George Harrison

George Harrison MBE (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English rock guitarist, singer-songwriter and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist in The Beatles.

Following the band's breakup, he had a successful career as a solo artist and later as part of the Traveling Wilburys, and also as a film and record producer. Harrison is listed number 21 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 100 Best Guitarists of All Time".

Although most of The Beatles' songs were written by Lennon and McCartney, Harrison generally wrote one song per side from the Help! album onwards. His later compositions with The Beatles include "Here Comes the Sun", "Something", "I Me Mine", "Taxman", "Within You Without You", "Think For Yourself", "If I Needed Someone", "The Inner Light", "Old Brown Shoe", "Piggies", and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". By the time of the band's breakup, Harrison had accumulated a backlog of material, which he then released as the acclaimed and successful triple album All Things Must Pass in 1970, from which came two singles: a double A-side single, "My Sweet Lord" backed with "Isn't It a Pity", and "What Is Life".

In addition to his solo work, Harrison co-wrote two hits for Ringo Starr, another ex-Beatle, as well as songs for the Traveling Wilburys—the super group he formed in 1988 with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne and Roy Orbison.

Harrison embraced Indian culture and Hinduism in the 1960s, and helped expand Western awareness of sitar music and of the Hare Krishna movement. With Ravi Shankar he organized a major charity concert with the 1971 Concert for Bangladesh, and is the only Beatle to have published an autobiography, with I Me Mine in 1980.

Besides being a musician, he was also a record producer and co-founder of the production company Handmade Films. In his work as a film producer, he collaborated with people as diverse as Madonna and the members of Monty Python. He was a close friend of Eric Clapton.

Harrison died of lung cancer in 2001.

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