While My Guitar Gently Weeps is one of the Beatles’ most enduring classics, but it had a rocky start. Paul McCartney, John Lennon and Ringo Starr weren’t all that keen on George Harrison’s opus. It took a special guest to help get things off the ground.
Not only was it one of the best songs Harrison ever wrote, it was one of the greatest Beatles songs full stop, and a standout inclusion on the White Album.
During the record’s studio sessions, though, Harrison’s bandmates didn’t care too much for the tune. It made tracking the song difficult. At one point, they abandoned the song altogether, only to later start over again.
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In the February 2001 issue of Total Guitar, which featured a long-lost interview with Harrison conducted in the 1990s, the Beatle looked back on the frustrating experience.
“We’d be in a recording situation, churning through all this Lennon/McCartney, Lennon McCartney, Lennon/McCartney! Then I’d say, ‘Can we do one of these?’” he said.
“When we actually started recording While My Guitar Gently Weeps it was just me playing the acoustic guitar and singing it and nobody was interested. Well, Ringo probably was, but John and Paul weren’t.
“When I went home that night I was really disappointed, because I thought, ‘Well, this is really quite a good song, it’s not as if it’s shitty!’”
The song’s fortunes turned when Harrison lift-shared with an old friend. Eric Clapton was in town. In a spur-of-the-moment decision, he invited him to the studio.
“The next day I happened to drive back into London with Eric Clapton, and while we were in the car I suddenly said, ‘Why don’t you come and play on this track?’” Harrison continued. “And he said, ‘Oh, I couldn’t do that, the others wouldn’t like it.’”
“Eric was reluctant, and I finally said, ‘Well, sod them! It’s my song and I’d like you to come down to the studio.’”
Clapton’s presence had a transformative effect in the studio. Harrison had seen it happen before. The band picked up the song and made history.
“The same thing occurred that happened during Get Back, while we were filming the movie,” Harrison observed.
“Billy Preston came into our office and I pulled him into the studio and got him on electric piano. And suddenly everybody started behaving and not fooling around so much. Same thing happened with Eric, and the song came together nicely.”
Slowhand entered the studio on September 6, 1968, to record his overdubs. Clapton played Harrison’s red 1957 Gibson Les Paul through a Fender Deluxe. His isolated guitar parts were shared years later.
