Here Comes the Sun

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This article is about the song by The Beatles. For other uses, see Here Comes the Sun (disambiguation).

"Here Comes the Sun" is a song by George Harrison from The Beatles album Abbey Road.

The song, Harrison's most well-known Beatles contribution alongside "Something", had its genesis with a songwriting collaboration between Harrison and close friend Eric Clapton called "Badge", recorded by Clapton's group Cream. It was the song's bridge that formed the basis for "Here Comes The Sun", the final version of which was written in Clapton's garden as Harrison was avoiding Apple Records meetings. 1969 was a difficult year for George: he was arrested for cannabis possession (his wife Pattie Boyd actually had been set up)^{[citation needed]}, he had his tonsils out, and he had temporarily quit the band. The song was written while Harrison was happily away from all of these troubles.

Harrison sang lead vocals and played acoustic guitar, moog, and handclaps. Paul McCartney sang backing vocals, played bass guitar, and handclaps. Ringo Starr played drums and handclaps. John Lennon did not contribute to the song as he was recovering from a recent car crash (he was also absent from George Harrison's "Long, Long, Long"). Unknown musicians played violas, cellos, double bass, piccolos, flutes, alto flutes, and clarinets.

The "Badge" bridge/guitar riff would return in two later Abbey Road album tracks, "You Never Give Me Your Money" and "Carry That Weight".

George employs a common guitarist’s compositional tool in the writing of this song known as the ‘D-nut’ chord technique. By playing the chord of D in the “nut” shape the guitarist is able to create subtle harmonic embellishments or melodic ideas by removing the 2nd finger or adding the 3rd and/or 4th finger. This is how George wrote the melody to ‘Here Comes the Sun’. He capoed his guitar on the 7th fret resulting the final key of A major. He also used the same technique on his 1965 song ‘If I Needed Someone’ which shares a similar melodic pattern as a result.

In 2006, "Here Comes the Sun" was voted by the members of the George Harrison.com forum as their favourite song of his.

The song was covered by reggae artist Peter Tosh, and released as a hit single. Additionally, American folk singer Richie Havens saw his 1971 version reach #16 in the U.S. Singer/pianist/songwriter Nina Simone also recorded the song on an album with the same title: Here Comes The Sun (1971). The German bandleader James Last also made a cover version, taking the style of the song sung by Richie Havens as a basis for a version sung on his Beachparty2 album in 1971. A recent cover (instrumental) by Bill Laswell on the album "OHM Shanti" by Asana (2005).

Acen sampled the song for the Breakbeat Hardcore track 'Close Your Eyes', but copyright removed the sample from some releases.

External links

• Lyrics
• Review from the All Music Guide
• Alan W. Pollack's analysis of Here Comes The Sun