George Harrison was born on February 25, 1943 in Liverpool, England to Harold and Louise Harrison making him the youngest Beatle. The only Beatle whose childhood was not marred by divorce or death, he had 2 brothers, Harold Jr and Peter, and a sister, Louise. George's childhood was for the most part normal. He was only plagued with tonsillitis and nephritis, which he got on his 13th birthday. According to his mother, he was always generous and wanted to help people. However, George always wanted to get away from the media; He craved privacy, which he got so little of when he was a Beatle. He even remarked "I never asked to be famous. I just wanted to be successful," then later on in life "The nicest thing is to open the newspapers and not to find yourself in them."
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George attended Dovedale Primary school with brother Pete, two forms behind John Lennon, and then Liverpool Institute, one form below Paul McCartney. He hated Liverpool Institute, calling it "the worst time of my life." He remembers mostly from his childhood getting in trouble, and rebelling at his school, even though he got good grades, and was proficient in sports. He also met Paul McCartney, who just happened to ride Bus No. 86 with him. Their tandem interest in music and guitars made them quick friends.
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Music dominated George's mind more than anything else did, and noticing the drawings on George's books and papers, his mother bought him a guitar for 3 pounds when he was 13. With this new instrument, he began to teach himself how to play the guitar. He played through all hours of the night, even until his fingers bled. With his brother Pete and best friend Arthur Kelly, he formed a short-lived skiffle group called "The Rebels." They were a little bit young at this time, and had to sneak out for their first gig. After the break-up of the Rebels, George left the Liverpool Institute and became a trainee electrician, which he soon discarded for his beloved music. BACK TO TOP

After a failed audition for Alan Caldwell's Texans, which later became Rory Storm & The Hurricanes, George was finally accepted into the Les Stewart Quartet. In 1956, Paul introduced the skinny and pimple-faced George to the Quarrymen, who was only 14 at the time. Not old enough to join the group, George hung around with the boys, and came to idolize John, doing everything he could to emulate him. George stood in the back of the room at all their shows with his guitar. Slowly but surely, by hanging around and filling in as a guitarist, George became a part of the group, then known as Johnny and the Moondogs, and left Stewart's band with Ken Brown in August of 1959.
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From the very start of the Beatles' popularity, George was as major a vocalist as John and Paul. As the songwriting of Lennon and McCartney became world-known, George started to concentrate more on writing songs as well, although many of the early songs written while with the Beatles went unrecorded. The first Beatles song written by George was “Don't Bother Me” off the With The Beatles album.  With songs like “I Need You,” and “You Like Me Too Much,” off the HELP! album, “Think For Yourself,” and “If I Need Someone” off of the Rubber Soul album, and “Taxman,” “Love You To,” and “I Want To Tell You” off of the Revolver album, he soon proved his worth as a songwriter.
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On January 21st, 1966, George married teenage model Patty Boyd after meeting her on the filming set of A Hard Days Night. Eventually, in the early 70’s, she had a love affair with George’s best friend, Eric Clapton. He divorced her on June 9th, 1977, and married Olivia Arias in October of 1978. She gave birth to George’s only son, Dhani, on August 1^st, 1978.
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In 1966 George met Ravi Shankar and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Here he learned to play the Sitar from Shankar, which is prevalent in some of his works. The Maharishi taught him meditation, and George picked up Indian philosophy. In 1968, George went to Bombay and recorded tracks of Wonderwall with other Indian musicians. George also met the Maharishi Yoga...where he took the Beatles to study. This brought on the first signs of breakup of the group.
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When the Beatles split, it was George who surprised his fan and critics by releasing a triple album set called All Things Must Pass. The triple album contained most of his best solo work with gorgeous melodies and transcendent guitar solo's. The single from the album called My Sweet Lord held the number one spot for four weeks.
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On the 1st August, George presented two shows at the Madison Square Gardens for the starving refugees in Bangladesh, this was appropriately presented in another triple album set with contributors such as Bob Dylan, Billy Preston, Ringo Starr and Eric Clapton. It was a great success and it laid the ground work for events like Live Aid.
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After a few more albums, George didn't do as well as he could. People were tiring of his mystical side, and albums like Dark Horse and Extra Texture were both flops. At this time he was also having a law suit surrounding his hit song My Sweet Lord. It seems that the riff that dominates My Sweet Lord sounds just like the old song 'He's So Fine' by the Chiffons. He was fined $587,000.
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In 1979, George released an album simply called George Harrison, this was hailed by critics as his most lyrical work to date, with lush acoustic guitars and George's slide guitar flicks. Since then he has been into making films. He formed a company called Hand Made Films and has produced hit films like Mona Lisa, Brazil, How To Get Ahead Of Advertising and Withnail and I. He has since dissolved the company and sued his business partner Denis O'Brian for pilfering the company Profits.
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In 1980, George submitted the tapes for his next LP to Warner Brothers, but they rejected the best songs, so George went back into his studio for another go at it. It was at these sessions when he heard that his old friend John Lennon had been murdered. George was devastated. This prompted George to do a tribute, and with the help of Paul and Ringo, they recorded a song called 'All Those Years Ago', this was the closest thing to a Beatle reunion.
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After that things went down hill again. The albums Somewhere In England and Gone Troppo were both failures. Then in 1987 he got his first number 1 in fourteen years and it was 'Got My Mind Set On You'. This came from the album Cloud Nine, which was arguably the best album since All Things Must Pass.
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In 1988, George got together with Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne from the ELO to form the The Traveling Wilburys. They did an album which was a hit, but then Roy Orbison died of a heart attack. They carried on and made another album called volume 3.
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In 1991 George toured Japan and sung most of his famous songs from his Beatle days and his solo work and has released a double album called Live In Japan.
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Harrison died on 29 November 2001. Harrison's death was listed on his Los Angeles County death certificate as "metastatic non-small cell lung cancer". It was rumoured that the lung cancer had metastasised to the brain. He was cremated and, although it was widely reported that his ashes were scattered in the Ganges River, the ceremony was not conducted at the expected time. The actual disposition of the ashes has not been publicly disclosed.
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After his death, the Harrison family released the following statement: "He left this world as he lived in it: conscious of God, fearless of death and at peace, surrounded by family and friends." Harrison had often said, "Everything else can wait, but the search for God cannot wait".
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