My Sweet Lord

George Harrison began writing "My Sweet Lord" in December 1969, when he, Billy Preston and Eric Clapton were in Copenhagen, Denmark,[3][4] as guest artists on Delaney & Bonnie's European tour.[5][6] By this time, Harrison had already written the gospel-influenced "Hear Me Lord" and, with Preston, the African-American spiritual "Sing One for the Lord".[7] He had also produced two religious-themed hit singles on the Beatles' Apple record label: Preston's "That's the Way God Planned It" and Radha Krishna Temple (London)'s "Hare Krishna Mantra".[5][8] The latter was a musical adaptation of the 5000-year-old Vaishnava Hindu mantra, performed by members of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), colloquially known as "the Hare Krishna movement".[9][10] Harrison now wanted to fuse the messages of the Christian and Gaudiya Vaishnava faiths[11] into what musical biographer Simon Leng terms "gospel incantation with a Vedic chant".[4]

The Copenhagen stopover marked the end of the Delaney & Bonnie tour, with a three-night residency at the Falkoner Theatre on 10–12 December.[12] According to Harrison's 1976 court testimony, "My Sweet Lord" was conceived while the band members were attending a backstage press conference and he had ducked out to an upstairs room at the theatre.[13] Harrison recalled vamping chords on guitar and alternating between sung phrases of "hallelujah" and "Hare Krishna".[14][15] He later took the idea to the others, and the chorus vocals were developed further.[13]

Band leader Delaney Bramlett's later version of events is that the idea originated from Harrison asking him how to go about writing a genuine gospel song,[6] and that Bramlett demonstrated by scat singing the words "Oh my Lord" while wife Bonnie and singer Rita Coolidge added gospel "hallelujah"s in reply.[16] Music journalist John Harris has questioned the accuracy of Bramlett's account, however, comparing it to a fisherman's "It was this big"-type bragging story.[6] Preston recalled that "My Sweet Lord" came about through Harrison asking him about writing gospel songs during the tour. Preston said he played some chords on a backstage piano and the Bramletts began singing "Oh my Lord" and "Hallelujah". According to Preston: "George took it from there and wrote the verses. It was very impromptu. We never thought it would be a hit."[17]

Using as his inspiration the Edwin Hawkins Singers' rendition of an eighteenth-century Christian hymn, "Oh Happy Day",[3][18] Harrison continued working on the theme.[19] He completed the song, with help from Preston, once they had returned to London.[14][15]

The lyrics of "My Sweet Lord" reflect Harrison's often-stated desire for a direct relationship with God, expressed in simple words that all believers could affirm, regardless of their religion.[20][21] He later attributed the song's message to Swami Vivekananda, particularly the latter's teaching: "If there's a God, we must see him. And if there is a soul, we must perceive it."[22] Author Ian Inglis observes a degree of "understandable" impatience in the first verse's line, "Really want to see you, Lord, but it takes so long, my Lord".[20] By the end of the song's second verse, Harrison declares a wish to "know" God also[23][24] and attempts to reconcile the impatience.[20]

Following this verse, in response to the main vocal's repetition of the song title, Harrison devised a choral line singing the Hebrew word of praise, "hallelujah", common in the Christian and Jewish religions.[18] Later in the song, after an instrumental break, these voices return, now chanting the first twelve words of the Hare Krishna mantra, known more reverentially as the Maha mantra:[9][18]

Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna
Krishna Krishna, Hare Hare
Hare Rama, Hare Rama

These Sanskrit words are the main mantra of the Hare Krishna faith, with which Harrison identified,[5][26][27] although he did not belong to any spiritual organisation.[28][29] In his 1980 autobiography, I, Me, Mine, Harrison says that he intended repeating and alternating "hallelujah" and "Hare Krishna" to show that the two terms meant "quite the same thing", as well as to have listeners chanting the mantra "before they knew what was going on!"[19]

Following the Sanskrit lines, "hallelujah" is sung twice more before the mantra repeats,[30] along with an ancient Vedic prayer.[23] According to Hindu tradition, this prayer is dedicated to a devotee's spiritual teacher, or guru, and equates the teacher to the divine Trimurti – Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva (or Maheshvara) – and to the Godhead, Brahman.[31]

Gurur Brahmā, gurur Viṣṇur
gurur devo Maheśvaraḥ
gurus sākṣāt, paraṃ Brahma
tasmai śrī gurave namaḥ.

