You (George Harrison song)

According to Leng, Harrison taped demos of "You" during the lengthy recording sessions for All Things Must Pass.[19] The sessions for a proposed Ronnie Spector solo album[20] began at London's Abbey Road Studios on 2 February 1971,[21] with Harrison and Phil Spector again co-producing[11] and Phil McDonald as recording engineer.[22]

Ronnie Spector, pictured in 1971

Since the Ronettes' break-up in early 1967, Ronnie Spector had worked only sporadically,[23] and she later claimed to have been a virtual prisoner in her husband's 23-room Los Angeles mansion during this period.[24][25] She flew in from California for the sessions,[26] which featured three musicians who had been part of the so-called "blue-eyed soul school" of the late 1960s, via their association with Delaney & Bonnie:[27] multi-instrumentalist Leon Russell on piano, Jim Gordon on drums, and Carl Radle on bass.[28][nb 2] In addition to Harrison, who supplied guitar, another participant was Gary Wright, on keyboards, reprising his role on All Things Must Pass.[33] For two days,[34] this group of musicians taped the basic tracks for "You" and five other songs written or co-written by Harrison, with Ronnie Spector recording guide vocals only.[28] The sessions then "broke down", according to authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter, due to "Phil's health issues", which had similarly interrupted the recording of All Things Must Pass in 1970.[35]

Despite the fact that "You" was tailor-made for his wife, Phil Spector opted not to issue the song as her comeback single;[12] he had likewise held back recordings by the Ronettes and the Crystals,[36] another act signed to his label, Philles Records, in the 1960s.[37] With the solo-album plan abruptly abandoned,[12][20] another Harrison original from the sessions, "Try Some, Buy Some", was completed and selected for release as a Ronnie Spector single on Apple.[9][38] A minor hit in America only, that song's disappointing commercial reception led to the cancellation of a second single, which was to be "You".[39][40][nb 3]

Four years after the Abbey Road sessions, Harrison revisited "You" while completing his final album for Apple Records, the soul-influenced Extra Texture (Read All About It),[43] at A&M Studios in Los Angeles.[44][45] His standing with music critics had recently plummeted following a North American tour with Ravi Shankar in November–December 1974 and his accompanying album, Dark Horse.[46][47] These two projects had been marred by Harrison's laryngitis-ravaged singing voice;[48][49] in addition, a number of concert reviewers had condemned Harrison for refusing to indulge the public's nostalgia for the Beatles, and for his on-stage spiritual pronouncements.[50][51][nb 4] Looking to rehabilitate himself with critics and his audience in early 1975,[55] Harrison had what author Robert Rodriguez describes as "at least one ace in the commercial hole ... the Motown-esque 'You'".[56]

Harrison recorded his own lead vocal onto the 1971 basic track, as he had done earlier with "Try Some, Buy Some", for Living in the Material World (1973).[57][58] On 31 May 1975, further overdubs were carried out on "You", comprising a second drum part, by Jim Keltner; tenor sax solos from Jim Horn; and ambient keyboards, played by David Foster.[59] Harrison said that Horn's saxophone playing on the track was "one of the nicest rock-n-roll sounds I've heard in years".[60] The overdubs added to the song's radio-friendly qualities, particularly through the use of ARP String Synthesizer,[61] but Madinger and Easter note that Keltner's drum part, which is higher in the mix than Gordon's and was played in half-time, produces an effect whereby the song's tempo appears to be slower than on the 1971 recording.[41] With a significant amount of post-production work having been carried out in Los Angeles,[28] Spector did not receive a co-producer's credit for "You" as he had for Harrison's version of "Try Some, Buy Some".[62]

In September 1975 Harrison told BBC Radio 1's Paul Gambaccini that it was "such a good backing track" originally, yet he had forgotten about its existence until coming across the tape years later.[63][64] In a 1987 interview, Harrison acknowledged the difficulty he had in singing the song in so high a key;[65] "it was recorded in Ronnie's register," he explains in his 1980 autobiography, "a bit high for me."[12] Although Ronnie Spector's name did not appear in the album credits,[66] snippets of her 1971 guide vocal remain on Harrison's released recording.[14][67] Spector's voice can be heard intermittently from the two-minute mark onwards,[41] with her signature "woh oh-oh oh-oh"s audible during the song's playout.[68]

After the so-called "Dark Hoarse" debacle in 1974,[93] and with his singing voice now healed, music critics viewed "You" as a return to form for Harrison.[94] The tone of the song suggested that, in the words of Robert Rodriguez, "the irritable, gravel-voiced mystic on tour the previous year had been but an illusion"[95] – an impression that was supported by the lightheartedness evident in the parent album's artwork and Harrison's self-deprecating "Ohnothimagen" producer's moniker.[96][nb 7]

