While My Guitar Gently Weeps

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as the "White Album"). It was written by George Harrison, the band's lead guitarist, as an exercise in randomness inspired by the Chinese I Ching. The song conveys his dismay at the world's unrealised potential for universal love, which he refers to as "the love there that's sleeping".

The song also serves as a comment on the disharmony within the Beatles after their return from studying Transcendental Meditation in India in early 1968. This lack of camaraderie was reflected in the band's initial apathy towards the composition, which Harrison countered by inviting his friend and occasional collaborator, Eric Clapton, to contribute to the recording. Clapton overdubbed a lead guitar part, although he was not formally credited for his contribution.Template:Sfn Harrison first recorded it with a sparse backing of acoustic guitar and harmonium – a version that appeared on the 1996 Anthology 3 outtakes compilation and, with the addition of a string arrangement by George Martin, on the Love soundtrack album in 2006. The full group recording was made in September 1968, at which point the song's folk-based musical arrangement was replaced by a production in the heavy rock style. The recording was one of several collaborations between Harrison and Clapton during the late 1960s and was followed by the pair co-writing the song "Badge" for Clapton's group Cream.

On release, the song received praise from several music critics, and it has since been recognised as an example of Harrison's maturing as a songwriter beside his Beatles bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Rolling Stone ranked "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" 135th on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time", seventh on the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time", and at number 10 on its list of "The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs". Clapton's performance was ranked 42nd in Guitar WorldTemplate:'s 2008 list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos". Harrison and Clapton often performed the song together live, during which they shared the lead guitar role over the closing section. Live versions featuring the pair were included on the Concert for Bangladesh album in 1971 and Live in Japan in 1992. Backed by a band that included McCartney and Ringo Starr, Clapton performed the song at the Concert for George in November 2002, a year after Harrison's death.

Background and inspiration

Template:Quote box George Harrison wrote "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" after his return from India, where the Beatles had been studying Transcendental Meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi during the spring of 1968. The visit had allowed Harrison to re-engage with the guitar as his primary instrument, after focusing on the Indian sitar for the previous two years,Template:Sfn and also marked the start of a prolific period for him as a songwriter.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Inspiration for the song came to him when he was visiting his parents in Warrington, Cheshire, and he began reading the I Ching, or "The Book of Changes".Template:Sfn As Harrison put it, "[the book] seemed to me to be based on the Eastern concept that everything is relative to everything else, as opposed to the Western view that things are merely coincidental."Template:Sfn Embracing this idea of relativism, he committed to writing a song based on the first words he saw upon opening a book, which were "gently weeps".Template:Sfn Harrison continued to work on the lyrics after this initial writing session.Template:Sfn

The song reflects the disharmonious atmosphere within the Beatles following their return from India.Template:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Harrison had led the band in their highly publicised endorsement of Transcendental MeditationTemplate:Sfn<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and viewed this spiritual pursuit as superior in importance to their career momentum.Template:Sfn When discussing another song he wrote at this time, "Not Guilty", Harrison said it referred to "the grief I was catching" from John Lennon and Paul McCartney for leading them to RishikeshTemplate:Sfn and supposedly hindering the group's career and the launch of their Apple record label.Template:Sfn Eric Clapton, with whom Harrison collaborated on several recordings throughout 1968 as a distraction from the Beatles,Template:Sfn said that "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" conveyed Harrison's spiritual isolation within the group.<ref>Template:Cite video</ref>Template:Refn Author Jonathan Gould writes that, although in the past each of the Beatles had become temporarily subsumed in fads and personal interests, the level of Harrison's commitment to Indian spirituality as an alternative to the band was unprecedented.Template:Sfn

A demo that Harrison recorded at his home in Esher includes an unused verse: "I look at the trouble and hate that is raging / While my guitar gently weeps / As I'm sitting here, doing nothing but ageing …"Template:Sfn This version also includes the line "The problems you sow are the troubles you're reaping", which he similarly discarded.Template:Sfn An early acoustic guitar and harmonium performance of the song features a slightly different third verse: "I look from the wings at the play you are staging / While my guitar gently weeps / As I'm sitting here, doing nothing but ageing …"Template:Sfn This version was released on the 1996 compilation Anthology 3 and was used as the basis of the 2006 Love remix, with a string arrangement by George Martin.Template:Sfn