Religious academic Joshua Greene, one of the Radha Krishna Temple devotees in 1970, translates the lines as follows: "I offer homage to my guru, who is as great as the creator Brahma, the maintainer Vishnu, the destroyer Shiva, and who is the very energy of God."[32] The prayer is the third verse of the Guru Stotram, a fourteen-verse hymn in praise of Hindu spiritual teachers.[33][nb 1]

Several commentators cite the mantra and the simplicity of Harrison's lyrics as central to the song's universality.[20][35] In Inglis's view, "[The] lyrics are not directed at a specific manifestation of a single faith's deity, but rather to the concept of one god whose essential nature is unaffected by particular interpretations and who pervades everything, is present everywhere, is all-knowing and all-powerful, and transcends time and space ... All of us – Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist – can address our gods in the same way, using the same phrase ['my sweet Lord']."[20]

"My Sweet Lord"
Single by Billy Preston
from the album Encouraging Words
B-side	"Little Girl"
Released	3 December 1970
Genre	Soul, gospel
Length	3:21
Label	Apple
Songwriter(s)	George Harrison
Producer(s)	George Harrison, Billy Preston
Billy Preston singles chronology
"All That I've Got (I'm Gonna Give It to You)" (1970) "My Sweet Lord" (1970) "I Wrote a Simple Song" (1971)

With the Beatles still together officially in December 1969, Harrison had no plans to make a solo album of his own and reportedly intended to offer "My Sweet Lord" to Edwin Hawkins.[36][37] Instead, following the Delaney & Bonnie tour, he decided to record it with Billy Preston,[3] for whom Harrison was co-producing a second Apple album, Encouraging Words.[38][39] Recording took place at Olympic Studios in London, in January 1970,[7] with Preston as principal musician,[15] supported by the guitarist, bass player and drummer from the Temptations' backing band.[11] The Edwin Hawkins Singers happened to be on tour in the UK as well, so Harrison invited them to participate.[11][36][nb 2]

Preston's version of "My Sweet Lord" differs from Harrison's later reading in that the "hallelujah" refrain appears from the start of the song and, rather than the full mantra section, the words "Hare Krishna" are sung only twice throughout the whole track.[11] With the Vedic prayer also absent, Leng views this original recording as a possible "definitive 'roots' take'" of the song, citing its "pure gospel groove" and Hawkins' participation.[4] In his review of Encouraging Words, Bruce Eder of AllMusic describes "My Sweet Lord" and "All Things Must Pass" (another Harrison composition originally given to Preston to record)[40] as "stunning gospel numbers ... that make the Harrison versions seem pallid".[41]

Preston's "My Sweet Lord" was a minor hit in Europe when issued as a single there in September 1970,[40] but otherwise, Encouraging Words made little impression commercially.[41][42] The album and single releases were delayed for at least two months in the United States. There, "My Sweet Lord" climbed to number 90 on the Billboard Hot 100 by the end of February 1971,[43] helped by the enormous success of Harrison's version.[44] Preston's single also peaked at number 23 on Billboard's Best Selling Soul Singles chart.[45] In March 1971, he recorded a live version with King Curtis that was released in 2006 on the expanded edition of Curtis's album Live at Fillmore West.[46]

Five months after the Olympic session, with the Beatles having broken up, "My Sweet Lord" was one of 30 or more tracks that Harrison recorded for his All Things Must Pass triple album.[47] He was initially reluctant to record the song, for fear of committing himself to such an overt religious message.[48][49] In I, Me, Mine, he states: "I was sticking my neck out on the chopping block because now I would have to live up to something, but at the same time I thought 'Nobody's saying it; I wish somebody else was doing it.'"[19]

Abbey Road Studios, where Harrison recorded "My Sweet Lord"

Principal recording took place at Abbey Road Studios in London, with Phil Spector co-producing the sessions.[50] The line-up of musicians on the track has been hard to ascertain due to conflicting recollections.[48] Harrison said that the musicians included "about five" acoustic guitarists, Ringo Starr and Jim Gordon on drums,[36] two piano players and a bassist.[51] He recalled working hard with the other acoustic guitarists "to get them all to play exactly the same rhythm so it just sounded perfectly in sync".[51] Preston again played on the recording, along with Clapton, Gary Wright (on piano), Klaus Voormann (on bass) and all four members of Badfinger (on acoustic guitars and tambourine).[48][52]

