George Harrison knew how to write a good love song. Although, it was often hard to tell if he was talking about his love for God, his first wife, Pattie Boyd, his second, Olivia, or just a woman in general. Either way, loving the women in his life took him one step closer to God.
George had a knack for describing romantic feelings without sounding too sappy. He did write one of the greatest love songs in music history, after all. Here are 15 of George’s most romantic love songs with a few honorable mentions.
15. ‘I Need You’
George’s “I Need You” from Help! is sad but no less sweet. It’s a good old fashion love song urging someone to come back. “You don’t realize how much I need you/ Love you all the time and never leave you/ Please come on back to me/ I’m lonely as can be/ I need you.”
14. ‘If I Needed Someone’
George’s “If I Needed Someone” off of The Beatles’ Rubber Soul is upbeat but no less romantic. It’s about telling someone they’d be the first choice if they needed someone to love. “Had you come some other day/ Then it might not have been like this/ But you see now I’m too much in love.”
13. ‘Love You To’
The riotous beginning of “Love You To” seems jarring, but the lyrics talk about making love all day long. It’s almost like an angry love song. “A lifetime is so short/ A new one can’t be bought/ But what you’ve got means such a lot to me/ Make love all day long/ Make love singing songs.”
12. ‘True Love’
George’s version of Cole Porter’s “True Love,” which appeared on Thirty Three & 1/3, is a jolly love song, to say the least. “You give to me and I give to you/ True love, it’s a true love/ And on and on, it will always be/ True love, true love.”
11. ‘Dark Sweet Lady’
George wrote “Dark Sweet Lady” for his wife, Olivia. They were in Hawaii, and she requested that he write a Spanish type of song. In the tune, George talks about his dark sweet lady who helped him through bad times, which Olivia did. George once said he was without voice and body before meeting her.
“My dark sweet lady/ You really got to me/ You gave me everything/ I’ve really fallen/ You came and helped me through/ When I’d let go/ You came from out the blue/ Never have known what I’d done without you/ My dark sweet lady/ Your heart so close to mine/ You shine so heavenly/ And I love you dearly.”
10. ‘Your Love Is Forever’
George had a hard time writing the lyrics to “Your Love Is Forever,” but they came out beautifully. It’s also one of Olivia’s favorite songs. She told Billboard, “All those songs like say ‘Your Love is Forever,’ which has that line ‘Sublime is the summertime warm and lazy/These are perfect days like heaven’s about here.’
“That is so personal to me because I think about somewhere we were and it was beautiful and warm and there was no pressure and no angst. Those times in your life when everything is just smooth and beautiful and you can really be your best self and who you want to be. Songs like that, the lyrics to those, they’re the ones that mean so much to me. They all do, but that one, ‘Sublime is the summertime…'”
9. ‘Long Long Long’
Upon first listen, you might think “Long Long Long” off of The Beatles’ White Album is about the love of a woman. In the song, George sings, “It’s been a long, long, long time/ How could I ever have lost you/ When I loved you?/ It took a long, long, long time/ Now I’m so happy I found you/ How I love you.”
However, he’s singing about God and how he lost touch with Him. Still, it can be taken as a love song between two people.
8. ‘For You Blue’
In his 1980 memoir, I Me Mine, George described Let It Be‘s “For You Blue” as “happy-go-lucky.” Without sounding sappy, George sings the lyrics against his guitar playing. “Because you’re sweet and lovely, girl, I love you/ Because you’re sweet and lovely, girl, it’s true/ I love you more than ever, girl, I do/ I want you in the morning, girl, I love you/ I want you at the moment, I feel blue/ I’m living every moment, girl, for you.”
7. ‘I’d Have You Anytime’
George didn’t write “I’d Have You Anytime” about his love for God or any woman. The tune is about his love for Bob Dylan and wanting to be closer to him. In Martin Scorsese’s documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Olivia explained that George had an almost romantic relationship with Dylan and the rest of his friends.
“‘Let me in here/ I know I’ve been here/ Let me into your heart.’ He was talking directly to Bob because he’d seen Bob and then he’d seen Bob another time and he didn’t seem as open and so that was his way of saying, ‘Let me in here, let me into your heart.’
“And he was very unabashed and romantic about it in a sense. I found that he was very-he had these love relationships with his friends. He loved them.”
6. ‘Beautiful Girl’
“Beautiful Girl” is another romantic tune about Olivia. It speaks for itself. “Never seen such a beautiful girl/ Got me shaking inside/ Calling on me from deep within her eyes/ Not the kind you go handing around/ Want to keep her right there/ But this love, it don’t come as no surprise/ And when I saw the way that she smiled at me/ I knew it there and then that she was A-1/ And then I felt the way she was touching me/ Was something I had known, I was waiting upon.”
5. ‘Let It Down’
“Let It Down” is another of Olivia’s favorites. She told Billboard, “He would be surprised that I loved ‘Let it Down’ ‘Really? John didn’t like that song.’ And I thought: ‘Well, I love it.'”
“While I occupy my mind, I can feel you here/ Love to us is so well timed/ And I do— I do/ Wasting away these moments so heavenly/ Should someone be looking at me.”
4. ‘I Live For You’
George didn’t know Olivia by the time he wrote “I Live For You” so it might have been about Boyd or just a woman in general. Still, the lyrics are beautiful. It’s another love song where George (or whoever) is lonely and doesn’t know if he’s loveable, yet a woman comes along and saves him.
“All alone in this world am I/ Not a care for this world have I/ Only you keep my eyes open wide/ Yes it’s true/ I live for you/ Not a thing in this world do I own/ Only sadness from all that is grown/ In this darkness, I wait for the day/ Yes it’s true/ I live for you.”
3. ‘Soft Touch’
George wrote “Soft Touch” during a romantic vacation he and Olivia took to the Virgin Islands. It reflects what was going on around them, “the wind, the cool breeze blowing, the palm trees, the new moon rising…,” George wrote in I Me Mine.
“You’re a soft touch baby like a snowflake falling/ My whole heart is melting/ As a warm sun rises into joy I’m sailing
To your soft touch baby/ Eyes that shine from depths of your soul/ Fixed by their charm, take my control/ Love so sweet as the ocean is wide/ Caught by your waves and drawn to your side.”
2. ‘Got My Mind Set on You’
Originally James Ray’s “I’ve Got My Mind Set on You,” George’s “Got My Ming Set on You” is a bopping tune. It’s not overly romantic apart from the fact that George (or whoever) knows that he’s set on someone.
1. ‘Something’
Commonly referred to as the best love song ever. Many artists have covered it because of its greatness. George brought it to the rest of The Beatles during the Let It Be sessions but it wasn’t finished. Again, this is a great love song that isn’t sappy.
“Something in the way she moves/ Attracts me like no other lover/ Something in the way she woos me/ Somewhere in her smile she knows/ That I don’t need no other lover/ Something in her style that shows me.”
Honorable mentions include: “You,” “That Is All,” “Can’t Stop Thinking About You,” “Don’t Let Me Wait Too Long,” “Only Here for the Love,” “Wake Up My Love,” “Never Get Over You,” and “Rocking Chair in Hawaii.”
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