George Harrison Knew That A Beatles Cover Won’t Be A Hit

George Harrison wasn’t always the “Quiet Beatle”—he just had fewer chances to speak up. In the early days of The Beatles, getting a song on an album was tough, especially for someone not named Lennon or McCartney. On their first three albums, Harrison had just one song to his name: “Don’t Bother Me” from With The Beatles.

Even more frustrating, many of the songs George sang lead on weren’t written by him. Tracks like “Do You Want to Know a Secret” and “I’m Happy Just to Dance With You” were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who passed them along only after deciding not to sing them themselves.

“We wrote ‘I’m Happy Just To Dance With You’ for George in the film. It was a bit of a formula song,” Paul McCartney said in Many Years From Now. “We knew that in E if you went to an A flat minor, you could always make a song with those chords… Certainly ‘Do You Want To Know A Secret’ was.”

He added:

“This one anyway was a straight co-written song for George. We wouldn’t have actually wanted to sing it because it was a bit… The ones that pandered to the fans in truth were our least favourite songs but they were good. They were good for the time… It was songwriting practice.”

Filling Space with Covers

When Lennon and McCartney weren’t giving him hand-me-downs, Harrison turned to cover songs. On With The Beatles, he had three lead vocals—but only one was original. The other two were covers: Chuck Berry’s “Roll Over Beethoven” and “Devil In Her Heart,” a deep-cut originally by the Donays. Harrison explained in Anthology:

“Brian [Epstein] had a policy of buying at least one copy of every record that was released.
“If it sold, he’d order another one, or five or whatever. Consequently, he had records that weren’t hits in Britain, weren’t even hits in America… Before going to a gig, we’d meet in the record store after it had shut, and we’d search the racks like ferrets to see what new ones were there… ‘Devil In Her Heart’ and Barrett Strong’s ‘Money’ were records that we’d picked up and played in the shop and thought were interesting.”

Listen to the track, ‘Devil In Her Heart’ below:

Trying to Be Heard on Stage

Even on stage, George’s solo moments were few. “Roll Over Beethoven” became his regular spotlight during early live shows, but eventually, that slot was taken by Carl Perkins’ “Everybody’s Trying to Be My Baby.”

That is, until Harrison had enough.

Standing His Ground

During The Beatles’ final tour, Harrison made it clear he didn’t want to sing borrowed material anymore. Instead, he insisted on performing a song he actually wrote—“If I Needed Someone” from Rubber Soul. It was a small but important step in showing that George wasn’t just a background player.

By pushing for his own voice—both literally and creatively—George Harrison paved the way to becoming one of The Beatles’ most beloved and respected members.