13 takes on 7 July 1969, Ringo Starr’s 29th birthday. The final take – announced as “take 12 and a half” – was selected as the best. Take nine, meanwhile, was included on some formats of the 50th anniversary reissue of Abbey Road.
The multitrack tape had Paul McCartney’s Rickenbacker bass guitar on track one; Starr’s drums on two; Harrison’s Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar on three; and his guide vocals on eight. In the final hour of the session Harrison taped an additional guitar part using the same J-200 on track four.
The next day, onto track five, Starr overdubbed drum fills and Harrison added more electric guitar, this time played through a Leslie speaker. Harrison then recorded lead vocals on track six, and he and McCartney added two sets of backing vocals to tracks seven and eight, wiping the previous day’s guide vocals in the process.
Two reduction mixes were then made; take 15 was chosen as the better one, and was used for further overdubs. It combined the acoustic guitar, electric guitar and drum fills on track three.
On 16 July handclaps and a harmonium were overdubbed, in a session produced by Glyn Johns. The handclaps were added to track eight, and Harrison’s harmonium performance – later erased – was recorded onto track five.
‘Here Comes The Sun’ was then left until 6 August, when Harrison taped more guitar parts alone in Abbey Road’s studio three. More guitar was recorded on 11 August.
The orchestra – the names of the players undocumented – was recorded on 15 August. Two clarinets, two alto flutes, two flutes, and two piccolos were recorded onto track four, and four violas, four cellos, and string bass were added to track five. The latter overdub replaced Harrison’s 16 July harmonium part.
‘Here Comes The Sun’ was completed four days later, on 19 August 1969, when Harrison taped his Moog part on track four. This partly erased the woodwind parts from the previous session.
Some time after midnight in the morning of 20 August the song was mixed in stereo. This was done in just one attempt, with the tape running slightly faster – at 51 cycles per second rather than the usual 50 – reducing slightly the length of the song. This raised the key by approximately a quarter-tone.
Guitar solo
One of the bonus items on the DVD/Blu-ray release of Martin Scorsese’s 2011 documentary George Harrison: Living In The Material World was a studio scene featuring Dhani Harrison, George Martin and Giles Martin listening to the ‘Here Comes The Sun’ multi-track tapes.
The tapes revealed a hitherto unheard guitar solo which was left out of the album mix. This is likely to have been recorded by Harrison on 6 August 1969.
The tape box containing the master mix from the morning of 20 August contained the handwritten instruction: “Don’t use guitars for solo from 6 + 7”.
one of my favorite beatles song.very inspiring.
superb musicality on george harrison’s part.
Beautiful song! It took some time but I learned how to play this song on Acoustic guitar.
I love playing it. And.. its played using a capo on the 7th fret!!!
Me too. Have you notice that standard tuning on the 7th fret doesn’t match the key played on the song? Anybody know why it was recorded off key?
Yes, and it’s driving me crazy! Trying to teach it on guitar and ukulele to my students and I’m having a meltdown.
The song was recorded onto 8 track tape, then mastered to a 2 track stereo. Unfortunately the stereo tape was running at 51Hz, not 50Hz, and so the song is sharp, at 51/50ths of standard tuning.
1. If you don’t have the song already on your computer (e.g. you listen to CD) you need to “rip” the CD to an audio file.
2. Download and install Audacity, a free audio editor, and run it
3. File > Import your audio file. It suggests you make a copy, rather than editing the original. This is a Good Idea.
4. Press Ctrl-A to select all
5. Effects > Change speed, to a multiplier of 0.98. OK to continue
6. File > Export (It won’t let you overwrite the original, so choose a different name).
7. Rock on.
1 of my all-time favorite songs! Thanks for the info boodysaspie. Personally I think it sounds better at 50Hz than 51Hz anyway! 🙂
Is there any source which identifies who actually performed the handclaps on HCTS?
Was it all George or did Paul or Ringo participate?
it actually doesn’t need a capo watch sky gutair video on it
Am I the only one who hears an electric guitar (clean) in the song?
And… where is the solo in this song? 😀
Ah, that was an error. I meant ‘guitar parts’, not a guitar solo. Thanks for spotting it.
No! I hear it too. At 1:22, there seems to be a very mildly distorted lead guitar part. And at 0:51.
