This week, February 25, 2023, marks The Beatles star George Harrison’s 80th birthday. The Liverpudlian was born in 1943, and almost 20 years later, he was known as a musical phenomenon with the rest of his band, which came to be known as the Fab Four. But he did not treasure the glory of it. Paul McCartney recently revealed that The Quiet Beatle helped get The Rolling Stones signed in the first place.
McCartney recalled the story in his book The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present. In the volume, he recalled the stories and anecdotes behind the countless songs he and the rest of The Beatles wrote over the decades.
One story involved Harrison attending a cocktail party where he chatted with Dick Rowe, a Decca Records executive. The same label boss had previously turned down The Beatles and lived to regret it. So Rowe began asking Harrison for advice.
Rowe explained that he had already “made a mistake” and wanted to know who the next up-and-coming band was.
Harrison complied: “Yeah, they’re called The Rolling Stones. You should try signing them.” What happened next proved that Harrison knew what he was talking about.
The rest, as they say, is history. The Rolling Stones became a worldwide phenomenon, and it was all thanks to the collective efforts of The Beatles.
At the time, rumors reached the newspapers that there was some kind of rivalry between the Fab Four and the Stones, but McCartney later confirmed that nothing could be further from the truth.
mick [Jagger] He used to come over to my house in London,” McCartney wrote. “So I could put all the new American records on it while all this was being written.”
Added McCartney: “Stones, Beatles – we were great friends, forever and ever, but fans began to believe there was some truth to the manufactured rivalry. There never was.”
Jagger had a different story to tell. He inducted the band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1983. When he did, he gave a speech about their decades together in the music industry.
He said: “We went through some pretty strange times. We had a lot of rivalry in those early years and a little bit of friction.”
However, he admitted that The Beatles and The Rolling Stones “always ended up being friends”. He continued: “I like to think we still are, because those were some of the best times of our lives.”
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