Inside Paul McCartney's Relationship With George Harrison

Paul McCartney's relationship with John Lennon, as the most famous songwriting duo in history, is one of the most documented relationships in rock 'n' roll, as is McCartney's continued relationship with Ringo Starr, since the two are the last surviving Beatles during the age of the Internet. But McCartney's relationship with George Harrison is a little more mysterious — and seemingly more complex.

Along with Lennon, McCartney was seen as a leader in the Beatles, helming projects like "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," while Harrison had a reputation as "the Quiet One," as noted by NBC News. But both Harrison and McCartney were hugely successful songwriters, respectively penning the two most-covered Beatles songs of all time, according to Rolling Stone: McCartney's "Yesterday" and Harrison's "Something."

The pair famously clashed in the studio, and it has been reported that they didn't get along at all. But there's a lot to be said about their friendship before and after the Beatles' historic decade in the sun. In fact, beyond the music, Harrison and McCartney may have had the closest relationship of any two Beatles. Here's an exploration of the pair's moments of incompatibility as bandmates and their ultimate harmony as friends.

On January 21, 1966, George Harrison married model Pattie Boyd, forming a union that would go down in rock 'n' roll history, as noted by Vogue. Although the wedding took place in the midst of the Beatles' fame, Paul McCartney was the only other member of the band to attend the ceremony — and he was Harrison's best man, according to Boyd's 2008 memoir "Wonderful Tonight: George Harrison, Eric Clapton, and Me." Boyd noted that McCartney sat between Harrison's parents during the ceremony. During a lull, McCartney took it upon himself to entertain Boyd's younger half-brothers, David and Boo.

"When Paul realized that David and Boo were bored, he took them outside in search of fun," Boyd wrote. "In a disused loo, with hundreds of fan letters waiting for Mrs. Harrison's attention, they found George's bow and arrows. Paul showed the boys how to use it. David pulled back the string, and Paul watched the arrow score a direct hit on the bonnet of his gleaming Rolls-Royce."

George Harrison did not receive recognition equal to John Lennon and Paul McCartney until 1969, when the Beatles recorded and released the album "Abbey Road." It was the last album the band recorded, and the first one for which Harrison was duly recognized for his songwriting with two of the album's standout songs, "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something." The latter song was subsequently covered by icons including Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, Smokey Robinson, and Frank Sinatra. Lennon once said it was "the best track on the album" (via Far Out magazine).

But by the time the Beatles recorded "Abbey Road" in 1969, the band was already on the outs due to various grievances, and Harrison's was his lack of creative control or recognition. These frustrations came to a head that year, as is apparent in a conversation recorded by writer Anthony Fawcett and included in Barry Miles' 1998 biography "Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now." "Well, the thing is, I think that until now, until this year, our songs have been better than George's," McCartney said to Lennon. "Now this year his songs are at least as good as ours."

Harrison seemed to reject McCartney's backhanded compliment. "That's a myth, because most of the songs this year I wrote last year or the year before, anyway," he said. "Maybe now I just don't care whether you are going to like them or not, I just do 'em."

Paul McCartney and John Lennon are known as the primary songwriters of the Beatles, but in the band's later years, George Harrison was the writer behind classics including "Here Comes the Sun," "Something," and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Following the Beatles' breakup, Harrison released several solo albums that went platinum.

During a 2020 interview, Howard Stern asked Paul McCartney if he thought he had underestimated Harrison's songwriting prowess while the band was together. "It was easy to underestimate George because me and John, like you said, had always written most of the stuff, and had had most of the singles, and George was a late bloomer as far as writing was concerned," McCartney replied. "He wasn't that interested in the beginning but then he started to get interested and, boy, did he bloom, you know? He wrote some of the greatest songs ever."

By 1969, trouble was brewing among the members of the Beatles. When George Harrison briefly quit the band during its "Let It Be" sessions that year, he used his newfound freedom to pen some of the songs that would contribute to the success of his solo album "All Things Must Pass." According to Far Out magazine, one of these songs took direct aim at Paul McCartney. The track in question, "Run of the Mill," appears on the second side of "All Things Must Pass" and features lyrics such as, "No one around you / Will carry the blame for you" and "You've got me wondering how I lost your friendship" (via Genius).

"I liked the words to 'Run of the Mill,'" Harrison wrote in his 1980 memoir "I, Me, Mine." "It was when Apple was getting crazy — Ringo wanted it blue, John wanted it white, Paul wanted it green and I wanted it orange. Paul was falling out with us all and going around Apple offices saying 'You're no good' — everybody was just incompetent (the [Monty Python] Spanish Inquisition sketch). It was that period — the problem of partnerships."

George Harrison died on November 29, 2001, at the age of 58. According to The New York Times, he'd undergone surgery for throat cancer in 1998 and treatment for lung cancer and a brain tumor in 2001.

During a 2008 interview for Uncut, Paul McCartney recalled visiting Harrison in the hospital. "I sat with him for a few hours when he was in treatment just outside New York," he said. "He was about 10 days away from his death, as I recall. We joked about things — just amusing, nutty stuff. It was good. It was like we were dreaming. He was my little baby brother, almost, because I'd known him that long. We held hands. It's funny, even at the height of our friendship — as guys — you would never hold hands. It just wasn't a Liverpool thing. But it was lovely."

The day after Harrison's death, McCartney talked to reporters about his late friend. "He was a lovely guy and a very brave man and had a wonderful sense of humor," he said. "He is really just my baby brother."

After decades of friendship and collaboration, it's no surprise that George Harrison's devotion to the spiritual realm has impacted Paul McCartney. As McCartney said during a 2020 interview for NPR's "All Things Considered," Harrison's spirit is still fully alive in his life.

"George was very into horticulture, a really good gardener," McCartney said. "So he gave me a tree as a present: It's a big fir tree, and it's by my gate. As I was leaving my house this morning, I get out of the car, close the gate and look up at the tree and say, 'Hi, George.' There he is, growing strongly. And you know, that takes me back to the time when I hitchhiked with him! They're an ever-present presence, if that's a way to say [it]."

For all their ups and downs, Harrison and McCartney remain connected, if only in an abstract sort of way. "As the years go by, every time I look at it I go, 'That's the tree George gave me,'" McCartney told NPR. "George has entered that tree for me. I hope he's happy with that."