George Harrison is the eighth studio album by the English rock musician George Harrison, released on 14 February 1979. It was written and recorded through much of 1978, a period of domestic contentment for Harrison, during which he married Olivia Arias and became a father to son Dhani. Harrison wrote several of the songs in Hawaii, while the track "Faster" reflected his year away from music-making, when he and Arias attended many of the races in the 1977 Formula One season. The album also includes the hit single "Blow Away" and "Not Guilty", a song that Harrison originally recorded with the Beatles in 1968.

Harrison co-produced the album with Russ Titelman. The contributing musicians include Steve Winwood, Neil Larsen, Willie Weeks and Andy Newmark, with Eric Clapton and Gary Wright making guest appearances. The recording sessions took place at Harrison's FPSHOT studio in Oxfordshire.

Issued on Dark Horse Records, George Harrison was well-received by music critics on release. Commentators regularly cite it among the artist's best works after his 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass. The album was remastered in 2004 as part of Harrison's Dark Horse Years 1976–1992 reissues.

Background

In February 1977, George Harrison completed the promotion for Thirty Three & ⅓, his 1976 debut on his Dark Horse record label and an album that was widely viewed as a return to form after the critical disappointments of Dark Horse and Extra Texture. Rather than follow up on this success, Harrison took a sabbatical, which he described as "what the English call 'skyving'". For much of the year, he travelled with his girlfriend, Olivia Arias, and became a regular presence at motor races in the Formula 1 World Championship. As a rare artistic project during that time, Harrison assisted comedian Eric Idle in developing his Beatles satire, the Rutles, into the 1978 TV film All You Need Is Cash. After a chance meeting with representatives from Genesis Publications at a hotel near Heathrow Airport in July 1977, he also began compiling his song manuscripts for a limited edition leather-bound book, leading to his 1980 autobiography I, Me, Mine.

Before resuming songwriting for the new album, Harrison had not written a song since 1976. He said he was compelled to return to making music to satisfy requests from his friends in the Formula 1 community. He also felt a sense of duty towards Warner Bros. Records, the company that had taken up the distribution of Dark Horse in 1976, when A&M Records chose to offload the label, particularly as the Warner's executives had not pressured him for a new album throughout 1977.

Harrison said the project was informed by his contentment with how his life had progressed since Thirty Three & ⅓. In June 1977, he was granted a divorce from Pattie Boyd, who had left him for his friend Eric Clapton in 1974. Boyd's solicitor, a partner at the London firm Theodore Goddard, later remarked on the sensitivity shown by each party towards the other, and how rare this was in his experience of high-stakes divorces. Among other "profound changes" that influenced the album's creation, according to author Ian Inglis, Harrison became a father for the first time when Arias gave birth to their son, Dhani, in August 1978, three months after the death of his father, Harry Harrison.

Songs

thumb|left|upright=0.7|Harrison's friendship with Formula 1 world champion [[Niki Lauda and other drivers inspired some of the album's songs.]]

Harrison began writing "Love Comes to Everyone" in September 1977. Author Simon Leng comments that while familiar Harrison lyrical references to Krishna and Hindu spirituality appear to be absent on George Harrison, these themes are "rife" but stated subtly; he adds, "Hence, the 'love' that comes to everyone ... is, of course, God's." "Blow Away" was initially inspired by rain damage to a roof at Harrison's Friar Park estate in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. He turned the experience into one of positive thinking, reasoning that if he sought to be optimistic by expressing love, the problem would diminish in importance. He later said that he wrote "Blow Away" as a song that Niki Lauda, Jody Scheckter, Emerson Fittipaldi and others in the F1 "gang" might enjoy. He also wrote "Faster" in late 1977, The album credits listed former driver Jackie Stewart, whose autobiography was titled Faster, as the other source of inspiration.

Harrison listened to his 1970 triple album All Things Must Pass for inspiration. He wrote "If You Believe", incorporating musical and lyrical elements familiar from All Things Must Pass, with American musician Gary Wright on New Year's Day 1978 at Friar Park. Harrison then met with Warner's staff producers Lenny Waronker, Russ Titelman and Ted Templeman in Los Angeles to discuss the new album and play them demos of his latest songs. He recalled that Templeman's appreciation of his 1971 B-side "Deep Blue" inspired him to begin writing what became "Soft-Hearted Hana".

thumb|right|upright=1.2|The Hawaiian island of [[Maui inspired further songs and the mood of George Harrison.]]

Harrison wrote or finished writing the album's songs while holidaying on the Hawaiian island of Maui in February 1978, The holiday was a highly creative time for Harrison and influenced the mood of the album. He wrote "Dark Sweet Lady" there as a Spanish-style love song for Arias. "Your Love Is Forever" started as a guitar instrumental to which Harrison added lyrics that, furthering a common trait in his songwriting, expressed love to both a woman and his deity.

In addition to revisiting "Not Guilty", a song he had first recorded with the Beatles in 1968, Harrison wrote "Here Comes the Moon" as a lyrical successor to his 1969 Abbey Road composition "Here Comes the Sun". As with "Here Comes the Moon", his inspiration for the lyrics to "Soft-Hearted Hana" was a psychedelic mushroom experience he had on Maui. The song's title references the Tin Pan Alley standard "Hard Hearted Hannah" and the town of Hana on Maui.