Something about “Something”
By Mahnuel Muñoz
George Harrison was called “The Quiet Beatle” because in public he was not as jovial and expansive as his bandmates. His clean and measured spirit was reflected in his songs, and especially in his guitar parts.
With the arrival of psychedelia, spirituality and Indian music in the mid-60s, George’s artistic and personal horizons expanded considerably and he began to shore up his identity as a musician, a mix of Dylanesque introspection and a natural flair for pop.
FRANK SINATRA RADIO
Frank Sinatra was particularly impressed with “Something“, which he considered “the best love song of the last 50 years.” Frank especially appreciated the way the lyrics evoked a girl who is not even present, and how she was able to express love without saying “I love you.”
Frank recorded the song twice: on October 28, 1970 as a single, arranged by Lennie Hayton (a version that later appeared on the compilation “Frank Sinatra’s Greatest Hits Vol. 2”), and on December 3, 1979 for his 1980 triple album “Trilogy: Past Present Future”, with an extraordinary orchestral treatment by Nelson Riddle. Likewise, there are concert recordings in which we can hear a different arrangement, written by Don Costa.
In “The Beatles Anthology”, Harrison says that at first he didn’t particularly like Sinatra doing “Something”, and that he saw the singer as part of “the generation before me”, so he only later came to appreciate the version. of the song by The Voice, and even adopted in some of their shows the small change in the lyrics that Sinatra made (“You stick around, Jack, she might show”).
From time to time the fallacy comes to light in articles that Frank Sinatra, when he sang the song live, announced it as written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, leaving the poorly documented reader with the feeling that Sinatra was a old crooner disconnected from reality.
“SOMETHING”
Absolutely not, friends. Sinatra never announced this song as a Lennon and McCartney composition. He knew George well, he loved the song, and what he did say almost without exception was that it was one of the best love songs of the last fifty years—and he said so as a devoted apostle of the American Songbook, who recorded the best of it. A characteristic feature of Sinatra in his live performances was that before or after a song he would mention the composer and his arranger, to record his respect for their work.
I hope that these lines serve, like those written on other occasions, to counteract the misinformation released by the media.
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