Composition

Music

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was one of the few Beatles compositions from early 1968 that changed markedly from demo form to the official recording.Template:Sfn Harrison's demos suggest the influence of folk music, yet the Beatles' version is in the heavy rock style typical of much of the band's late 1960s work.Template:Sfn While noting the importance of Harrison's return to the guitar during this period, Gould describes the song as "virtually a declaration of his recommitment to rock".Template:Sfn

The song as originally issued by the Beatles is in the key of A minor,Template:Sfn changing to A major over the bridges.<ref name="Pollack" /> Aside from the intro, the composition is structured into two rounds of verse and bridge, with an instrumental passage extending the second of these verse sections, followed by a final verse and a long instrumental passage that fades out on the released recording.<ref name="Pollack">Template:Cite web</ref> All the sections consist of an even sixteen bars or measures, which are divided into four phrases.<ref name="Pollack" />

The chord progression over the verses includes a descending bass of A–G–FTemplate:Music–F (I–Template:MusicVII–VI–Template:MusicVI) over an A-minor chord, leading to F-major on the F bass note. According to musicologist Dominic Pedler, the I–Template:MusicVII–VI–Template:MusicVI progression represents a hybrid of the Aeolian and Dorian modes.Template:Sfn The change to the parallel major key is heralded by a C chord as the verse's penultimate chord (replacing the D used in the second phrase of each verse) before the E that leads into the bridge.<ref name="Pollack" /> Musicologist Alan Pollack views this combination of C and E as representing a sense of "arrival", after which the bridge contains "upward [harmonic] gestures" that contrast with the bass descents that dominate the verse.<ref name="Pollack" /> Such contrasts are limited by the inclusion of minor triads (ii, iii, and vi) played over the E chord that ends the bridge's second and fourth phrases.Template:Sfn

Lyrics

In his lyrics to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", Harrison revisits the theme of universal love and the philosophical concerns that were evident in his overtly Indian-influenced compositions, particularly "Within You Without You".Template:Sfn The song is a lament for how a universal love for humankind is latent in all individuals yet remains unrealised.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In the description of theologian Dale Allison, the song "conveys spiritual angst and an urgent religious point of view without being explicitly theological".Template:Sfn Harrison sings of surveying "you all" and seeing "the love there that's sleeping".Template:Sfn Musicologist Walter Everett comments that the change from the minor-mode verse to the parallel major might express hope that "unrealized potential" described in the lyrics is to be "fulfilled", but the continued minor triads "seem to express a strong dismay that love is not to be unfolded".Template:Sfn During the bridges, Harrison adopts a repetitive rhyming scheme in the style of Bob DylanTemplate:Sfn to convey how humankind has become distracted from its ability to manifest this love.Template:Sfn He sings of people that have been "inverted" and "perverted" from their natural perspective.Template:Sfn

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" follows in a lyrical tradition established by Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Bo Diddley, whereby emotions and actions are attributed to a musical instrument.Template:Sfn According to an NME reviewer, writing in 1998, the song conveys "serious concern" for the Beatles' "dwindling esprit de corps".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Harrison biographer Joshua Greene says that its message reflects the pessimism encouraged by world events throughout 1968, such as the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy in the United States, and the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn Allison writes that the lyrics represent the "antithesis of spiritual triumphalism", in which Harrison "mourns because love has not conquered all".Template:Sfn

Recording

Early attempts and basic track

The Beatles recorded "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" several times during the sessions for their self-titled double album, also known as "the White Album".Template:Sfn The recording sessions, which began in late May 1968, were characterised by a lack of co-operation among the four band members,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn and by what Lennon's bandmates regarded as the overly intrusive presence of his new romantic partner, Yoko Ono.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn In this atmosphere, Harrison had initially been reluctant to present his new compositions to the group.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Take 1 on 25 July – the version later issued on Anthology 3 – was a solo performance by Harrison, playing his Gibson J-200 acoustic guitar, with an overdubbed harmonium part.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Refn

