Spoke German, but not fluently
The Beatles were inducted into the UK Music Hall of Fame for their outstanding contribution to British music and integral part of British music culture. [11 November 2004]
The first song he wrote was "Don't Bother Me", while he was sick in hospital. He said later "It was an exercise, to see if I *could* write a song".
The only Beatle whose childhood was not marred by personal tragedy.
Though the guitar chord - 7th + sharpened 9th - became known as "The Hendrix Chord" through its heavy use on "Foxy Lady" and "Purple Haze," the 7#9 was actually used several months earlier by George Harrison on "Taxman" from The Beatles' 1966 album "Revolver".
Through good friend, Eric Clapton, Delaney Bramlett introduced him to playing slide guitar, which he would use after The Beatles.
Together with Eric Clapton, he wrote the Cream hit "Badge." He also played the song's lead guitar track up to the bridge.
Treated for throat cancer in 1997, which went into remission the next year.
Was a member of the Travelling Willburys with Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne of Electric Light Orchestra.
Was actually hurt by the critical savaging of Shanghai Surprise (1986) and its subsequent financial failure, because he had very little to do with it and his name was on the film. In later years he said that his songs were the victims of the film's failure.
Was an ace Monopoly player.
Was called "my archangel" by Srila Prabhupada, founder of the Hare Krishna movement.
Was the first of The Beatles to produce a "solo" album, with his soundtrack album to Joe Massot's film Wonderwall (1968) (Paul McCartney had earlier composed the score for The Family Way (1966), but did not produce or play on the recordings). Songs were recorded both in India (featuring Ashish Khan and guests) and England; the English tracks featured Harrison, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Peter Tork (each performing under pseudonyms) and former Beatles rivals The Remo Four, from Liverpool.
When Lorne Michaels offered The Beatles $3000 to appear on "Saturday Night Live" (1975), Harrison actually took him up on the offer and performed on the show. The joke was that Michaels was offering $750 per Beatle, and Harrison wanted the full $3000. As a tribute, this appearance was re-aired as part of "Weekend Update" the Saturday after Harrison died.
Wrote an autobiography titled "I Me Mine" in the late 1970s (which he described in the introduction as "the small change of a short lifetime"), and included reproductions of the original handwritten lyrics to nearly all his songs. The book was originally issued as an exclusive leather-bound edition by Genesis Books for about $350 per copy; a less-expensive hardback edition was later published by Simon and Schuster.
Wrote the introduction to a biography on sitarist Ravi Shankar.