You are correct sir ! There is an Electric Gtr doubling the Acoustic Gtr and certain parts throughout the song. You can clearly hear it being played through a Leslie cabinet as well with the speed set to fast. Its most notable on the “Doo, doo , doo , doo’s ” in the chorus… This is not to be mistaken with the electric distorted lead parts on the bridge that were left out of the final mix, that we hear in the movie. 2 Electric gtr parts in total. Both different from each other. One left in, and one left out of the final mix.
I love the little smiley sun he drew at the end of his notes
Yes. I also like the “scoobiedoobie.” My sister got a kick out of that.
Yeah it’s fantastic!!
NIce to see a light-hearted lyrical note in what was obviously a tense period, but I am SO glad scoobiedoobie didn’t make the cut.
Was Harrison’s acoustic guitar part on this song finger-picked or strummed?
strummed
Ringo’s drumming in this song is excellent! The more that you listen to it, the better it becomes.A ” technical drummer” as the saying goes- couldn’t have done what Ringo did and would have ruined the sound if he tried.
Great drumming and great bass. Superb track all round.
George’s handwriting on the scribbled note makes it very clear how Eric Clapton mistook ‘Badge’ for bridge years later.
Wasn’t that Ringo?
“Badge” for bridge was not years later! As a matter of fact, the song in question was written and recorded for Goodbye Cream in October 1968 which was several months BEFORE Here Comes The Sun was written.
Thanks for the correction on that. Dates from that era are all jumbled in my mind, I guess.
It was George who mistook Clapton’s handwritten “bridge” for “badge” which is how the Cream song “badge” got its name.
This is the 2nd best song on Abbey Road. For once it’s a George song that is overshadowed by another George song. “Something,” that is…
All George songs are missing a verse. Well, maybe not ALL.
George’s guitar playing on this one is so exceptionally clean it amazes me. I try to play this all the way through as clean as he did and I can never do it. Bravo, George that extra hour was well spent.
there’s even an better song then here comes the sun…..here comes the moon!
You must be joking!
The follow up is OK but nowhere near Here Comes The Sun.
Outstanding song. George had finally reached the songwriting stratosphere that his bandmates John and Paul had occupied for much of the 1960s.
I don’t believe Harrison’s handful of great songs at the end of the group equates him with Lennon and McCartney.
After All Things Must Pass there was a serious decline in songwriting quality from George until Thirty-three and a third in 1976.
Cloud Nine (1987) and Brainwashed (2002) are excellent pieces of music but it was a long wait before they came along.
Have you listened to his Solo work from 1973-1982? From What I have heard, his songwriting is amazing in the Early 70’s, Especially on Living On The Material World.
If anyone had a songwriting decline, it was Paul
I think that with George, you have to enjoy spiritual songs dedicated to God in order to consider him a great songwriter because he didn’t write any “silly love songs” which turns a lot of people off from his music. I don’t like everything he did, but I’ll find a great song here or there in his solo work that John and Paul can’t match, but that’s just me personally.
With Me, I view a song by the melody and lyrics, not what the lyrics mean or secret meanings. I Don’t like George’s spiritual songs dedicated to God, but I respect his abilities, as they great lyrics and nice melody,I just hate who he sings to on those.
I have purchased all of George’s albums or CD’S the day they came out or in the first week that they were available.
To say the least, there were ups and downs from 1973 to 1982 with George’s albums IMO.
Living In The Material World had some songs that were too strident in their beliefs for me, but at least it contains a majority of good songs and it was carefully made and recorded.
Dark Horse,on the other hand was the nadir for me while Gone Troppo was weak and forgettable.
The other albums (Extra Texture, George Harrison and Somewhere In England) have some good songs but are uneven.
Thirty three and a third was the best of them after 1973 IMO.
George was not as good as John or Paul and he may have never caught up with them but he sure was coming up on them and l think they knew it.
I know this is a couple years late – but it really irritates me to have terms like “as good as” or “caught up with…” thrown about. Harrison’s songs that made it to these recordings are now treasures for the ages- leave it there – the quality is every molecule on par with the best work of his band-mates. What is different is his output. It’s fair to say George Harrison was not as prolific as Lennon-McCartney, but much like his “quiet” personality – he didn’t speak until he had something good to say. Ditto for his songwriting.
Question; What is the copyright info for this song? I’m planning on using a lower quality version (which I brought, hooray itunes)on a youtube video. Youtube is good at removing audio etcetera from videos which violate copyright laws, and I would like to at least refer to these (maybe youtube will not remove the audio as a result??).
Thanks, in advance. I will continue searching Google while I wait for an answer.