Sessions on 16 August and 5 September produced full band recordings of the song. In the case of the 16 August version, an overdubbing session on 3 September marked the first time that the Beatles had used eight-track recording at EMI Studios.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn According to Ken Scott, the band's recording engineer, Harrison saw the eight-track recorder in a corridor and, defying EMI regulations that new equipment should be thoroughly tested, insisted that they use it immediately.<ref name="Buskin/SoS" /> At the same session, Harrison overdubbed a backwards (or "backmasked") guitar solo, as he had done two years before on "I'm Only Sleeping", on the Revolver album, but he was not satisfied with the results.Template:Sfn The Beatles then remade the basic track on 5 SeptemberTemplate:Sfn – a session that marked Ringo Starr's return to the group after he had walked out on 22 August, upset at the unpleasant atmosphere.Template:Sfn While Harrison led the band in welcoming back their drummer, by installing a large flower display all over Starr's drum kit,Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn he continued to think that his bandmates were not giving their best to the song.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Refn

Overdubs

File:George's red Les Paul, Lucy, given to him by Eric Clapton- 2013-07-13 20-56.jpg

Clapton had given Harrison his red Gibson Les Paul shortly before the session and subsequently used it on the song.

On 6 September, during a ride from Surrey into London, Harrison asked Clapton to play guitar on the track. Clapton, who recognised Harrison's talent as a songwriter,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and considered that his abilities had long been held back by Lennon and McCartney,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> was nevertheless reluctant to participate; he later recalled that his initial response was: "I can't do that. Nobody ever plays on Beatles records."Template:Sfn Harrison convinced him, and Clapton's lead guitar part, played on Harrison's Gibson Les Paul electric guitar "Lucy" (a recent gift from Clapton), was overdubbed that evening.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Recalling the session in his 2007 autobiography, Clapton says that, while Lennon and McCartney were "fairly non-committal", he thought the track "sounded fantastic", adding: "I knew George was happy, because he listened to it over and over in the control room".Template:Sfn

Harrison recalled that Clapton's presence also ensured that his bandmates "tr[ied] a bit harder" and "were all on their best behaviour".Template:Sfn The Beatles carried out the remaining overdubs, which included an ascending piano motif, played by McCartney, over the introduction,Template:Sfn Hammond organ by Harrison, and further percussion by Starr.Template:Sfn McCartney also added a second bass part, played on his Fender Jazz Bass rather than on either of his usual Höfner or Rickenbacker models.Template:Sfn

Mixing

Still wary that his contribution might present too much of a departure from the band's sound, Clapton requested that Harrison give the lead guitar track a more "Beatley" sound when mixing the song.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn During final mixing for the White Album, on 14 October,Template:Sfn the guitar part was run through an ADT circuit with "varispeed", with engineer Chris Thomas manipulating the oscillator to achieve the desired "wobbly" effect.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn According to Everett, Lennon's tremolo-rich guitar part, recorded on 5 September, was retained only in the song's coda.Template:Sfn

Everett credits Clapton's guitar contribution with making the Beatles recording a "monumental" track. As particularly notable features, he highlights the increasing lengths of thrice-heard first scale degrees (0:17–0:19), the restraint shown by rests in many bars then unexpected appearances (as at 0:28–0:29), commanding turnaround phrases (0:31–0:33), expressive string bends marking modal changes from C to CTemplate:Music (0:47–0:53), power retransition (1:21–1:24), emotive vibrato (2:01–2:07), and a solo (1:55–2:31) with a "measured rise in intensity, rhythmic activity, tonal drive and registral climb".Template:Sfn In October 1968, Harrison reciprocated by co-writing "Badge" with Clapton and playing on Cream's recording of the track.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Refn

Release and reception

Apple Records released The Beatles on 22 November 1968.Template:Sfn One of four Harrison compositions on the double album, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was sequenced as the penultimate track on side one in the LP format,Template:Sfn between Lennon's "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" and "Happiness Is a Warm Gun".Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The song was issued as the B-side of "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da",Template:Sfn a McCartney-written song that had also tested the Beatles' patience during the White Album sessions.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This single was an international hit, topping charts in Australia, Austria, SwitzerlandTemplate:Sfn and West Germany,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> but was not released in Britain or the United States.Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Refn

A mostly plain white album cover, with the words "the Beatles" towards the center and a serial number towards the lower right corner

LP cover of The Beatles. Some music critics have recognised "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" as a highlight of the Beatles' 1968 double album.

