George Harrison never had that many aspirations as a solo artist. Despite needing to get as far away from The Beatles as possible during their breakup, ‘The Quiet One’ loved being part of a band, but after years of making music he didn’t want to make, he found his final hit by going back to where it all began.
You have to remember that Harrison never stopped being a fan of the music that he listened to growing up. Even in eras where he would be competing with everything from punk to disco, Harrison couldn’t be asked to care half the time, usually making the perfect blend of soft-rock, country-leaning music, and the occasional pop marvel every now and again. The spiritual angle may have been a bit much for people to take, but Harrison could only be himself when making his classics.
But after Gone Troppo came out sounding like a second-rate tropical vacation soundtrack, Harrison finally found his calling working with Jeff Lynne. Before the idea of the Traveling Wilburys began, Harrison knew Lynne had great ears and a love of his flavour of rock and roll. Lynne could have easily turned Harrison’s Cloud Nine into a Beatles worship session, but their starting point always came from the days before the Fab Four took over.
Their common language always went back to the likes of Chuck Berry and Del Shannon, and many of the best moments on the record come when Harrison references some of his heroes. But outside of the different effects like the wah-wah filter on ‘This is Love’, Harrison had one idea for a song that had been rattling around in his brain for years.
James Ray had always been a favourite for The Beatles when they were performing in their pre-Fab days, and out of all his songs, ‘Got My Mind Set On You’ seemed perfect for Harrison. He could even be heard referencing the song on radio shows during his Beatle years, but now that he had a lot more depth to his face in his older age, covering this tune gave him his final number-one of his career.
Granted, most people would have been happy if Harrison released anything halfway decent after Gone Troppo, but even on that grading curve, ‘Got My Mind Set On You’ strikes the right balance as a love song as well. The tune may revolve around that colossal hook, but given how open-ended the chorus is, Harrison could be singing to his wife, Olivia, or singing about his undying devotion to God, and it would have worked either way.
And considering how Lynne put some backing vocals on the track, this could have been considered the precursor to the Wilburys in a way. Everyone wasn’t in the right place yet, but if they had worked so well together, it wasn’t out of the question for them to wonder what they could sound like with a bunch of their friends strumming away on their acoustic guitars.
But the real magic behind the tune was realising that Harrison could still make a knockout pop tune and make it on top of the hit parade after years away from the limelight. If anything, that only gives Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney more incentive to keep trying for that last major hit. Pop music might be reserved for the younger generation, but if anyone has the right hook and a passionate enough vocal performance, it’s never impossible to put a dent into the charts now and again.