He might have been the “Quiet Beatle,” known for his introspective demeanor and tendency to remain in the background behind the group’s more energetic and outgoing performers, but George Harrison nonetheless was the first former Beatles member to achieve a solo number one hit. The song in question was “My Sweet Lord,” which topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic in December 1970 and early 1971. 

Lyrically, with its mix of repeated “Hallelujahs” and “Hare Krishnas,” the track was seen as an attempt by Harrison to consolidate his original Catholic Christian faith with the Hinduism he had embraced while in India with the Beatles in the mid-1960s. Nor was this the first time his music, solo or otherwise, had dipped into his spiritual side.

1. “Within You Without You” (1967) 
2. “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (1968) 
3. “Long, Long, Long” (1968) 
4. “Beware of Darkness” (1970) 
5. “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” (1973)

“Within You Without You” (1967) 

Harrison’s only solo contribution to the Beatles’ 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the five-minute epic “Within You Without You” saw him ditch his fellow bandmates for Indian instrumentation, recording the song instead with members of the legendary London-based collective Asian Music Circle. 

Lyrically, the song touches on several significant aspects of the Indian philosophy Harrison had been embracing by the mid-1960s, including acceptance of the nature of true existence (“And the people who hide themselves behind a wall of illusion / Never glimpse the truth”) and the essentially monist belief that all existing things are united by a single original source. 

This—rather than the more individualist worldview of Western philosophy, the song explains—is the key to wider peace: “We were talking about the love we all could share when we find it / To try our best to hold it there with our love / With our love we could save the world, if they only knew.”

“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (1968) 

Written for the Beatles’ 1968 self-titled double album (aka The White Album), “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” saw Harrison exploring, in his words, the Eastern concept that “whatever happens is meant to be, and there’s no such thing as coincidence.” 

The lyrics reflect the idea of faith in the structure of passing time, notably in the lines, “I look at the world and I notice it’s turning / While my guitar gently weeps / With every mistake we must surely be learning / Still my guitar gently weeps.” 

“Long, Long, Long” (1968) 

Another of Harrison’s compositions for The White Album was the brooding and meditative “Long, Long, Long.” Although its lyrics can easily be interpreted as a straightforward romantic love song (“It’s been a long long long time / How could I ever have lost you”), Harrison later explained that the “you” he is addressing in the track is actually God—a revelation that transforms the song into a deeply spiritual paean by someone finding or rekindling their faith. 

“Beware of Darkness” (1970) 

Although it was never released as a single, Harrison’s 1970 track “Beware of Darkness,” recorded for his third solo studio album All Things Shall Pass, has long since emerged as a fan favorite. He also memorably performed the track with Leon Russell at the 1971 Concert For Bangladesh, and since then, it has gone on to be covered by artists as diverse as Concrete Blonde and Sheryl Crow over the past six decades. 

Harrison described the song as “self-explanatory,” and its lyrics are certainly overt in their spiritual warning to the listener to avoid the Hindu concept of illusory existence, or maya: “Watch out now / Take care, beware of soft shoe shufflers / Dancing down the sidewalks / As each unconscious sufferer / Wanders aimlessly / Beware of Maya.” 

“Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” (1973)

Two years after “My Sweet Lord,” Harrison returned to the top of the Billboard charts in 1973 with “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth),” the lead single from his fourth solo album, Living in the Material World. (Interestingly, the track knocked Paul McCartney & Wings’ “My Love” from the Number 1 slot after four weeks, marking the first and only time two solo Beatles hits would occupy the top two positions on the chart.) 

In his 1980 autobiography “I, Me, Mine,” Harrison described this song as “a prayer and personal statement between me, the Lord, and whoever likes it.” The lyrics essentially portray Harrison as wanting to escape from a cycle of rebirth and reincarnation, and to reach a state of peace and rest after death instead: “Keep me free from birth / Give me hope, help me cope / With this heavy load / Trying to touch and reach you with / Heart and soul.”

Read More: