The 1976 compilation that mixed Beatles classics with solo hits-timed to clash with his Dark Horse debut-remains a unique artifact in the Fab Four canon, and one Harrison openly disavowed.
Fifty years ago this month, Capitol and EMI released The Best of George Harrison, a compilation that remains singular among the four former Beatles’ solo discographies. By pairing Beatles-era tracks on side one with early solo hits on side two, the release sparked instant controversy- landing in the very same month as Harrison’s Dark Horse Records debut, Thirty Three & ⅓, and drawing an immediate public rebuke from the guitarist himself.
Promoting his new album in November 1976, Harrison made his frustration clear. Capitol, he revealed, had bypassed his proposed track listing and album title.
“What they’ve done is take a lot of my songs which were Beatles songs, when there was really a lot of good songs they could have used of me separately. Solo songs. I don’t see why they didn’t do that. They did that with Ringo’s Blast From Your Past and John’s Shaved Fish.”
The corporate maneuvering behind the record was no coincidence. Harrison’s original EMI/Apple contract had expired in January 1976. With only Paul McCartney choosing to re-sign with Capitol at the time, the record labels were left legally free to license Beatles master recordings alongside individual solo catalog tracks without artist approval.
Capitol had already cashed in on the group’s legacy earlier that year with the double-album set Rock ‘n’ Roll Music, following late-1975 hits packages for John Lennon (Shaved Fish) and Ringo Starr (Blast from Your Past). Harrison’s turn arrived just as public Beatles nostalgia was reaching a fever pitch-and precisely as he prepared to launch his own independent label venture.
Critics and fans immediately spotted glaring omissions. None of Harrison’s landmark Indian compositions-such as “Within You Without You” or “Love You To”-made the cut, despite his pioneering role in integrating Indian classical music into Western pop culture. Key solo tracks and fan-favorite B-sides like “Isn’t It a Pity,” “Ding Dong, Ding Dong,” “Apple Scruffs,” and “Deep Blue” were similarly overlooked. Furthermore, while the solo side focused heavily on charted singles, the Beatles side drew mostly from album cuts; of the seven Fab Four choices, only “Something” had been issued as an A-side single.
Visual presentation also varied by market:
– North America: Features a cosmic, black-and-white design by Roy Kohara, illustrated by Michael Bryan.
– United Kingdom: Uses a color photograph by Bob Cato showing Harrison posing in front of an antique car.
– CD Era: The 1987 initial compact-disc release standardized the UK cover art worldwide. (The album has not received a remastered reissue since that original 1987 digital release).
Despite Harrison’s disavowal, the record performed solid business in North America. It reached No. 31 on the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart and earned RIAA Gold certification in February 1977 for shipments exceeding 500,000 units-making it the only one of the 1975-76 ex-Beatle compilations to achieve Gold status by the end of 1977. In the UK, however, the compilation stalled and failed to enter the Top 60. To boost domestic interest, EMI reissued “My Sweet Lord” b/w “What Is Life” as a single on Christmas Eve 1976.
Following Harrison’s passing in November 2001, the package gained renewed traction. With much of his solo catalog temporarily out of print, The Best of George Harrison surged to No. 9 on Billboard’s Top Pop Catalog chart and No. 15 on Top Internet Albums, while making a belated debut on the UK Albums Chart at No. 100 in January 2002. Notably, for over three decades, it remained the sole CD destination for the 1971 standalone charity single “Bangla Desh,” until the track was included as a bonus cut on the 2014 reissue of Living in the Material World.
Harrison’s widow, Olivia, later remarked that the 1976 release “always bothered me,” calling the half-and-half structure unfair-a sentiment that directly spurred the creation of 2009’s career-spanning career retrospective, Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison.
Fifty years later, The Best of George Harrison stands as a captivating historical artifact: a label-engineered hybrid birthed out of corporate friction, disowned by its creator, yet serving as an enduring showcase of Harrison’s genius across two distinct eras.
Track Listing
Side One (The Beatles Era)
“Something” (2:39)
“If I Needed Someone” (2:19)
“Here Comes the Sun” (3:04)
“Taxman” (2:36)
“Think for Yourself” (2:16)
“For You Blue” (2:25)
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (4:46)
Side Two (Solo Career)
“My Sweet Lord” (4:39)
“Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” (3:32)
“You” (3:40)
“Bangla Desh” (3:52)
“Dark Horse” (3:50)
“What Is Life” (4:18)
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