Drummer Alan White once claimed he played on "My Sweet Lord" with Carl Radle on bass and Starr on tambourine,[48] and with John Lennon among the rhythm guitarists.[36] Leng lists John Barham as the probable harmonium player;[52] Beatles historian Bruce Spizer says that Peter Frampton may have added acoustic guitar after the main session.[48][nb 3] The chorus vocals were all sung by Harrison and credited to "the George O'Hara-Smith Singers".[55][nb 4] These contributions, together with Harrison's slide guitar parts and Barham's orchestral arrangement, were overdubbed during the next two months,[58] partly at Trident Studios in central London.[36] Harrison experimented with several harmony ideas in his guitar parts,[59] having first applied himself to mastering slide during the 1969 Delaney & Bonnie tour.[60]

Leng describes the completed recording as a "painstakingly crafted tableau" of sound, beginning with a bank of "chiming" acoustic guitars and the "flourish" of zither strings that introduces Harrison's slide-guitar motif.[61] At close to the two-minute mark, after the tension-building bridge, a subtle two-semitone shift in key (from E major to the rarely used key of F♯ major, via a C♯ dominant seventh chord) signals the song's release from its extended introduction.[62] This higher register is then complemented by Harrison's "increasingly impassioned" vocal, according to Inglis, and the subsequent "timely reappearance" of his twin slide guitars,[20] before the backing vocals switch to the Sanskrit mantra and prayer.[30] Leng comments on the Indian music aspects of the production, in the "swarmandal-like" zithers, representing the sympathetic strings of a sitar, and the slide guitars' evocation of sarangi, dilruba and other string instruments.[63] In an interview for Martin Scorsese's 2011 documentary George Harrison: Living in the Material World, Spector recalls that he liked the results so much, he insisted that "My Sweet Lord" be the lead single from the album.[49]

This rock version of the song was markedly different from the "Oh Happy Day"-inspired gospel arrangement in musical and structural terms,[7] aligning Harrison's composition with pop music conventions, but also drawing out the similarities of its melody line with that of the Chiffons' 1963 hit "He's So Fine".[3] Spizer writes that this was due to Harrison being "so focused on the feel of his record",[64] while Record Collector editor Peter Doggett wrote in 2001 that, despite Harrison's inspiration for "My Sweet Lord" having come from "Oh Happy Day", "in the hands of producer and arranger Phil Spector, it came out as a carbon copy of the Chiffons' [song]".[65] Chip Madinger and Mark Easter rue that Spector, as "master of all that was 'girl-group' during the early '60s", failed to recognise the similarities.[36]

Before arriving in New York on 28 October to carry out mastering on All Things Must Pass, Harrison had announced that no single would be issued – so as not to "detract from the impact" of the album.[66] Apple's US executive, Allan Steckler, surprised him by insisting that not only should Harrison abandon thoughts of paring down his new material into a single LP, but there were three sure-fire hit singles: "My Sweet Lord", "Isn't It a Pity" and "What Is Life".[67] Spector said that he had to "fight" Harrison and the latter's manager, Allen Klein, to ensure that "My Sweet Lord" was issued as the single.[49] Film director Howard Worth recalls a preliminary finance meeting for the Raga documentary (for which Harrison would provide emergency funding through Apple Films)[68] that began with the ex-Beatle asking him to listen to a selection of songs and pick his favourite, which was "My Sweet Lord".[69] The song was selected even though Preston's version was already scheduled for release as a single in America the following month.[48]

Harrison was opposed to the release but relented to Apple's wishes.[70] "My Sweet Lord" was issued as the album's lead single around the world, but not in Britain;[49] the release date was 23 November 1970 in the United States.[71] The mix of the song differed from that found on All Things Must Pass by featuring less echo and a slightly altered backing-vocal track.[36][48] Both sides of the North American picture sleeve consisted of a Barry Feinstein photo of Harrison taken through a window at his recently purchased Friar Park home, with some of the estate's trees reflected in the glass.[64] Released as a double A-side with "Isn't It a Pity", with Apple catalogue number 2995 in America, both sides of the disc featured a full Apple label.[64]

Public demand via constant airplay in Britain led to a belated UK release,[72] on 15 January 1971.[73] There, as Apple R 5884, the single was backed by "What Is Life", a song that Apple soon released elsewhere internationally as the follow-up to "My Sweet Lord".[74]

