Released 16 June 2009 Length 77:26 Artist George Harrison Label EMI | Recorded 1970–2001 Language English Release date 16 June 2009 Genre Rock music | |
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Producer Ray Cooper, Dave Edmunds, Dhani Harrison, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Phil Spector, Russ Titelman Let It Roll Songs by George Harrison
(2009) Collaborations (with Ravi Shankar)
(2010) Similar George Harrison albums, Rock music albums | ||
Album review let it roll songs by george harrison jameskreviews
Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison is the third compilation of George Harrison's music, and the first to span his entire solo career after the Beatles era. The collection was announced on 14 April 2009, the same day that Harrison received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, and was released 16 June 2009, on both CD and in digital format.
Contents
Track selection
The album features songs originally released on the Beatles' EMI-affiliated Apple Records and Harrison's Dark Horse label. All the tracks are presented in digitally remastered form, and the collection includes a 28-page booklet featuring previously unseen and rare photos together with an essay by music historian Warren Zanes.
The album includes all of Harrison's songs that reached number 1 on America's Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, including "My Sweet Lord", "Isn't It a Pity", "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" and "Got My Mind Set on You", as well as other international number 1 singles such as "What Is Life" and "All Those Years Ago".
The track list was selected by George's widow, Olivia Harrison, with some assistance from close friends and family.
iTunes exclusively offers the digital album with a previously unreleased bonus track, Harrison's earliest demo version of "Isn't It a Pity".
Despite being marketed as Harrison's first career-spanning hits compilation, four of his ten studio albums were not represented at all: Dark Horse (1974), Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975), Thirty Three & 1/3 (1976) and Gone Troppo (1982). In addition, several of his hit singles were also absent from the track listing – songs such as "Bangla Desh", "Dark Horse", "You", "This Song" and "Crackerbox Palace".
Reception
Let It Roll debuted at number 4 in the UK (with first week sales of 28,045 copies), becoming Harrison's highest chart position as a solo artist in over 35 years (since 1973's Living in the Material World). In the US, the album debuted at number 24, and as of 5 July 2012 had sold over 164,000 copies.
In his review of the album, for Spin magazine, Andrew Hultkrans wrote that Harrison "arguably had a stronger, more consistent solo career than any of his [Beatles] bandmates", and added: "This hits collection avoids chronology, honouring the old and new alike as part of the same stylistic continuum."
Reception to the inclusion of live versions of Beatles-era compositions "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" was mixed. Some reviewers welcomed the songs as essential parts of Harrison's career, since the tracks came from his landmark Concert for Bangladesh shows in 1971; yet the same commentators suggested that the quality paled in comparison to the original studio recordings. Others compared the inclusion of Beatles-related material to EMI/Capitol ill-conceived 1976 compilation The Best of George Harrison, on which more than half of the tracks were songs recorded by the Beatles, thus downplaying the importance of Harrison's solo career. Some other critics wondered why Beatles songs were included, when songs from Harrison's supergroup the Traveling Wilburys (such as "Handle with Care") were overlooked.
Track listing
All songs by George Harrison, except where noted.
Album remastered by Giles Martin, individual producer credits are as follows:
Songs
1Got My Mind Set on You3:51
2Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)3:37
3Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)