| # | Fact |
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| 1 | At a Pink Floyd concert in Detroit in 1994, George went backstage and spoke to a man who he believed to be Steve O'Rourke, the group's manager, only to find to his embarrassment that it was Nick Mason. |
| 2 | George's 1968 custom Fender Telecaster "Rosewood" guitar (Serial #235594) (that was used in Let It Be (1970) and for The Beatles' final live roof-top performance) was bought at auction in 2003 by actor Ed Begley Jr.. |
| 3 | Brother of Harry Harrison, Peter Harrison and Louise Harrison. |
| 4 | Friends with Eric Idle. |
| 5 | Attended the funeral of Linda McCartney (Paul McCartney's first wife), on 8 June 1998. |
| 6 | The last song he wrote was "A Horse To Water.". |
| 7 | He became the first recipient of the Billboard Century Award, an honour presented to music artists for significant bodies of work. [1992]. |
| 8 | Was posthumously honored with The Recording Academy's Lifetime Achievement Award. [8 February 2015]. |
| 9 | He asked Peter Tork to record some banjo for the score of Wonderwall (1968). Tork's banjo playing was featured in the film. |
| 10 | Received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 14, 2009. |
| 11 | Harrison knew Julian Lennon (John Lennon's first son) since birth. |
| 12 | The remaining members of The Beatles, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, appeared in both of his videos: "All Those Years Ago", about the death of their own singing partner, John Lennon, and "When We Was Fab", which was used in reference of Beatlemania. |
| 13 | He gave a slang word to the national vocabulary. In The Beatles' first movie A Hard Day's Night (1964), Harrison used the word "grotty" to describe some items of clothing. "Grotty" (meaning "grotesque") caught on as an actual slang word used frequently in the 1960s. It is still used, albeit sparingly, to this day. According to John Lennon, Harrison "used to cringe every time he had to say it.". |
| 14 | The only one of The Beatles to have cancer deaths in his family, before the same disease caught up with him. |
| 15 | Between 1971-2001, he made 27 movies with Handmade Films, and had a remarkable/non-remarkable 60 singles, under a variety of categories. 1 of them went to #1. |
| 16 | He was voted as a guitarist as the 11th of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time, by "Rolling Stone.". |
| 17 | After the breakup of The Beatles, Harrison began a long association with Ringo Starr, who participated in either his or Harrison's songs: "It Don't Come Easy," "Photograph," "Back Off Boogaloo," "I'll Still Love You," and "Wrack My Brain.". |
| 18 | During the escalation in Beatlemania from 1964 to 1966, Harrison got through flights by taking uppers and drinking whiskey and coke. Decades later, his memories of this time focused almost entirely on the horrors of airplanes, airports, cars and crowds. |
| 19 | He was inspired by Lonnie Donegan, who taught him how to play the guitar, after listening to Donegan, growing up. |
| 20 | Was a longtime friend of 'Weird Al' Yankovic. Yankovic wrote a parody of "Got My Mind Set on You", called "(This Song's Just) Six Words Long". It was released as a song off his album "Even Worse". |
| 21 | In 1974 a former secretary who was working at A&M Records, Olivia Harrison, had spoken to Harrison many times over the phone. He was impressed and sent a friend to scout her out. Harrison and Olivia met at a party and the two soon formed a romantic relationship, and the two got married after his divorce from Pattie Boyd was final. |
| 22 | Performed at The Concert for the Natural Law Party Royal Albert Hall in London, England, along with Ringo Starr, Starr's daughter, Lee Starkey and Julian Lennon. [6 April 1992]. |
| 23 | Was supposed to help Julian Lennon on the slide guitar for the song, "Help Yourself," but wasn't able to make it because he had to attend Eric Clapton's son's funeral. Instead, George sent Julian the samples. |
| 24 | When it was his final show at Madison Square Garden in New York, he told 11-year-old Julian Lennon to tell his father, John Lennon, "All is forgiven and I still love you." That was the last time Harrison saw Lennon before his death. |
| 25 | His idols were: Big Bill Broonzy, George Formby, Django Reinhardt, Chet Atkins, Chuck Berry and Ry Cooder. |
| 26 | The first of The Beatles to wear a mop-top haircut. |
| 27 | In early 1956, he had an epiphany: while riding his bicycle, he heard Elvis Presley's, "Heartbreak Hotel", playing from a nearby house, and the song piqued his interest in rock and roll. He often sat at the back of the class drawing guitars in his schoolbooks, and later commented, "I was totally into guitars.". |
| 28 | Before the breakup of The Beatles, he purchased and restored the buildings of Friar Park, a 120-room Victorian neo-Gothic mansion in Henley-on-Thames. |
| 29 | When he was a young boy he collected photos of racing drivers and their cars; by 12 years of age he had attended his first race, the 1955 British Grand Prix at Aintree. |
| 30 | By late 1986, after a substantial break, Harrison felt the desire to make music again. He asked former Electric Light Orchestra lead vocalist, fellow guitarist and fellow musician, Jeff Lynne to co-produce a new album, "Cloud Nine," with him. The album went platinum, after his 1970 multi-platinum album, "All Things Must Pass," 17 years earlier. |
