When the Beatles broke up, George Harrison didn’t let any grass grow under his feet. He was the first of the four to record a solo album and the first of the four to have a number one hit, “My Sweet Lord.” It is backed by “Isn’t It a Pity” which is also credited with hitting number one, so this is a double sided hit. In fact, it is the only double sided hit that any ex-Beatle had.

The song was released in November of 1970 and was the biggest selling record of the year, 1971, in Great Britain. The song is intended to be a praise of the Hindu God Krishna. The song, as well as most of the album was produced by Phil Spector and made good use of his famous “wall of sound” effect.

George almost didn’t record the song. He felt it might turn off some people who were not overtly religious and he was talking about the Hindu religion at that. He didn’t need to worry. The world embraced the song and it embraced George.

George claimed that the inspiration for the song came from “Oh Happy Day” which was an inspirational tune done by the Edwin Hawkins Singers back in 1969, but whose copyright had expired. A company called Bright Tunes held the copyright to an early Sixties song called “He’s So Fine” by the Chiffons. “He’s So Fine” was a number one song in 1963, so most people knew the song and remembered it. Bright Tunes said George had plagiarized the song and sued for damages.

Now I’ve heard both songs. At first I thought they were crazy. The two songs are nothing alike. But after listening closely, you can hear the similarity. I haven’t seen the sheet music for these two songs, but I’ve heard that they are almost identical, note for note.

In any case, George lost the lawsuit. The judge told him he had “subconsciously plagiarized” the song, whatever that means. This set a dangerous precedent that has worried songwriters ever since. You can go out of your way to write an original song and it turns out it’s just like another one.

The court case battled on for several years and was finally settled in 1976. Bright Tunes was awarded $1,599,987. George later literally bought Bright Tunes so that he could own the rights to both songs and not have to worry about future lawsuits.

“My Sweet Lord”/”Isn’t It a Pity” debuted on the American pop charts on December 5, 1970 and reached number one the last week of December, making it the last number one of 1970 and the first number one of 1971, since it stayed at the top for four weeks.

You get a special treat today, two videos for the price of one: