From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"All Those Years Ago" is a song written by George
Harrison, released as a single from the album Somewhere
in England. The song was a personal tribute to the recently murdered John Lennon. It was
released on May 11, 1981 in the United States, where it spent three weeks
at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and on May
15, 1981 in the United Kingdom.[1], where
it reached #13 on the UK Singles Chart. In addition, the
song spent one week at #1 on the American adult contemporary
chart, Harrison's first #1 on this chart as a solo artist.[2]
Origins
Harrison originally wrote the song with different lyrics for Ringo Starr to record.
Although he recorded it, Starr felt the vocal was too high for his
range and he did not like the words. Harrison took the track back
and after Lennon's death the lyrics were changed to reflect a
tribute to Harrison's lost friend and colleague, John Lennon. In the
song, Harrison makes reference to The Beatles song "All You Need is Love" and the Lennon song
"Imagine".
Band
lineup
The recording of the song featured all three remaining Beatles (Harrison,
Starr and Paul
McCartney), though this was expressly a Harrison single. It is
one of only a few non-Beatles songs to feature three members of the
group. Harrison and Starr recorded the song at Harrison's Friar Park studios
between 19 November 1980 and 25 November 1980. After Lennon's death
the following month, Harrison removed Starr's vocals (but left
Starr's drumming track) and recorded his own vocals with rewritten
lyrics honouring Lennon. McCartney, his wife Linda and their
Wings bandmate Denny Laine visited
Friar Park to record backing vocals.[3] The
lineup was rounded out by Al
Kooper on keyboards. The three surviving Beatles would not
appear together on the same track for another thirteen years until
The Beatles Anthology. The
album's liner notes also thank the Beatles' producer George Martin and
the Beatles' engineer Geoff Emerick, although what contribution
(if any) they made to the track is unclear. The track's sweetly
elegiac string arrangements do suggest Martin's own
distinctive style.
Music
video
The music video
features a slide show-type presentation of stills and
short archival video clips. The emphasis is on Lennon and, to a
lesser degree, Harrison. The archival Beatles video was seemingly
chosen to showcase the two together. The post-Beatles stills of
Lennon at older ages are countered with stills of Harrison from the
same time frame.
Personnel
Engineer: Phil McDonald
Chart
positions
References
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