| 31 | A devout Monty Python fan. |
| 32 | Was very good friends with: Eric Clapton, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Tom Petty, Phil Collins, Neil Young, Paul Simon, David Gilmour, Pete Townshend, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Billy Preston, Neil Aspinall, Neil Innes, Carl Perkins and Roger McGuinn. |
| 33 | Like fellow member of The Beatles John Lennon, Harrison was known to be a very private person. |
| 34 | Founded his own record label, Dark Horse Records, in 1974. |
| 35 | Began playing the slide guitar at age 27. At that time, Harrison began to incorporate it into his solo work, which allowed him to mimic many traditional Indian instruments, including the sarangi and the dilruba. |
| 36 | In the early 1960s when The Beatles were a backup group for Tony Sheridan, George co-wrote with John Lennon an instrumental, "Cry For A Shadow". The title was a reference to a disbanded British group. |
| 37 | During his November 1976 appearance on Saturday Night Live (1975), he appeared and sang, in a video titled "This Song". It referenced the then popular controversy over the similarity in the melody of his mega-hit "My Sweet Lord"(1971) and that of The Chiffons' 1963 hit "He's So Fine". |
| 38 | First musician of the pop era to introduce the sitar when he played it on "Norwegian Wood" from the The Beatles' album "Rubber Soul" (1965). This was the first time the Indian instrument had been played on a pop single. Rivals The Rolling Stones soon followed with sitar accompaniment on their hit "Paint It Black" (1966). |
| 39 | Portrayed by Sam Bell in Nowhere Boy (2009). |
| 40 | He and The Beatles were awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 7080 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California. |
| 41 | Though the guitar chord - 7th + sharpened 9th - became known as "The Hendrix Chord" through its heavy use on "Foxy Lady" and "Purple Haze," the 7#9 was actually used several months earlier by Harrison on "Taxman" from The Beatles' 1966 album "Revolver". |
| 42 | Through good friend Eric Clapton, Delaney Bramlett introduced him to playing slide guitar, which he would use after The Beatles. |
| 43 | Former schoolmate of Paul McCartney; the two got acquainted riding the same bus every day, carrying their first guitars. After McCartney joined John Lennon's Quarrymen, Harrison began turning up at their shows, and filled in when other members weren't available. Lennon objected to having a "kid" join the band, but McCartney persuaded him. |
| 44 | The first song he wrote was "Don't Bother Me", while he was sick in hospital. He said later, "It was an exercise, to see if I *could* write a song". |
| 45 | After The Beatles broke up, he was the first of them to have a #1 hit as a solo artist ("My Sweet Lord" December 1970). |
| 46 | Is portrayed by Chris O'Neill in Backbeat (1994). |
| 47 | On 11/11/04 The Beatles were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame for their outstanding contribution to British music and integral part of British music culture. |
| 48 | Is portrayed by Chris Cound in The Linda McCartney Story (2000). |
| 49 | He was the youngest member of The Beatles. |
| 50 | Originally submitted his album "Somwhere In England" in 1980 with a psychedelic cover and four rather downbeat songs. Warner Brothers rejected the album and ordered a new cover and four new, more upbeat songs. It was around this time that John Lennon died, and Harrison decided to re-arrange his song "All Those Years Ago" as a tribute to Lennon and sing it himself (he originally thought it should be a Ringo Starr tune). Starr had recorded percussion, which was used in the final track. At the same time Paul McCartney asked if he could come over to George's house so George could do some guitar work on Paul's song "Wanderlust." It was the first time McCartney and Harrison had been together since the break-up of The Beatles in 1970. Harrison asked Paul, wife Linda McCartney and Denny Laine to record backing vocals for his song, "All Those Years Ago." After recording the song, McCartney decided that Harrison didn't need to record the guitar part and he'd use a horn ensemble instead. After three other songs were recorded, and a new photo shot at an art gallery in London, the album was resubmitted and accepted. Based on the strength of a new Beatles "reunion" (on "All Those Years Ago"), the album was released to critical and commercial excitement. "All Those Years Ago" became Harrison's first top-ten hit in eight years. |
| 51 | After eight years being idle, he decided to tour in 1974 despite a bad voice due to some throat problems. The tour was a critical and commercial disaster, with unfair severe criticism for the opening act of "Ravi Shankar and Friends", Harrison's voice (which was called "Dark Hoarse") and his preaching. He was so disillusioned and angry with the incident that he never toured in America again, only going to Japan in 1992 for a very large sum and Eric Clapton's back-up band. |
