It’s George Harrison’s Birthday!
As, "The Quiet Beatle", Harrison helped shaped popular music as we know it today as he and The Beatles influenced generations of artists throughout the modern era.
Even though the, powerhouse duo of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, wrote most of the Beatles catalogue, George would find his voice and make his own contributions to the band with some of their most memorable hits. "Taxman", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Something" (the single that Frank Sinatra called a perfect song) and "Here Comes the Sun", became his signature hits with the band and his mastery of the sitar would define Psychedelic music with songs like "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)".
His marriage to model Pattie Boyd, would become a rock epic in itself as it would lead to the love triangle that would include his best friend Eric Clapton, and inspire a string of rock classic that are highlighted by the anthem “Layla” by Derek & The Domines.
After the break-up of the Beatles, Harrison took the songs that Paul and John passed on to create the classic triple album All Things Must Pass. The album was a critically acclaimed work that was filled by everything George wanted to do and could not do with The Beatles. "My Sweet Lord", became the album’s most significant single and the album itself would power his efforts to create The 1971 Concert for Bangladesh with Ravi Shankar. In the 70’s he would also start his own lablel Dark Horse Records in 1974, and co-found HandMade Films in 1978, to produce Monty Python's The Life of Brian.
In the 80’s Harrison would find comeback success with hits like “I’ve Got My Mind Set On You” and the creation of the super group the Traveling Wilburys, which he would form with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne. He is a rare two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee, as a member of the Beatles in 1988, and as a solo act in 2004, which would take place after he ultimately passed away from cancer in 2001 at the age of 58.
The Quiet Beatle, was one of the loudest of them all, and his career and work is truly timeless.