“All Things Must Pass” by George Harrison

George Harrison had been sitting on "All Things Must Pass" since 1968. He brought it to the Beatles at the Get Back sessions in January 1969, they let it slip away, and Billy Preston got his version out first; only then did Harrison make it the title song of his first solo album in November 1970. You can hear where his head was: the loose, communal roll of the Band, whom he'd spent time with in Woodstock, and a lyric steered by Timothy Leary's Tao-inspired poem about how nothing lasts.

Phil Spector co-produced in London and John Barham laid on the orchestra, with Ringo Starr, Klaus Voormann, Bobby Whitlock, Eric Clapton and Pete Drake's pedal steel easing it along. It sounds like sunrise after a funeral, and commentators took it as Harrison's farewell to the Beatles. Critics have since ranked it among the finest songs any ex-Beatle wrote.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.