| 52 | Disillusioned with working for a major label, he quickly and hastily recorded "Gone Troppo" in 1982 to fulfill his contract. When asked to renew, he refused. He also refused to do any publicity for the album, which he thought of as second-rate. Due to the shoddy publicity campaign by Warner Brothers for the album, it was a flop and its highest chart position was #108. Harrison decided not to make another album for five years. When he did, the album, "Cloud Nine", was a smash, landing in the #1 spot. |
| 53 | Was actually hurt by the critical savaging of Shanghai Surprise (1986) and its subsequent financial failure, because he had very little to do with it and his name was on the film. In later years he said that his songs were the victims of the film's failure. |
| 54 | The only one of The Beatles whose childhood was not marred by personal tragedy. |
| 55 | After his lung cancer was found to have returned in March 2001, Harrison was operated on in June and had half of one lung removed. By November of that year however the cancer had spread to his brain, making recovery impossible. |
| 56 | Together with Eric Clapton, he wrote the Cream hit "Badge." He also played the song's lead guitar track up to the bridge. |
| 57 | In 1978, The Rolling Stones album "Some Girls" was withdrawn from stores after several stars whose photos appeared on the original cover (including Lucille Ball, Raquel Welch, Farrah Fawcett, Lee Majors and Red Buttons) threatened to sue. The album was re-released with a "censored" cover; Harrison's photo appears on both versions. He joked publicly that he'd sue the Stones "if they removed his photo." |
| 58 | Brother-in-law of Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac (Fleetwood was married to Jenny Boyd, Pattie Boyd's sister). |
| 59 | Treated for throat cancer in 1997, which went into remission the next year. |
| 60 | Was a member of The Traveling Wilburys, along with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra. |
| 61 | Although rightly considered the shyest pf The Beatles, Harrison loved comedy and often associated with Monty Python through the 1970s. |
| 62 | Was an ace Monopoly player. |
| 63 | Spoke German, but not fluently |
| 64 | When Lorne Michaels offered The Beatles $3000 to appear on Saturday Night Live (1975), Harrison actually took him up on the offer and performed on the show. The joke was that Michaels was offering $750 per Beatle, and Harrison wanted the full $3000. As a tribute, this appearance was re-aired as part of "Weekend Update" the Saturday after Harrison died. |
| 65 | He was the youngest of four children (Louise, Harold Jr. and Peter were his older siblings), and came from the most "normal" home of any of The Beatles. Father Harry drove a Liverpool city bus, while mother Louise gave dance lessons at their home. The Harrisons were common-sense people, but allowed their children to pursue their dreams, and encouraged George to take up music. Mrs. Harrison invited The Beatles over to practice early in their career, and sometimes came to see them perform. The family remained close, even after daughter Louise married and moved to America, and George became famous; Louise frequently made herself available for media interviews about her younger brother, and hosted his early American visits. He provided enough money for his parents to retire comfortably, while his home at Friar Park was a family affair indeed, tended by he and his older brothers. His mother died of cancer in 1970, and he wrote "Deep Blue" in reaction to her death. His father died (also of cancer) in 1978, having adopted some of his son's spiritual beliefs; George and wife Olivia later related that they'd awoken that same night, to a strange blue light in the room, and a vision of Harry smiling at them. |
| 66 | A federal court in New York ruled in 1976 that his song "My Sweet Lord" was a copyright infringement on the 1963 Laurie Records hit "He's So Fine" by The Chiffons. "My Sweet Lord" contained a similar repetition of two musical phrases ("sol-mi-re" and "sol-la-do-la-do") found in "He's So Fine," along with identical harmonies. Although the court found that Harrison did not intend to plagiarize "He's So Fine," it ruled that, having been familiar with the song, he had "subconsciously" copied its melody (Bright Tunes Music Corp. v. Harrisongs Music, Ltd., 420 F.Supp. 177 (S.D.N.Y. Aug 31, 1976). Appeals dragged the case on into the 1990s, with Harrison's former manager Allen Klein becoming the plaintiff when he bought Bright Tunes. Harrison eventually ended up owning both songs, while Klein's reputation suffered from his "changing sides" in the suit. |
| 67 | Was called "my archangel" by Srila Prabhupada, founder of the Hare Krishna movement. |
| 68 | Overcame both hepatitis in the mid-1970s (which caused a delay in the release of his album "Thirty-Three and 1/3"), and a cocaine addiction in the early 1980s. |
| 69 | Harrison was cremated within hours of his death, and his ashes were later scattered along the Ganges River in India, in accordance with his last wishes. |
| 70 | A controversy arose in the days after Harrison's death, when it turned out his death certificate listed a bogus address; it was revealed he had died at Paul McCartney's Los Angeles house, whose address they'd wanted to keep secret. McCartney described the late Harrison as "my baby brother". |