The song (recording and publishing) is fully subject to copyright law. None of The Beatles’ compositions or recordings are out of copyright.
If you want to discuss copyright matters further, please visit the forum.
Hi Joe,
This site is a great resource. I’m writing a paper on ‘Here Comes the Sun’, and I’m finding that this site is telling me more than I ever knew. I didn’t even know that some of the instruments listed were used until I looked here.
I’m also using a score, transcribed by Tetsuya Fujita, Yuji Hagino, Hajime Kubo, and Goro Sato. The score shows parts for everything but the flutes and clarinets (although it does combine all of the strings into two staves and doesn’t specify them). Is there any place I can find out what parts the flutes and clarinets played in this song?
Thanks,
Marianne
I don’t have a copy, but The Beatles: Complete Scores is said to be very good. I don’t know if it has flute and clarinet parts though.
It doesn’t. That’s the one I’m using.
Definitely agree that there is some electric guitar in the song, although I can’t determine the make. Nice rich sound, though, and, as usual with George, less is more is the principle.
I’m thinking its either his Strat or his Tele… ran through his Leslie cabinet with the speed set to “fast”
It thrills me to no end that when The Beatles finally became available on iTunes, “Here comes the sun” was the #1 downloaded song! (As it well should).
On Spotify it’s the most lstened beatle song by far
does any one know if it was mixed down at a different place ????
Does anyone know on which of Clapton’s guitars (brand & model) George wrote “Here comes the sun” that day in the garden??
Notice the order he wrote verses make sense (long winter,ice melting, smiles returning), but when recorded he switched verses 2 &3 (long winter, smiles returning, ice melting).
It still makes sense that way too, and maybe even gives it more meaning.
1. Sun comes
2. People see the sun has returned and while things still aren’t great, they’re hopeful and happy that thing a are looking up.
3. Ice melts meaning people’s hopes weren’t false and that things really are looking up. If you want to read more into ice, you can also view it as metaphorical ice being melted by the newfound cheer people have, making a positive feedback loop of happiness. This can be either the people in the second verse who are now even more full of happiness or another group of people who weren’t smiling during the second verse, the more pessimistic ones, but upon seeing all those around them feel even their thicker ice melting.
Paul was the most talented, here comes the sun is too similar too the earlier Beatles songs and George is great, but cant be compared to Paul or John as they had written so many hits and for many other bands by the time George came in with this song. He had a lot of help for others before this was a hit. He also gets a lot of help from McCartney’s backing vocals as George just did not have the singing ability as Paul and always needed a strong voice backing his in the studio. As for the Abbey Road album, the best part of that album is the 2nd side ending which strings together McCartney’s songs with a couple of Lennons.
That’s not very nice to say about George’s singing. He was a very good singer and even he was capable of singing lead vocals on his own songs with no backing vocals needed, even if he double-tracked his own voice.
John often double-tracked his own lead vocals as well and even he loved ADT, invented by Ken Townsend, as he hated manually double-tracking his own voice.
ok George couldn’t stack up to john or paul but he did have the best 2 song on the abby road album and that is a very good album, my favorite album.
here comes the sun says to many that life @y really has sucked but it’s going to get better now
One of my favorites, but saying that with the Beatles ends up being a list of about 50 or so!!!
Recently heard somewhere that John may have actually added to the song when he returned…handclaps and back up vocals, no instruments. Anyone hear this??
I always feel like I’m hearing johns voice in the backing vocals. I swear they’re there!
I agree. Also there is an interview john did with a DJ in the fall of 69 where they play EVERY song on the album and john comments on each song….he quoted “the only 2 songs he was not on were maxwell and her majesty”
He might also be playing hammond organ in this song.
John might also be playing hammond organ in this song.
I definitely hear SOMEBODY on organ in the chorus after the “smiles returning” verse. Doesn’t sound like a Moog or a harmonium.
It’s possible that John may have overdubbed the organ part that you just mentioned at a later session, but I can’t confirm for sure.
I don’t know if he would’ve been 100% up to it if he had recently been seriously injured in his recent car crash in Scotland and obviously recovering at home on doctor’s orders.
A beautiful George Harrison song. Wonderful rhythm guitar opening. Great harmonies. Written at Eric Clapton’s house in the midst of all The Beatles business strife. If this had been released as a single it would have been a massive hit like Something. But anyway it was a great way to open side two of Abbey Road.
