Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison

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Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison
George Harrison - Let It Roll (Songs by George Harrison).png
Greatest hits album by
Released16 June 2009
Recorded1970–2001
Genre Rock
Length77:26
Language English
Label
Producer
George Harrison chronology
The Dark
Horse Years
1976–1992

(2004)
Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison
(2009)
Collaborations (with Ravi Shankar)
(2010)

Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison [1] is the third compilation of songs recorded by the English singer-songwriter George Harrison, and the first to span his entire solo career after the Beatles era. The collection was announced on 14 April 2009, the same day that Harrison received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was released 16 June 2009, on both CD and in digital format. [1]

Contents

Track selection

Let It Roll contains Harrison songs originally released on the Beatles' EMI-affiliated Apple Records and his Dark Horse label. All the tracks are presented in digitally remastered form, and the collection includes a 28-page booklet featuring previously unseen and rare photos together with an essay by music historian Warren Zanes. The track list was selected by George's widow, Olivia Harrison, with some assistance from close friends and family.

The album includes all of Harrison's songs that reached number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart – "My Sweet Lord", "Isn't It a Pity", "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" and "Got My Mind Set on You", [2] – as well as other international number 1 singles such as "What Is Life" and "All Those Years Ago". Live solo recordings of three Beatles songs ("While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun"), from the Grammy-winning album The Concert for Bangladesh , are also included.

iTunes exclusively offers the digital album with a previously unreleased bonus track, Harrison's demo version of "Isn't It a Pity". [2]

Despite being marketed as Harrison's first career-spanning hits compilation, six of his twelve studio albums were not represented at all: Wonderwall Music (1968), Electronic Sound (1969), Dark Horse (1974), Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975), Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976) and Gone Troppo (1982). In addition, several of his hit singles are absent from the track listing – songs such as "Bangla Desh", "Deep Blue", "Dark Horse", "Ding Dong, Ding Dong", "You", "This Song" and "Crackerbox Palace", all of which had charted in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. No songs from Harrison's output with the Traveling Wilburys appear on the compilation.

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [3]
BBC (favourable) [4]
Contactmusic 9/10 [5]
PopMatters Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [6]
Record Collector Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [7]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [8]
Spin Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [9]
Uncut Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svg [10] [11]

In his review of Let It Roll, for Spin magazine, Andrew Hultkrans wrote that Harrison "arguably had a stronger, more consistent solo career than any of his [Beatles] bandmates", and added: "This hits collection avoids chronology, honouring the old and new alike as part of the same stylistic continuum." [9]

Reception to the inclusion of live versions of Beatles-era compositions "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" was mixed.[ citation needed ] Some reviewers welcomed the songs as essential parts of Harrison's career, since the tracks came from his landmark Concert for Bangladesh shows in 1971; yet the same commentators suggested that the quality paled in comparison to the original studio recordings.[ citation needed ] Others compared the inclusion of Beatles-related material to EMI/Capitol 1976 compilation The Best of George Harrison , on which more than half of the tracks were songs recorded by the Beatles, thus downplaying the importance of Harrison's solo career. Some other critics wondered why Beatles songs were included, when songs from Harrison's supergroup the Traveling Wilburys (such as "Handle with Care") were overlooked.[ citation needed ]

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 4 in the United Kingdom, with first week sales of 28,045 copies, becoming Harrison's highest-charting album there since 1973's Living in the Material World . [2] In the United States, the album debuted at number 24 on the Billboard 200 chart, and as of 5 July 2012 had sold over 164,000 copies. In 2012, it charted at number 9 on Billboard's Top Pop Catalog Albums. [12]

Track listing

All songs by George Harrison, except where noted.

No.TitleWriter(s)Original albumLength
1."Got My Mind Set On You" Rudy Clark Cloud Nine 3:52
2."Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)"  Living in the Material World 3:35
3."Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)"  All Things Must Pass 3:48
4."My Sweet Lord" All Things Must Pass4:40
5."While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (live)  The Concert for Bangladesh 4:46
6."All Things Must Pass" All Things Must Pass3:46
7."Any Road"  Brainwashed 3:52
8."This Is Love"George Harrison, Jeff Lynne Cloud Nine3:47
9."All Those Years Ago"  Somewhere in England 3:46
10."Marwa Blues" Brainwashed3:41
11."What Is Life" All Things Must Pass4:25
12."Rising Sun" Brainwashed5:27
13."When We Was Fab"George Harrison, Jeff LynneCloud Nine3:51
14."Something" (live) The Concert for Bangladesh3:10
15."Blow Away"  George Harrison 3:59
16."Cheer Down"George Harrison, Tom Petty Lethal Weapon 2 soundtrack4:06
17."Here Comes the Sun" (live) The Concert for Bangladesh2:54
18."I Don't Want to Do It" Bob Dylan Porky's Revenge soundtrack2:54
19."Isn't It a Pity" All Things Must Pass7:07
iTunes Store bonus track
No.TitleOriginal albumLength
20."Isn't It a Pity" (demo version)previously unreleased2:58

Album remastered by Giles Martin, individual producer credits are as follows:

Charts

Related Research Articles

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George Harrison was an English musician, singer and songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian culture and helped broaden the scope of popular music through his incorporation of Indian instrumentation and Hindu-aligned spirituality in the Beatles' work. Although the majority of the band's songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, most Beatles albums from 1965 onwards contained at least two Harrison compositions. His songs for the group include "Taxman", "Within You Without You", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something". Harrison's earliest musical influences included George Formby and Django Reinhardt; subsequent influences were Carl Perkins, Chet Atkins and Chuck Berry.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Traveling Wilburys</span> 20th-century English-American musical group

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<i>Gone Troppo</i> 1982 studio album by George Harrison

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<i>The Dark Horse Years 1976–1992</i> 2004 box set by George Harrison

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheer Down</span> 1989 single by George Harrison

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References

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