| 71 | Had his own professional 16-track recording studio installed at Friar Park, where nearly all his solo records after "All Things Must Pass" were made (album credits usually mention "Friar Park Studio", or "F.P.S.H.O.T."). In the 1980s Jeff Lynne, used to working with 48-track digital machines, found it startling to have to rethink his approach to record with Harrison, but found it refreshing in the long run (the band Shakespear's Sister also borrowed the studio in the early 1990s, to record "Hormonally Yours"). |
| 72 | Wrote an autobiography titled "I Me Mine" in the late 1970s (which he described in the introduction as "the small change of a short lifetime"), and included reproductions of the original handwritten lyrics to nearly all his songs. The book was originally issued as an exclusive leather-bound edition by Genesis Books for about $350 per copy; a less-expensive hardback edition was later published by Simon and Schuster. |
| 73 | Was the first of The Beatles to produce a "solo" album, with his soundtrack album to Joe Massot's film Wonderwall (1968) (Paul McCartney had earlier composed the score for The Family Way (1966), but did not produce or play on the recordings). Songs were recorded both in India (featuring Ashish Khan and guests) and England; the English tracks featured Harrison, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Peter Tork (each performing under pseudonyms) and former Beatles rivals The Remo Four, from Liverpool. |
| 74 | In January of 2002 the re-release of "My Sweet Lord" reached #1 in the UK, replacing Aaliyah's "More Than A Woman". It was the first time there have been two consecutive posthumous #1 hits in the UK. |
| 75 | Was the second of The Beatles to become a vegetarian, after Ringo Starr but before Paul McCartney. According to his first wife Pattie Boyd, Harrison would allow neither meat nor fish to be brought into his house. |
| 76 | In the early 1970s Eric Clapton fell madly in love with Pattie Boyd (at the time married to Harrison) and wrote "Layla" about her; when she refused to leave George for him, Clapton became so distraught and depressed he turned to heroin and developed a severe addiction. By 1974, feeling abandoned by George's obsession with Indian culture, Pattie left George for Eric and the Harrisons' divorce was finalized in 1977. Two years later, Pattie and Eric were married (they divorced in 1988). Through it all, George, Eric and Pattie remained the best of friends - George attended the Claptons' wedding reception and commented, "I'd rather she was with him than some dope". (Clapton and Harrison called each other "husbands-in-law."). |
| 77 | In 1968 Eric Clapton played guitar on George's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on The Beatles' "White Album". Also, George was at Eric's home in England and wrote "Here Comes the Sun" while skipping a board meeting for the band's company, Apple Corps. |
| 78 | George met Pattie Boyd on the set of A Hard Day's Night (1964). She was engaged at the time, but George kept asking her out until she gave in. They were married in 1966. |
| 79 | Liked jelly babies (a softer version of jelly beans). |
| 80 | Got a job as an apprentice electrician at age 16 but didn't have the interest to continue it. With one son a mechanic and another a groundskeeper, father Harry hoped his sons would go into business together once George finished his apprenticeship. Harry let George quit to become a working musician, though, when The Beatles began to get weekly bookings, figuring he was young and could still "start over" if music didn't work out. |
| 81 | Attended Dovedale Road Primary School (now Dovedale Road Junior School) and the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys (now the Liverpool Institute of the Performing Arts). |
| 82 | In 1979 he was co-founder, executive producer and principal partner of HandMade Films, a position he held until 1994. |
| 83 | He and his fellow members of The Beatles were awarded the MBE (Member of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1965 Queen's Birthday Honours List. |
| 84 | Son, Dhani Harrison (born 1 August 1978) was a student at Brown University. |
| 85 | He played 26 instruments: guitar, sitar, four-string guitar, bass guitar, arp bass, violin, tamboura, dobro, swordmandel, tabla, organ, piano, moog synthesizer, harmonica, autoharp, glockenspiel, vibraphone, xylophone, claves, African drum, conga drum, tympani, ukulele, mandolin, marimba and Jal-Tarang. |
| 86 | Wrote the introduction to a biography on sitarist Ravi Shankar. |
| 87 | Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of The Beatles January 20, 1988. |
| 88 | On 30 December 1999, an intruder broke into his Oxfordshire mansion, stabbing him multiple times in the chest. Harrison and his wife fought the intruder and detained him for the police. |
| 89 | Lead guitarist of The Beatles. |
| 90 | A good deal of confusion as to his real birthday was solved when a family birth record noted him as being born shortly before midnight around 11:50 P.M.) on February 24th, 1943. He had believed his birthday was February 25th for his entire life. |
| 91 | As of 1998, his older sister Louise Harrison was living in southern Illinois. |
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