Harrison's version of "My Sweet Lord" was an international number 1 hit by the end of 1970 and through the early months of 1971.[75] It was the first solo single by a Beatle to reach the top,[76] and the biggest seller by any of the four throughout the 1970s.[77][78] Without the support of any concert appearances or promotional interviews by Harrison, the single's commercial success was due to its impact on radio,[37] where, Harrison biographer Gary Tillery writes, the song "rolled across the airwaves like a juggernaut, with commanding presence, much the way Dylan's 'Like a Rolling Stone' had arrived in the mid-sixties".[79] Elton John recalled first hearing "My Sweet Lord" in a taxi and named it as the last of the era's great singles: "I thought, 'Oh my God,' and I got chills. You know when a record starts on the radio, and it's great, and you think, 'Oh, what is this, what is this, what is this?' The only other record I ever felt that way about [afterwards] was 'Brown Sugar' ..."[80]

Writing for Rolling Stone in 2002, Mikal Gilmore said "My Sweet Lord" was "as pervasive on radio and in youth consciousness as anything the Beatles had produced".[81] The release coincided with a period when religion and spirituality had become a craze among Western youth, as songs by Radha Krishna Temple and adaptations of the Christian hymns "Oh Happy Day" and "Amazing Grace" were all worldwide hits,[82] even as church attendance continued to decline.[76][nb 5] Harrison's song popularised the Hare Krishna mantra internationally,[84] further to the impact of the Radha Krishna Temple's 1969 recording.[26] In response to the heavy radio play, letters poured into the London temple from around the world, thanking Harrison for his religious message in "My Sweet Lord".[85][nb 6]

The single was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on 14 December 1970 for sales of over 1 million copies.[37][87] It reached number 1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 on 26 December,[88] remaining on top for four weeks, three of which coincided with All Things Must Pass's seven-week run atop the Billboard albums chart.[89][90] While Billboard recognised both sides of the single in the US,[91] only "Isn't It a Pity" was listed when the record topped Canada's RPM 100 chart.[92]

In Britain, "My Sweet Lord" entered the charts at number 7, before hitting number 1 on 30 January[93] and staying there for five weeks.[94] It was the biggest-selling single of 1971 in the UK[95][96] and performed similarly well around the world,[55] particularly in France and Germany, where it held the top spot for nine and ten weeks, respectively.[97] In his 2001 appraisal of Harrison's Apple recordings, for Record Collector, Doggett described Harrison as "arguably the most successful rock star on the planet" over this period, adding: "'My Sweet Lord' and All Things Must Pass topped charts all over the world, easily outstripping other solo Beatles projects later in the year, such as Ram and Imagine."[75]

The single's worldwide sales amounted to 5 million copies by 1978, making it one of the best-selling singles of all time.[97] By 2010, according to Inglis, "My Sweet Lord" had sold over 10 million copies.[98] The song returned to the number 1 position again in the UK when reissued in January 2002, two months after Harrison's death from cancer at the age of 58.[94]

Reviewing the single for Rolling Stone, Jon Landau called the track "sensational".[99] Billboard's reviewer described the record as "a powerhouse two-sided winner", saying that "My Sweet Lord" had the "potent feel and flavor of another 'Oh Happy Day'", with powerful lyrics and an "infectious rhythm".[100] Ben Gerson of Rolling Stone commented that the substituting of Harrison's "Hare Krishna" refrain for the trivial "Doo-lang, doo-lang, doo-lang"s of "He's So Fine" was "a sign of the times"[101] and recognised Harrison as "perhaps the premier studio musician among rock band guitarists".[76][nb 7] In his December 1970 album review for NME, Alan Smith bemoaned the apparent lack of a UK single release for "My Sweet Lord". Smith said the song "seems to owe something" to "He's So Fine",[102][103] and Gerson called it an "obvious re-write".[101]

Led by the single, the album encouraged widespread recognition of Harrison as a solo artist and revised views of the nature of the Beatles' creative leadership.[99] Among these writers,[104] Don Heckman of The New York Times predicted that "My Sweet Lord" / "Isn't It a Pity" would soon top the US charts and credited Harrison with having "generated some of the major changes in the style and substance of the Beatles" through his championing of Indian music and Eastern religion.[105]

In a January 1971 review for NME, Derek Johnson expressed surprise at Apple's delay in releasing the single in the UK, and stated: "In my opinion, this record – finally and irrevocably – establishes George as a talent equivalent to either Lennon or McCartney."[103] David Hughes of Disc and Music Echo said he had run out of superlatives to describe the two sides. He deemed "My Sweet Lord" "the most instant and the most commercial" track on All Things Must Pass, adding that the single release was long overdue and a solution for those put off by the high price of the triple LP. Hughes also wrote: "A great rhythm is set up and then comes that superb steel guitar with which he's so fallen in love ... [The track] does sound like the old Chiffons' song 'He's So Fine', but that's not a knock, just a cocky observation."[106]

