“What Is Life” by George Harrison

"What Is Life" bursts out of All Things Must Pass, George Harrison's 1970 triple album, on a tumbling, descending guitar riff and never lets up. He'd written it in 1969 with Billy Preston in mind, but kept it, and it became one of his best-loved songs, an uptempo soul rave-up that seems to be sung to a woman and to God at the same time.

Harrison co-produced with Phil Spector, and the Wall of Sound piles it high: John Barham's strings, a thicket of acoustic guitars from Badfinger's Pete Ham, Tom Evans and Joey Molland, Eric Clapton on guitar, Bobby Keys and Jim Price blowing horns, and Delaney & Bonnie's band, Jim Gordon, Carl Radle and Bobby Whitlock among them, driving it. Released as a single in February 1971 in many countries, it topped the charts in Australia and Switzerland, while in Britain it rode on the flip of "My Sweet Lord".

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