"For You Blue" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1970 album Let It Be. The track was written by George Harrison as a love song to his wife, Pattie Boyd. It was also the B-side to the "Long and Winding Road" single, issued in many countries, but not Britain, and was listed with that song when the single topped the US Billboard Hot 100 and Canada's national chart in June 1970. On the Cash Box Top 100 chart, which measured the US performance of single sides individually, "For You Blue" peaked at number 71.
The song is a twelve-bar blues in the country blues style. When writing "For You Blue", Harrison was partly influenced by his stay with Bob Dylan and the Band in Woodstock over November–December 1968. Whereas that visit had been a musically rewarding experience for Harrison, the Beatles first worked on the song amid an atmosphere of discord, during the filmed rehearsals that made up part of the Let It Be documentary film. Recorded at the group's Apple Studio in London in late January 1969, the song includes a lap steel guitar part played by John Lennon. Among music critics, some have admired the track for its lighthearted qualities and as a good band performance. Other commentators identify it as an inconsequential song, particularly in relation to some of the Harrison compositions that his bandmates rejected over the Let It Be period.
In 1976, Capitol Records included "For You Blue" on the compilation album The Best of George Harrison. An alternative take of the track appeared on the Beatles' 1996 compilation Anthology 3. A live version recorded during Harrison's 1974 North American tour received a limited release on the Songs by George Harrison EP in 1988. Paul McCartney performed the song at the Concert for George in November 2002, a year after Harrison's death.
Background and composition
thumb|left|210px|The [[Catskill Mountains in upstate New York. Harrison's late 1968 visit to Woodstock, where he spent time with Bob Dylan and the Band, served as part of his musical inspiration for the song.]]
George Harrison wrote "For You Blue" in late 1968 as a love song to his wife Pattie Boyd. In his autobiography, I, Me, Mine, he describes the composition as "a simple twelve-bar song following all the normal principles except it's happy-go-lucky!" The song was partly influenced by Harrison's recent stay in Woodstock in upstate New York, where he had collaborated with Bob Dylan and jammed with the Band. The visit allowed Harrison to experience a musical camaraderie that contrasted with the tense atmosphere in the Beatles over much of 1968, particularly during the recording of their self-titled double album (also known as "the White Album"). In addition, the creative equality Harrison enjoyed among these musicians, as on his recent collaborations with Eric Clapton, contrasted with the continued dominance of John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the Beatles during a period when Harrison was emerging as a prolific songwriter.
"For You Blue" is a country blues song On the Beatles' recording, Harrison performs this opening section alone,]]
As a condition of Harrison's return to the group, the Beatles abandoned the idea of a concert and relocated to their Apple Studio in central London, on 22 January, to record an album of some of the songs rehearsed at Twickenham. Until Lindsay-Hogg chose to include footage relating to "I Me Mine" in the documentary, necessitating a formal recording of that song in January 1970, "For You Blue" was the only Harrison composition recorded for the album. Music critic John Harris remarks on the surprising decision to include "For You Blue", in light of the more substantial compositions that Harrison had presented. Like Harris, author Elliot Huntley considers that Harrison deliberately refrained from pushing for the inclusion of his best material, believing that his bandmates would not do justice to songs such as "All Things Must Pass", "Let It Down" and the similarly overlooked "Isn't It a Pity" and "Something".