George Harrison Albums in Order: 12 Releases, 1968 to 2002
Here are the George Harrison albums in order, all 12 releases from Wonderwall Music in 1968 to Brainwashed in 2002, which is the run I drew as stations on my discography map. Eleven are studio albums. The twelfth, the one that opens the whole thing, is a film soundtrack.
The print
George Harrison Discography Art Print
The releases as stations and the credited musicians as named lines, deeply researched and drawn by me.
On the map every release is a station in release order, and every credited musician is a line running through the records they played on. One off contributors become branch lines. The credits below are read from album sleeves and session archives, album by album, which is the same research the print was drawn from.
The 12 George Harrison releases in order, with years
- Wonderwall Music (1968)
- Electronic Sound (1969)
- All Things Must Pass (1970)
- Living in the Material World (1973)
- Dark Horse (1974)
- Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975)
- Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976)
- George Harrison (1979)
- Somewhere in England (1981)
- Gone Troppo (1982)
- Cloud Nine (1987)
- Brainwashed (2002)
Wonderwall Music is the soundtrack to the 1968 film Wonderwall, so it is the one release on this map that is not a studio album in the ordinary sense. I kept it because it is where the solo work starts. Live albums, compilations and the Traveling Wilburys records are not stations.
Wonderwall Music (1968): 22 credited names, and almost none of them rock musicians
This is the album I can account for most completely, and it is the strangest station on the print. My sheet lists 22 credited names for it, and the majority are Indian classical players: sarod, surbahar, shehnai, santoor, bansuri, tabla, tabla tarang, tar shehnai. Eric Clapton turns up for one electric guitar part, Ringo Starr plays drums, and four members of the Liverpool group the Remo Four are on it as individuals rather than as a band.
| Musician | Credit |
|---|---|
| George Harrison | credited on the album |
| Aashish Khan | sarod |
| Big Jim Sullivan | bass |
| Chandrashekhar Naringrekar | surbahar |
| Colin Manley | electric and acoustic guitars, steel guitar |
| Eric Clapton | electric guitar |
| Hanuman Jadev | shehnai |
| Indranil Bhattacharya | sitar |
| John Barham | piano, flugelhorn, harmonium, orchestral arrangement |
| Mahapurush Misra | tabla, pakhavaj |
| Philip Rogers | bass guitar |
| Rijram Desad | harmonium, tabla tarang |
| Ringo Starr | drums |
| Roy Dyke | drums |
| S.R. Kenkare | bansuri |
| Shambhu Das | sitar |
| Shankar Ghosh | tabla |
| Sharad Kumar | shehnai |
| Shivkumar Sharma | santoor |
| Tommy Reilly | harmonica |
| Tony Ashton | tack piano, organ, Mellotron, piano, harmonium |
| Vinayak Vora | tar shehnai |
Seventeen of those names appear on this record and nowhere else in the solo discography, so on the print they are branch lines coming off the first station and stopping. Only Clapton, Ringo Starr, John Barham and Tony Ashton carry on into later albums. It is the only place on any of my maps where a shehnai player and Eric Clapton share a station.
Electronic Sound (1969)
A Moog synthesiser record, and the sparsest station on the map. George Harrison is the only performer; Bernie Krause's Moog demonstrations are credited by some sources and disputed by others, which is exactly the kind of entry I flag rather than draw with confidence.
The George Harrison albums in order after the Beatles split
The Beatles broke up in 1970, and the first two releases on the list, Wonderwall Music and Electronic Sound, both predate the split. Everything from All Things Must Pass onward is the solo career proper. The credits for each release follow, taken from album sleeves and session archives.
All Things Must Pass (1970)
The triple album, and the busiest cast of the early solo years.
| Musician | Credit |
|---|---|
| George Harrison | vocals, guitars, dobro |
| Eric Clapton | electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals |
| Bobby Whitlock | organ, harmonium, piano, tubular bells, backing vocals |
| Carl Radle | bass guitar |
| Jim Gordon | drums |
| Billy Preston | organ, piano |
| Gary Wright | keyboards |
| Klaus Voormann | bass |
| Ringo Starr | drums, percussion |
| Alan White | drums, vibraphone |
| Jim Price | trumpet |
| Bobby Keys | saxophones |
| Pete Drake | pedal steel guitar |
| Dave Mason | electric and acoustic guitars |
| John Barham | orchestral and choral arrangements, harmonium, vibraphone |
| Tony Ashton | piano |
Living in the Material World (1973)
| Musician | Credit |
|---|---|
| George Harrison | vocals, guitars |
| Nicky Hopkins | piano |
| Klaus Voormann | bass |
| Ringo Starr | drums, percussion |
| Jim Keltner | drums |
| Gary Wright | organ |
| Zakir Hussain | tabla |
| John Barham | orchestral and choral arrangements |
Dark Horse (1974)
| Musician | Credit |
|---|---|
| George Harrison | vocals, guitars, sitar |
| Tom Scott | saxophone, flute |
| Billy Preston | electric piano, organ, piano |
| Willie Weeks | bass |
| Andy Newmark | drums |
| Ringo Starr | drums |
| Jim Keltner | percussion |
| Alvin Lee | guitar |
| Ron Wood | guitar |
| Emil Richards | percussion |
Extra Texture to Brainwashed: the credits on the last seven releases
From 1975 the line up settles into a smaller recurring cast, with Jim Keltner, Billy Preston, Gary Wright and Ray Cooper doing much of the work and Ringo Starr and Eric Clapton reappearing at intervals.