At the end of 1971, "My Sweet Lord" topped the Melody Maker reader's polls for both "Single of the Year" and "World's Single of the Year".[107] In the US publication Record World, the song was also voted best single and Harrison was named as "Top Male Vocalist of 1971".[96] In June 1972, Harrison won two Ivor Novello songwriter's awards for "My Sweet Lord".[108]

AllMusic's Richie Unterberger says of the song's international popularity: "'My Sweet Lord' has a quasi-religious feel, but nevertheless has enough conventional pop appeal to reach mainstream listeners who may or may not care to dig into the spiritual lyrical message."[140] Some Christian fundamentalist anti-rock activists have objected that chanting "Hare Krishna" in "My Sweet Lord" was anti-Christian or satanic, while some born-again Christians adopted the song as an anthem.[141] Simon Leng describes the slide guitar motif as "among the best-known guitar passages in popular music".[142] Ian Inglis highlights the combination of Harrison's "evident lack of artifice" and Spector's "excellent production", such that "My Sweet Lord" can be heard "as a prayer, a love song, an anthem, a contemporary gospel track, or a piece of perfect pop".[20]

According to music historians David Luhrssen and Michael Larson, "My Sweet Lord" "became an early battleground over music as intellectual property" and the ruling against Harrison "opened a floodgate of suits over allegedly similar melodies and chord progressions".[143] In a 2016 Rolling Stone article on landmark music copyright cases, the suit is credited with establishing "a precedent of harsher copyright standards" as well as "introducing the phrase 'subconscious plagiarism' into the popular lexicon".[144][nb 11] Writing in The New York Review of Books in 2013, author and neurologist Oliver Sacks cited the case when stating his preference for the word cryptomnesia over plagiarism, which he said was "suggestive of crime and deceit". Sacks added that Owen had displayed "psychological insight and sympathy" in deeming Harrison's infringement to have been "subconsciously accomplished".[148]

Due to the plagiarism suit, "My Sweet Lord" became stigmatised.[140][149][150] While acknowledging the similarity with "He's So Fine", music critic David Fricke describes Harrison's composition as "the honest child of black American sacred song".[5] Jayson Greene of Pitchfork writes that the court ruling of subconscious plagiarism "could be a good euphemism for 'pop songwriting'" generally, and the episode was "doubly ironic considering Harrison's intrinsic generosity as an artist".[151] In a 2001 review, Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune said that "My Sweet Lord" serves as the entrance to Spector's "cathedral of sound" on All Things Must Pass, adding that although Harrison lost the lawsuit, the song's "towering majesty ... remains undiminished".[152] Mikal Gilmore calls it an "irresistible devotional".[81] In 2009, pop culture critic Roy Trakin commented that if music fans were in doubt as to Harrison's enduring influence, they should "listen to Wilco's latest album for a song called 'You Never Know', which is even closer to 'My Sweet Lord' than that one was to 'He's So Fine', with its slide guitar lines practically an homage to the original."[153]

In their written tributes to Harrison shortly after his death, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards each named "My Sweet Lord" among their personal favourites of all his songs, along with "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".[154] In 2010, AOL Radio listeners voted it the best song from Harrison's solo years.[155] According to a chart published by PPL in August 2018, coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Apple Records' founding, "My Sweet Lord" had received the most airplay in the 21st century of any song released by the record label,[156] ahead of Lennon's "Imagine" and the Beatles' "Hey Jude".[157]

In 2004, "My Sweet Lord" was ranked 460th on Rolling Stone's list of "the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[158] According to the website Acclaimed Music, it has also appeared in the following critics' best-song lists and books, among others: The 7,500 Most Important Songs of 1944–2000 by author Bruce Pollock (2005), Dave Thompson's 1000 Songs That Rock Your World (2011; ranked at number 247), Ultimate Classic Rock's "Top 100 Classic Rock Songs" (2013; number 56), the NME's "100 Best Songs of the 1970s" (2012; number 65), and the same magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" (2014; number 270).[159]

Since its initial release on All Things Must Pass, "My Sweet Lord" has appeared on the 1976 compilation The Best of George Harrison and 2009's career-spanning Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison.[160] The original UK single (with "What Is Life" as the B-side) was reissued on Christmas Eve 1976 in Britain[161] – a "provocative" move by EMI, given the publicity the lawsuit had attracted that year for the song.[162] The song appears in the 2017 Marvel Studios film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,[163] and it is included on the film's soundtrack.[164]

