George Harrison

Harrison joined the Beatles at fifteen and spent a decade as the third songwriter behind Lennon and McCartney, contributing at least two songs per album from 1965 on - among them "Taxman," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Something," and "Here Comes the Sun." He'd started on rockabilly and Django Reinhardt, then steered the group through folk rock via Dylan and into Indian classical music after picking up a sitar on the set of Help! in 1965, playing it on "Norwegian Wood" and beyond. He brought Transcendental Meditation to the band in 1967 and later aligned with the Hare Krishna movement. When the Beatles dissolved, he released the triple album All Things Must Pass in 1970 - anchored by "My Sweet Lord" and his slide guitar - then organized the Concert for Bangladesh with Ravi Shankar in 1971, foreshadowing Live Aid. He founded Dark Horse Records in 1974 and co-founded HandMade Films in 1978 to back Monty Python's Life of Brian. In 1988 he formed the Traveling Wilburys; he guested on sessions for Badfinger, Dylan, Clapton, and others, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, and died of cancer in 2001 at fifty-eight.