Honestly, it’s a bit of a tragedy. George Harrison spent years in a band where he was basically standing between the two greatest songwriting juggernauts of the 20th century. Imagine trying to get a word in edgewise when John Lennon and Paul McCartney are cranking out "Yesterday" or "Strawberry Fields Forever" in their sleep. It wasn't just a competition; it was a bottleneck.
But George wasn't just the "Quiet Beatle." He was a slow burn. He was a guy who didn't start as a writer but ended up writing the most-streamed Beatles song on Spotify today. Yeah, it's not a Lennon-McCartney tune. It's George's.
If you're asking which beatles songs did george harrison write, you’re looking at a list of 22 officially released tracks. That’s the "official" number. But if you count the demos, the instrumentals, and the songs he essentially co-wrote without getting the credit, the story gets a lot more complicated.
The Early Days: "Don't Bother Me" and the 1963 Pivot
George didn't even want to be a songwriter at first. He was the guitar player. Period. But he saw what John and Paul were doing—and more importantly, he saw the royalties they were making.
In 1963, while sick in a hotel room in Bournemouth, he wrote his first contribution. It was a song called "Don't Bother Me." It appeared on With The Beatles. If you listen to it now, it sounds a bit moody and minor-key compared to the bouncy "She Loves You" vibe of the time. It was a sign of things to come. He wasn't trying to be happy-go-lucky. He was already a bit cynical.
After that, there was a weird gap. He didn't have anything on A Hard Day's Night. Nothing on Beatles for Sale. It wasn't until 1965 that he really started to claw his way back into the tracklists.
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The Help! Era Breakthrough
On the Help! album, we got two George songs:
- "I Need You" – A sweet, simple love song with a volume-pedal guitar effect that sounds very "1965."
- "You Like Me Too Much" – A piano-heavy track that George later kind of dismissed as throwaway.
The Indian Influence and the Sitar Phase
By 1966, George had found his "thing." He met Ravi Shankar, picked up a sitar, and suddenly his songs didn't sound like anyone else's in the Western world. This is where he stopped being the "junior partner" and started being a pioneer.
On Rubber Soul, he contributed "Think For Yourself" and "If I Needed Someone." The latter is a masterpiece of jangle-pop, heavily influenced by The Byrds. If you’ve ever wondered where that 60s "Rickenbacker sound" reached its peak, this is it.
Then came Revolver. This was a massive win for George. He got THREE songs on the album.
- "Taxman" – The opening track. This was a huge deal. Usually, John or Paul got the opener. It was a biting, sarcastic attack on the British government.
- "Love You To" – His first full-blown Indian classical track. No guitars. Just sitar, tabla, and drone.
- "I Want to Tell You" – A song about the frustration of not being able to express yourself. Given his position in the band, that felt pretty autobiographical.
The Sgt. Pepper Anomaly
On Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, arguably the most famous album of all time, George only has one song: "Within You Without You." It’s five minutes of philosophical, Indian-inspired meditation. It’s the only song on the album not written by Lennon or McCartney. It was polarizing then, and it's polarizing now. You either love the spiritual depth or you skip it. There is no middle ground.
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The "White Album" Explosion
By 1968, the dam was breaking. George had been to India, he'd written dozens of songs, and he was getting tired of the "two-song-per-album" quota. The White Album (officially The Beatles) allowed him to flex.
He gave us:
- "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" – He brought in his buddy Eric Clapton to play the lead. Why? Because he felt John and Paul weren't taking the song seriously enough. Once Clapton was in the room, everyone behaved.
- "Piggies" – A weird, harpsichord-driven social satire.
- "Savoy Truffle" – A rocking track about Eric Clapton’s chocolate addiction.
- "Long, Long, Long" – A quiet, haunting ballad that ends with a rattling wine bottle on a speaker. It’s one of his most underrated tracks.
The End: Abbey Road and Let It Be
In the final years, George was arguably writing better songs than John or Paul. Even Frank Sinatra called "Something" the greatest love song of the last fifty years (though he mistakenly credited it to Lennon and McCartney).
On Abbey Road, George hit the jackpot:
- "Something" – His first and only A-side single with The Beatles.
- "Here Comes the Sun" – Written in Eric Clapton's garden while George was "sagging off" from boring business meetings. It’s pure joy in musical form.
On Let It Be, we got:
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- "For You Blue" – A breezy acoustic blues.
- "I Me Mine" – A waltz-time rocker about the ego. Ironically, this was the last song The Beatles ever recorded as a group (though John wasn't there).
The Songs Most People Forget
Outside the main albums, there were B-sides and soundtrack songs.
- "The Inner Light" – The B-side to "Lady Madonna."
- "Old Brown Shoe" – The B-side to "The Ballad of John and Yoko."
- "Only a Northern Song" – A sarcastic middle finger to the band’s publishing company, appearing on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack.
- "It's All Too Much" – An LSD-soaked psychedelic masterpiece from the same soundtrack.
- "Blue Jay Way" – A hazy, foggy track from Magical Mystery Tour.
The Uncredited Contributions
Here is where it gets sticky. Did George write more?
Technically, no. Legally, the credits say Lennon-McCartney. But music isn't just words and a melody. It’s the "hook." George wrote the opening riff to "And I Love Her." He wrote the guitar parts for "She Said She Said" (and some say he basically co-wrote the whole thing because Paul had walked out of the studio). He even contributed lines to "Eleanor Rigby" ("Ah, look at all the lonely people").
He didn't get the money for those. He didn't get the name on the record. But his DNA is all over them.
Why It Matters Today
George’s struggle to get his songs on Beatles records is the reason his debut solo album, All Things Must Pass, was a triple LP. He had a backlog. He was like a pressurized garden hose that finally burst.
If you want to truly appreciate his Beatles work, don't just look at the list of 22 songs. Look at the progression. He went from a kid trying to copy his "big brothers" to a man who wrote the most popular songs in their entire catalog.
Actionable Next Steps for Beatles Fans
- Listen to the Esher Demos: Check out the 50th Anniversary White Album release. It features acoustic versions of many George songs that didn't make the cut, like "Not Guilty" and "Circles."
- Compare "Something" to the Demos: Listen to the solo acoustic demo of "Something" on Anthology 3. It shows just how much the song was his vision from the start.
- Track the Sitar: Listen to "Norwegian Wood" (written by John) followed by "Love You To" (written by George) to see how George took a "flavoring" instrument and turned it into the lead.
George Harrison proved that you don't have to be the loudest person in the room to have the last word. You just have to be the one writing "Here Comes the Sun."