It’s funny that “Something “ is considered a better song, but “Here Comes the Sun” is more popular as reflected in Apple and Spotify.
in a breaking up at school recently, the children sang “Here Comes the sun”. In the program it was written that “Lennon-McCartney” wrote it. I am sure McCartney got the credit for the melody.
Bitter much?
And I am sure that Lennon said that the song was a piece of garbage and a throwaway.
So, what did your school teacher have to say about the error, Johan?
Your school program’s writing credits for “Here Comes the Sun” were clearly a mistake. George wrote the song all by himself and neither Paul nor John ever claimed to have assisted him in cowriting it.
I realize this is a beloved song and has been covered by many artists but still maintain that it is the most underrated Beatles song. I base that on the fact that it is the most popular Beatles song on Spotify and the most purchased Beatles song on itunes.
I’ve been learning this song on my newish Taylors acoustic guitar for about 2 months…It’s my current “work in progress”. Usually i can bang out a new song in about a week or so, but not this one! Definitely the most complex song i have learned to date, and it’s becoming so enjoyable to play. I feel like I’m about 80 percent there. I live in Mexico City and I’m collecting as many of the Beatles Mexico releases as i can on vinyl…Such fun! This is my first post but I’ve been dipping in for a while. Great site, well done Joe Sir, I doff my Scottish bonnet…..
Ringo’s drumming is amazing, just a fraction ahead of the main rhythm line. After hearing this song for 50 years, I’ve found myself completely blown away by it, as if I’m discovering it for the first time. That is the true genius of The Beatles. Their music continues to sound fresh even after countless listenings.
I just noticed an intriguing detail in George’s handwritten lyrics to “Here Comes the Sun,” featured on this page. Note the words, “Middle (son of Badge)”. I’ve never noticed it before, but the guitar part on the bridge to the Cream song “Badge” – co-written and played on by George the year before – has more than a little resemblance to that for the bridge on “Here Comes the Sun.” I suspect that’s what George had in mind when he described the middle to the latter song as “son of Badge.”
Oh yeah, it resembles “Badge” which resembles “It Don’t Come Easy.” And the ascending vocals were lifted from “Twist and Shout” (which were probably lifted from the Isley Brothers who whoever did “Twist and Shout” the best, just as Paul lifted Little Richard.) But that’s how all artists work. I love to listen to early Beatles songs and hear resemblances. A riff, a segment, a set of chords gets into their heads and it appears to be recycled for a while.
The late, great Pete Ham (Badfinger) with George in the video from the Bangladesh concert!
I love the version of this song on the Love album, especially the harmonized oohs & aahs at the beginning. I wonder where George Martin got those from.
I love this song – clean, clear, and precise acoustic guitar playing at its very best! What I love most about this song is its optimism and joy. I feel that it’s the most optimistic song released by The Beatles. Maybe what George is intimating, at that time, is that even if the Beatles break up (associated with winter, and a similar message in “All Things Must Pass”) that it’s going to be okay because life goes on, spring follows winter (a cloud burst doesn’t last all day). For the moment, let’s enjoy this beautiful spring day, let’s celebrate how it makes us feel so good inside. We sing/hum this song a lot in Canada at this time of year! Thanks George – you’re the best!
The greatest song ever recorded.
Don’t understand why this never hit number 1 back in the day!!! Totally my favourite Beatles song ever! I’m also so happy that George cut the scooby-dooby part lol
It did not make number 1 because it was never a single. In the UK anyway.
This should be the theme song for the end of this horrendous pandemic. Be safe and well everyone.
In my fantasy Beatles reunion concert, they walk out on stage in very low light almost darkness; wait for the crowd to go quiet; and then George’s beautiful guitar starts. The light slowly comes up to reveal the band playing Here Comes the Sun, the first song to the best concert ever. John and Paul are happy to let their mate have this honor because he deserves it.
I’m telling you…in some alternative universe, it’s happening right now!
@kestrel, that is lovely. Thank you.
The 2019 video on YouTube now has over 102m views!
Here Comes the Sun has become the first Beatles song to be over a billion times on Spotify, currently standing at 1,000,330,724 plays, and is one of only 406 songs to pass the billion mark.
In my part of the world, this song is sure to be heard every spring – popping up as background music to a chat show, coming out of a restaurant… and I’m singing it to myself especially at that time of year because it has been a long cold winter and spring is a very distinct season and has arrived at last! Just what George was experiencing as he wrote it. It’s simple, joyous and and beautiful! One of my top 5 Beatle songs for sure.