History
With Harrison's penchant for leisure and travel following Thirty Three & 1/3's release, he had not started recording a follow-up until mid-1978, although he had been writing songs during his hiatus. Teaming up with a co-producer for the first time in years, Harrison decided to use Russ Titelman to help realise the music for George Harrison, which was recorded at his home studio, entitled Friar Park, with string overdubs being effected at London's AIR Studios. Special guests included Steve Winwood, Gary Wright (who co-wrote "If You Believe") and Eric Clapton.
The album was previewed by the single "Blow Away", which reached No. 51 in the United Kingdom and No. 16 in the United States. George Harrison received positive reviews upon its February 1979 release. It reached No. 39 in the UK and it peaked at No. 14 in the US, going gold. "Blow Away" as a single was also successful in Canada, peaking at No. 7 on the singles chart. Harrison's increasing efforts, however, were being directed towards the film industry, having formed Handmade Films in order to help his friends in Monty Python complete Life of Brian.
Three of the songs from the eponymous album were included on Harrison's Best of Dark Horse 1976–1989 compilation: "Blow Away," an edited version of "Here Comes the Moon," and the single edit version of "Love Comes to Everyone." "Blow Away" was also included in the career-spanning compilation Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison.
In 2004, George Harrison was remastered and reissued both separately and as part of the deluxe box set The Dark Horse Years 1976-1992 on Dark Horse with new distribution by EMI, adding the bonus track demo version of "Here Comes the Moon", recorded just after it was written in Hawaii.
Read more about this topic: George Harrison (album)
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