Dave Marsh of Rolling Stone wrote of the song: "'You,' the single which preceded Extra Texture ... is not only the best thing he has done since 1971's 'My Sweet Lord,' but also promised some of the prestige and credibility he lost with last year's sourvoiced album (Dark Horse) and fizzled tour."[98] In the NME, Neil Spencer opined: "'You' seems at least to proclaim a return to energy. It has the kind of semi-Spector production that was spread all over All Things Must Pass. It bounds along OK, Harrison's double-tracked vocals gasp convincingly, and it deserves to be the hit that it will be."[99][100]

Reviewing for Melody Maker, Ray Coleman highlighted Harrison's vocal and the musical contributions from Horn and Russell, and said: "It's a dead cert disco smash, his finest single since 'My Sweet Lord'." Coleman added that the lyrics were "deceptively simple" since, as with Harrison's 1969 composition "Something", "they say a lot by saying a little."[60] Billboard called "You" a "catchy cut highlighted by his strongest singing in some time", saying that it had an effective hook and sounded like it could have fitted on All Things Must Pass.[101] Cash Box said the song had a "wall-of-sound approach a la 'What Is Love' (the Bangladesh concert sound)" and predicted high sales for the single, but added, "we're still looking for the next change from Harrison the musician."[102] Record World said "George once again shows his flair for the love ballad. With extra texture provided by a stellar cast of backing musicians headed by Tom Scott, who takes a great saxophone break, George is once again a chart contender."[103] Writing later in the 1970s, in their book The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, Roy Carr and Tony Tyler dismissed "You" with the words: "Doleful, lacklustre, [with] would-be singalongs which quite fail to arouse."[104]

In his review of Harrison's 1987 album Cloud Nine, for Creem magazine, Bill Holdship included the song among the "scattered brilliant moments" of Harrison's career post-All Things Must Pass, saying: "'You' from the Extra Texture LP sounds like punk (depends on your definition) pop as Phil Spector might've done it, and remains a killer to this day. And when I saw Harrison perform in 1974, he put on a far better show than the one I would later see Wings do."[105] Writing in the posthumous Rolling Stone Press tribute, Harrison, in 2002, Mikal Gilmore similarly identified "You" as a highlight of the artist's work in the mid to late 1970s.[106] In the same publication, Greg Kot deemed it "a terrific single", adding: "Its roaring Wall of Sound arrangement suits Harrison well, right down to its closing quote of the Ronettes' 'Be My Baby'."[68] In a January 2002 review of Harrison's solo releases, for Goldmine magazine, Dave Thompson described the song as "magnificent".[107]

AllMusic's Lindsay Planer admires it as a "propulsive and rocking love song ... backed by one of Harrison's most liberated and driving melodies"; Planer also notes the "nonstop powerhouse instrumental track", driven by Gordon and Keltner's "double-barreled percussive assault".[108] Richard Ginell, also writing for AllMusic, calls the song an "instantly winning" single and album-opener, and rates it among the best tracks of Harrison's solo career.[109]

Among reviewers of Harrison's 2014 Apple Years reissues, New Zealand Herald critic Graham Reid describes "You" as a "remarkably upbeat rocker",[110] while Walter Tunis of the Lexington Herald-Leader considers Extra Texture to be "a delight", from the opening, "brightly orchestrated pop of You" through to the closing track, "His Name Is Legs".[111] Conversely, Paul Trynka of Classic Rock says that the song "sounds dull today, with its dated sessioneer funk", whereas "it's the confessional songs [on Extra Texture] that have worn well."[112]

Simon Leng views it as "a great pop record", adding: "'You' has the same surging spirit as [Motown classics] "Dancing in the Street" and "Heat Wave" and, as the lyrics are full of boy-meets-girl triteness, the groove is what carries it."[19] Ian Inglis identifies the song's strengths as its lyrical simplicity, a "soaring, galloping melody ... [that] encapsulates the joy of reciprocated love and the liberation of rock 'n' roll at its most exuberant", and the quality of the musicianship on the recording, particularly Jim Horn's contribution. Inglis concludes: "Even the slight unease [Harrison] has in striving to maintain some of the higher notes cannot detract from what is, quite simply, a near-perfect pop song."[1]

Two years after Harrison's death from cancer in November 2001,[113] American singer-songwriter Lisa Mychols covered "You" for the multi-artist compilation He Was Fab: A Loving Tribute to George Harrison[114] – a reading that Lindsay Planer describes as "affective" and a highlight of the album.[108] At the New York Celebrates George Harrison Concert on 26 February 2011, in honour of what would have been Harrison's 68th birthday, New York band the 253 Boys performed "You" in a medley with his Cloud Nine track "This Is Love".[115]