Some covers are more equal than others. Good, Better, Best looks at three covers and decides who takes home the gold, the silver, and the bronze.

Isn’t it a shame that George Harrison had to live so long in the shadow of Lennon/McCartney? But then, all songwriters live in that shadow–including John Lennon and Paul McCartney, whose solo careers never reached the creative heights of their partnership years. George was only unique in that some of his best songs were repeatedly denied a serious hearing by his own band. For example, “Isn’t It a Pity.”

Harrison pitched the song as early as Revolver in 1966. In Lennon’s judgement, it didn’t make the grade, neither for that album nor for any subsequent Beatle album. In Peter Jackson’s Get Back, there’s footage of George complaining about this to Lennon. The scene was a revelation to those who assumed (like I did) that “Isn’t It a Pity” (released in November 1970) was a hot take on the acrimonious Beatles breakup announced in April 1970.

So the question becomes, what reasons did George have in 1966 to feel so bleak? At age 23, he was already rich and famous beyond measure, the most influential guitarist of his guitar-obsessed generation. He was newly married to the actress/model Patti Boyd. He didn’t even have to tour anymore. Apart from the taxman, what did he have to moan about?

The early creation of “Isn’t It a Pity” affirms that there was substance to the trope of George as the “Spiritual Beatle.” His love of Indian music and his budding friendship with Ravi Shankar led to a deep engagement with Eastern spiritual concepts. Mature enough to see through material success, he pondered the nature of suffering, the traps of ego, greed, and ignorance. As much as the other Beatles got swept up in these newfound fascinations–transcendental meditation, especially–Lennon and McCartney (and manager Brian Epstein) may have felt George’s world-weariness needed to be held in check. After all, the band still felt compelled to project positivity in this post-touring period, with songs like “Good Day Sunshine,” “Getting Better,” and “All You Need is Love.”

For all his cynicism, George could also write cheerfully about love and sunshine with the best of them. His Abbey Road contributions “Something” and “Here Comes the Sun” make that obvious. More to the point, consider the first single from his first post-Beatles solo album, All Things Must Pass, “My Sweet Lord” / “Isn’t It a Pity.” On this double A-side, George expresses something like spiritual rapture and joy on one side, and then on the flip side the opposite. Both sides are the real George Harrison.

It seems clear in retrospect that “My Sweet Lord” was really the A-est of the single’s two sides. “Isn’t It a Pity” seems not to have maintained the excitement it generated at the start. Several other tracks from All Things Must Pass have proven more popular in time, including the title track, the album’s third single, “What is Life,” and of course “My Sweet Lord,” with an order of magnitude more streams than any other song on the triple album.

So with “Here Comes the Sun” being the most successful Beatles song (in the streaming era at least), and “My Sweet Lord” being by far George’s best-selling solo track, let’s look again at the brooding flip side of George Harrison. And how other artists have responded to it.
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