All Things Must Pass

This article is about the album. For the album's title song, see All Things Must Pass (song). For other uses, see All Things Must Pass (disambiguation).

All Things Must Pass
a black and white photo of George Harrison sitting on a stool surrounded by garden gnomes.
Studio album by
George Harrison
Released27 November 1970 (1970-11-27)
RecordedMay–October 1970
StudioEMI, Trident and Apple (London)
Genre
Length106:00
LabelApple
Producer
George Harrison chronology
Electronic Sound
(1969) 		All Things Must Pass
(1970) 		The Concert for Bangladesh
(1971)
Singles from All Things Must Pass
  1. "My Sweet Lord" / "Isn't It a Pity"
    Released: 23 November 1970 (US)
  2. "My Sweet Lord"
    Released: 15 January 1971 (UK)
  3. "What Is Life"
    Released: 15 February 1971 (US)
Alternative cover
a colorized version of the original album cover.
Cover of the 2001 reissue

All Things Must Pass is the third studio album by the English rock musician George Harrison. Released as a triple album in November 1970, it was Harrison's first solo work after the break-up of the Beatles in April that year. It includes the hit singles "My Sweet Lord" and "What Is Life", as well as songs such as "Isn't It a Pity" and the title track that had been overlooked for inclusion on releases by the Beatles. The album reflects the influence of Harrison's musical activities with artists such as Bob Dylan, the Band, Delaney & Bonnie and Friends and Billy Preston during 1968–70, and his growth as an artist beyond his supporting role to former bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney. All Things Must Pass introduced Harrison's signature slide guitar sound and the spiritual themes present throughout his subsequent solo work. The original vinyl release consisted of two LPs of songs and a third disc of informal jams titled Apple Jam. Several commentators interpret Barry Feinstein's album cover photo, showing Harrison surrounded by four garden gnomes, as a statement on his independence from the Beatles.

Production began at London's EMI Studios in May 1970, with extensive overdubbing and mixing continuing through October. Among the large cast of backing musicians were Eric Clapton and members of Delaney & Bonnie's Friends band – three of whom formed Derek and the Dominos with Clapton during the recording – as well as Ringo Starr, Gary Wright, Billy Preston, Klaus Voormann, John Barham, Badfinger and Pete Drake. The sessions produced a double album's worth of extra material, most of which remains unissued.

All Things Must Pass was critically and commercially successful on release, with long stays at number one on charts worldwide. Co-producer Phil Spector employed his Wall of Sound production technique to notable effect; Ben Gerson of Rolling Stone described the sound as "Wagnerian, Brucknerian, the music of mountain tops and vast horizons".[2] Reflecting the widespread surprise at the assuredness of Harrison's post-Beatles debut, Melody Maker's Richard Williams likened the album to Greta Garbo's first role in a talking picture and declared: "Garbo talks! – Harrison is free!"[3] According to Colin Larkin, writing in the 2011 edition of his Encyclopedia of Popular Music, All Things Must Pass is "generally rated" as the best of all the former Beatles' solo albums.[4]

During the final year of his life, Harrison oversaw a successful reissue campaign to mark the 30th anniversary of the album's release. After this reissue, the Recording Industry Association of America certified the album six-times platinum. It has since been certified seven-times platinum, with at least 7 million albums sold. Among its appearances on critics' best-album lists, All Things Must Pass was ranked 79th on The Times' "The 100 Best Albums of All Time" in 1993, while Rolling Stone placed it 368th on the magazine's 2023 update of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In 2014, All Things Must Pass was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

  1. ^ Moon, p. 346.
  2. ^ Ben Gerson, "George Harrison All Things Must Pass" Archived 28 April 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Rolling Stone, 21 January 1971, p. 46 (retrieved 5 June 2013).
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Schaffner, p. 140 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Larkin, p. 2635.