This Song

"This Song" is the fourth track on George Harrison's 1976 album Thirty Three & 1/3. It was released as the first single from the album and reached number 25 on the American pop charts, although, like all three singles from the album, it failed to chart in the UK.

"This Song"
US picture sleeve
Single by George Harrison
from the album Thirty Three & 1/3
B-side"Learning How to Love You"
Released15 November 1976
GenreRock, pop
Length4:14 (album version)
3:45 (single edit)
LabelDark Horse
Songwriter(s)George Harrison
Producer(s)George Harrison with Tom Scott
George Harrison singles chronology
"This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)"
(1975)		 "This Song"
(1976)		 "Crackerbox Palace"
(1977)
Thirty Three & 1/3 track listing
10 tracks
Side one
  1. "Woman Don't You Cry for Me"
  2. "Dear One"
  3. "Beautiful Girl"
  4. "This Song"
  5. "See Yourself"
Side two
  1. "It's What You Value"
  2. "True Love"
  3. "Pure Smokey"
  4. "Crackerbox Palace"
  5. "Learning How to Love You"

History

"This Song" was written after the week Harrison spent in a New York courtroom, unsuccessfully trying to convince a judge that his 1970 song "My Sweet Lord" did not infringe the copyright of the Chiffons' 1963 hit "He's So Fine". According to Harrison, the plaintiff's witnesses got ridiculously in-depth, breaking "My Sweet Lord" down into several melody lines, or "motifs", as they referred to them.[1] The plaintiff's expert also drew up several charts with large musical notes on it to prove the point.[1] Harrison said in his autobiography, I, Me, Mine, that after several days, he "started to believe that maybe they did own those notes".[1]

After he lost the case, Harrison wrote "This Song", which expressed his frustration at the infringement case in the form of an uptempo, piano-driven song. It features Billy Preston on piano and organ, and Monty Python's Eric Idle calling out a falsetto "Could be 'Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch' – No, sounds more like 'Rescue Me'!" interjection right before the instrumental break. The company Bright Tunes owned the copyright to "He's So Fine", which inspired the line "This tune has nothing 'Bright' about it". Writing for Goldmine magazine in January 2002, Dave Thompson described "This Song" as "a brilliantly constructed commentary on Harrison's more recent travails".[2] Billboard described it as being "irresistible" due to its cheerfulness and the way "the words so cleverly play on the concept of trying to write an entertaining non-controversial song".[3]

Harrison directed a music video for the song,[4] which was filmed in a Los Angeles courthouse and satirised the 1976 plagiarism hearing. It features Harrison in a courtroom along with a cast of many of his friends (dressed up as the jury, bailiff, defence experts, etc.). Drummer Jim Keltner appears as the judge and the Rolling Stones' Ronnie Wood (dressed as a "Pepperpot" character) mimics Idle's aforementioned falsetto words and Harrison's wife, Olivia Arias, appears between the people of the jury. The clip was first shown on the 20 November 1976 episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Paul Simon, in which Harrison was a special musical guest.

Chicago radio station WLS, which gave "This Song" much airplay, ranked it as the 72nd most popular hit of 1977.[5] It reached as high as number 7 on their survey of 15 January 1977.[6]

Personnel

Chart performance

References
  1. Thirty Three & 1/3 (CD booklet). George Harrison. Dark Horse Records. 2004. p. 3.CS1 maint: others (link)
  2. Dave Thompson, "The Music of George Harrison: An album-by-album guide", Goldmine, 25 January 2002, p. 18.
  3. "Top Single Picks" (PDF). Billboard. November 20, 1976. p. 70. Retrieved 2020-07-13.
  4. The Editors of Rolling Stone, Harrison, Rolling Stone Press/Simon & Schuster (New York, NY, 2002; ISBN 0-7432-3581-9), p. 132.
  5. "WLS Musicradio "Big 89 of 1977"". oldiesloon.com.
  6. "WLS MUSICRADIO 89". Oldiesloon.com. 1977-01-15. Retrieved 2020-01-30.
  7. "RPM Top Singles, January 22, 1977" Archived April 13, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, Library and Archives Canada (retrieved 11 April 2014).
  8. "George Harrison – This Song", dutchcharts.nl (retrieved 11 April 2014).
  9. "George Harrison > Charts & Awards > Billboard Singles", AllMusic (retrieved 11 April 2014).
  10. "Cash Box Top 100 Singles", Cash Box, 8 January 1977, p. 3.
  11. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. Retrieved 2016-10-11.
  12. Whitburn, Joel (1999). Pop Annual. Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research Inc. ISBN 0-89820-142-X.
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