| Release | Year | Credited musicians |
|---|---|---|
| Extra Texture (Read All About It) | 1975 | George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Carl Radle, Gary Wright, Jesse Ed Davis, Leon Russell, Jim Keltner, David Foster, Tom Scott |
| Thirty Three & 1/3 | 1976 | George Harrison, Tom Scott, Willie Weeks, Richard Tee, Billy Preston, Alvin Taylor, Gary Wright, David Foster, Emil Richards |
| George Harrison | 1979 | George Harrison, Eric Clapton (guitar intro on "Love Comes to Everyone"), Steve Winwood, Andy Newmark, Willie Weeks, Ray Cooper, Neil Larsen |
| Somewhere in England | 1981 | George Harrison, Ringo Starr (drums on "All Those Years Ago"), Paul McCartney and Linda McCartney (backing vocals), Denny Laine, Al Kooper, Ray Cooper, Herbie Flowers, Mike Moran |
| Gone Troppo | 1982 | George Harrison, Billy Preston, Herbie Flowers, Mike Moran, Ray Cooper, Jon Lord, Henry Spinetti, Joe Brown |
| Cloud Nine | 1987 | George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Eric Clapton, Elton John, Ringo Starr, Jim Keltner, Ray Cooper, Gary Wright, Bobby Kok |
| Brainwashed | 2002 | George Harrison, Dhani Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Jim Keltner, Marc Mann, Bikram Ghosh, Jools Holland |
Ringo Starr is on seven of the twelve
Ringo is the longest guest line on the print. He is credited on Wonderwall Music (1968), All Things Must Pass (1970), Living in the Material World (1973), Dark Horse (1974), Extra Texture (1975), Somewhere in England (1981) and Cloud Nine (1987). Seven of the twelve stations, spread across nineteen years.
That is a correction to what this page used to say, which was six. I checked it against my research sheet while rewriting, found the seventh, and would rather publish the fix than leave a number a Beatles fan would catch.
Eric Clapton's line runs 19 years with two gaps in it
Clapton appears on four releases: Wonderwall Music (1968), All Things Must Pass (1970), George Harrison (1979) and Cloud Nine (1987). Nine years missing in the middle, then eight more.
A list of credits in date order makes that look like four separate facts. Drawn as a line it reads as one relationship with two long silences in it, which is closer to what actually happened. Gaps and returns are the thing these maps are best at, and the reason I keep the line broken rather than tidying it into a continuous run.
The fifteen year gap, and why the map ends where it does
Cloud Nine came out in 1987 and Brainwashed in 2002. Fifteen years is the longest gap between any two stations on this print, and it is not an ordinary one: Harrison died in November 2001, and the record was finished by his son Dhani and by Jeff Lynne from the work he left behind.
So the map opens on a 1968 soundtrack dominated by Indian classical players and closes on a record completed by his son. Thirty four years apart, and the two ends of the print rhyme in a way I did not plan and only noticed once it was drawn.
The producer rule, and why Jeff Lynne gets a line
A producer only becomes a line on one of my maps if the credits also show them playing something. Jeff Lynne co-produced Cloud Nine and Brainwashed and is credited on bass, guitar and keyboards on both, so he gets a line running through the last two stations. Someone who only produced would not.
It is a narrow rule and it occasionally loses me a famous name, but it keeps the print honest about one thing: every line on it is a person who played.
Sizes, paper and framing
The George Harrison discography art print is a Giclée on 230gsm premium acid-free matte fine art paper. A3 (420 x 297 mm), A2 (594 x 420 mm) and A1 (841 x 594 mm) are each available unframed or in a black wood frame. Three inch formats sit alongside those as separate sizes rather than conversions: 16 x 12 in, 24 x 18 in and 36 x 24 in.
Related Music Maps
Ringo, Billy Preston and Klaus Voormann all turn up on more than one Beatle's solo records, which makes the neighbouring maps worth a look: the John Lennon albums in order and The Beatles albums in order. The rest of the range is in the music maps collection.
Questions I get asked about the George Harrison map
How many albums did George Harrison make?
Twelve solo releases between 1968 and 2002, which is what my map plots. Eleven are studio albums and the first, Wonderwall Music, is a film soundtrack. That count excludes the Beatles records, the Traveling Wilburys albums, live records and compilations.
What was George Harrison's first solo album?
Wonderwall Music, released in November 1968, while the Beatles were still together. It was the soundtrack to the film Wonderwall and it is the first station on the map.
What are the George Harrison albums in order?
Wonderwall Music (1968), Electronic Sound (1969), All Things Must Pass (1970), Living in the Material World (1973), Dark Horse (1974), Extra Texture (1975), Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976), George Harrison (1979), Somewhere in England (1981), Gone Troppo (1982), Cloud Nine (1987) and Brainwashed (2002).
Which musicians appear on the most George Harrison albums?
Ringo Starr, on seven of the twelve. Eric Clapton and Billy Preston are the next longest lines, and Jim Keltner, Gary Wright and Ray Cooper each run through several of the later records.
What is not on the George Harrison map?
Live albums, compilations, the Traveling Wilburys records and the Beatles catalogue. The map plots his own solo releases only, which is the editorial rule I apply right across the range.
If Harrison is not the right record
A gift card for music fans lets someone choose their own artist from the range instead.