Harrison performed "My Sweet Lord" at every one of his relatively few solo concerts,[185] starting with the two Concert for Bangladesh shows at New York's Madison Square Garden on 1 August 1971.[186] The recording released on the subsequent live album was taken from the evening show[187] and begins with Harrison's spoken "Hare Krishna" over his opening acoustic-guitar chords.[188] Among the 24 backing musicians was a "Soul Choir" featuring singers Claudia Linnear, Dolores Hall and Joe Greene,[189] but it was Harrison who sang the end-of-song Guru Stotram prayer in his role as lead vocalist, unlike on the studio recording (where it was sung by the backing chorus).[190] The slide guitar parts were played by Eric Clapton and Jesse Ed Davis.[191]

During his 1974 North American tour, Harrison's only one there as a solo artist, he performed "My Sweet Lord" as the encore at each show.[192][nb 13] In contrast with the subtle shift from "hallelujah"s to Sanskrit chants on his 1970 original,[30] Harrison used the song to engage his audience in kirtan, the practice of "chanting the holy names of the Lord" in Indian religions – from "Om Christ!" and Krishna, to Buddha and Allah[195] – with varying degrees of success.[196][197] Backed by a band that again included Billy Preston, Harrison turned "My Sweet Lord" into an extended gospel-funk piece, closer in its arrangement to Preston's Encouraging Words version and lasting up to ten minutes.[198][nb 14]

Harrison's second and final solo tour took place in Japan in December 1991, with Clapton's band.[200][201] A live version of "My Sweet Lord" recorded at the Tokyo Dome, on 14 December, was released the following year on the Live in Japan album.[202]

"My Sweet Lord" attracted many cover versions in the early 1970s and was the most performed song of 1971. Its coinciding with a trend for spirituality in rock music ensured it was frequently performed on religious-themed television shows. The song was also popular among supper club performers following recordings by artists such as Johnny Mathis.[203]

The song was accepted as an authentic work in the gospel tradition;[204] in music journalist Chris Ingham's description, it became a "genuine gospel classic".[205] Many of the Christian cover artists have omitted the mantra lyrics on religious grounds.[163]

In 1972, Nina Simone released an 18-minute gospel reworking of "My Sweet Lord", performed live at Fort Dix before a group of African-American soldiers.[206] It served as an anti-Vietnam War statement and the centrepiece of her album Emergency Ward!,[46] which also included an 11-minute version of Harrison's "Isn't It a Pity".[206] Simone interspersed the song with the David Nelson poem "Today Is a Killer", giving the performance an apocalyptic ending.[206]

By the late 1970s, "My Sweet Lord" was the most covered song written and released by any of the former Beatles since the band's break-up.[207] Edwin Starr and Byron Lee and the Dragonaires were among the other artists who recorded it.[46]

In April 2002, Elton John, Sting, James Taylor, Ravi Shankar, Anoushka Shankar and others performed "My Sweet Lord" to close the Harrison-tribute opening portion of the Rock for the Rainforest benefit concert, held at Carnegie Hall in New York City.[208] At the Concert for George on 29 November 2002, it was performed by Billy Preston.[209] In 2014, Brian Wilson performed the song with his band (including Al Jardine) at the George Fest concert tribute to Harrison.[210] Tribute recordings have also been released by Jim James (as Yim Yames), on his 2009 EP Tribute To,[211] and Hurray for the Riff Raff, for Mojo magazine's Harrison Covered CD in 2011.[212]

According to Simon Leng and Bruce Spizer (except where noted), the following musicians are believed to have played on Harrison's original version of "My Sweet Lord":[48][52]

• George Harrison – vocals, acoustic guitar, slide guitars, backing vocals
• Eric Clapton – acoustic guitar
• Pete Ham – acoustic guitar
• Tom Evans – acoustic guitar
• Joey Molland – acoustic guitar
• Peter Frampton – acoustic guitar
• Billy Preston – piano
• Gary Wright – electric piano
• John Barham – harmonium, orchestral arrangement
• Klaus Voormann – bass
• Ringo Starr – drums, percussion
• Jim Gordon – drums, percussion
• Mike Gibbins – tambourine
• uncredited – zithers

• Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics
• The Super Seventies: "My Sweet Lord"/"Isn't It a Pity" from The Billboard Book of Number One Hits by Fred Bronson
• Bright Tunes Music v. Harrisongs at UC Berkeley School of Law
• The "My Sweet Lord"/"He's So Fine" Plagiarism Suit by Joseph C. Self