“My Sweet Lord” by George Harrison

"My Sweet Lord" arrived in November 1970 on All Things Must Pass, George Harrison's triple album, and it was his first single as a solo artist. It went to number one around the world, became the biggest-selling single of 1971 in Britain, and was the first chart-topper by an ex-Beatle on both sides of the Atlantic. Harrison had first handed it to his Apple labelmate Billy Preston, whose version, co-produced by Harrison, came out that September on Encouraging Words.

It's a hymn to the Hindu god Krishna that doubles as a plea to drop the walls between faiths, and Harrison makes the point in the music, sliding from hallelujahs into Hare Krishna chants and Vedic prayer. Phil Spector co-produced and poured on his Wall of Sound, a shimmering army of acoustic guitars, and Harrison's slide guitar sings out over the top, the first real showcase of a sound that became his signature. Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Gary Brooker, Bobby Whitlock, Billy Preston, Klaus Voormann and members of Badfinger all pitch in.

Later in the decade came a heavily publicized copyright suit over its alleged similarity to the Chiffons' "He's So Fine", and in 1976 a court found Harrison had plagiarised that song subconsciously; he said his model had been the hymn "Oh Happy Day". He played it at the Concert for Bangladesh in August 1971, it remains the most popular thing he wrote after the Beatles, and in January 2002, two months after his death, it went back to number one in Britain.

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