Recalling the release in his 1977 book The Beatles Forever, Nicholas Schaffner said that, in returning to pop/rock songwriting after his excursions into the Indian classical style, Harrison's four White Album songs "firmly established him as a contender" beside Lennon and McCartney. In Schaffner's description, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was the most instantly popular of "a quartet of more conventionally accessible pop songs [written by Harrison] that many felt were among the finest on the album".Template:SfnTemplate:Refn According to Beatles historian Erin Torkelson Weber, the release of the White Album marked the start of a period when many observers began to consider his songs "equal to some of Lennon and McCartney's best compositions", a view that was heightened with his two contributions to the Beatles' 1969 album Abbey Road, "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun".Template:Sfn New Yorker columnist Mark Hertsgaard, writing in his 1995 book A Day in the Life, said "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was "the first great composition of George's career and perhaps the single most impressive song on the White Album".Template:Sfn

Among contemporary reviews, Jann Wenner of Rolling Stone said that "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was "one of George Harrison's very best songs", and likened it to "Blue Jay Way" in that it "recalls California, the simple Baja California beat, the dreamy words of the Los Angeles haze, the organic pace lapping around every room as if in invisible waves". Wenner found the lyrics "slightly self-righteous and preaching", representing "a general set of incidents, a message, like a sermon, impersonally directed to everyone", and concluded: "I am willing to bet something substantial that the lead guitarist on this cut is Eric Clapton, yet another involution of the circular logic on which this song [is] so superbly constructed as a musical piece."<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> In his review for the International Times, Barry Miles said the song was a "great tune" with "nice hi-hats" but a "lifeless" guitar part.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Alan Smith of the NME credited the "warm voice" and "very strong melody" to McCartney and said that the track was one of the "highlights ... moving into a slightly Hendrix thing" and was bound to be "Another hit for somebody".<ref name="Smith/NME">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Three weeks later, Smith acknowledged that the singer and composer was in fact Harrison, and added: "the words are evocative and the melody line is creeping into my mind to stay."<ref>Template:Cite magazine Available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required).</ref> Geoffrey Cannon wrote in The Guardian: "George Harrison has seen the truth, and is anxious that we should see our truth. He's a preacher, man of fire. When his songs speak of 'you', the address is direct. He achieves his character in 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps', which, with Phil Ochs's 'Tape from California', is the first track I know that succeeds in making magnanimous love serious and touching."<ref>Template:Cite news Available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required).</ref>

Retrospective assessment and legacy

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps" became a staple of US rock radio during the early 1970s,Template:Sfn on a par with songs such as "Layla" by Clapton's short-lived band Derek and the Dominos, Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" and the Who's "Won't Get Fooled Again".Template:Sfn In 1973, it appeared on the Beatles' double album compilation 1967–1970,Template:Sfn as one of only three tracks representing the White Album.Template:Sfn Capitol Records included it on The Best of George Harrison in 1976;Template:Sfn a year before this, Harrison released a sequel to the song, titled "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)", which also served as the final single issued by Apple in its original incarnation.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn The Beatles' recording appeared on the soundtrack to Withnail and I, a 1987 comedy film set in late-1960s London and produced by Harrison's company HandMade Films.<ref name="Pirnia/MentalFloss">Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Writing for The Observer in 2004, Pete Paphides described "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" as "George Harrison's startling coming of age as a songwriter" and one of the few tracks that "pick themselves" when listeners attempt to edit the double album down to a single disc.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In his book Revolution in the Head, Ian MacDonald was less impressed with the track,Template:Sfn saying that it "exudes a browbeating self-importance which quickly becomes tiresome".Template:Sfn McCartney identified it as one of his favourite selections on the 1995–96 Anthology outtakes series,Template:Sfn and he grouped the song with "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun" as candidates for Harrison's "greatest track".Template:Sfn Starr paired it with "Something" as "Two of the finest love songs ever written", adding: "they're really on a par with what John and Paul or anyone else of that time wrote."Template:Sfn In their written tributes to Harrison following his death in November 2001, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards each expressed their admiration for the song.Template:Sfn Jagger said: "It's lovely, plaintive. Only a guitar player could write that ..."Template:Sfn

Rolling Stone ranked "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" 136th on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time",<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> seventh on the "100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time",<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> and at number 10 on its list of "The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs".Template:Sfn<ref name=RollingStone100>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Clapton's performance was ranked 42nd in Guitar WorldTemplate:'s 2008 list of the "100 Greatest Guitar Solos".<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:Sfn Among other critics' lists of the best Beatles songs, Paste magazine and Ultimate Classic Rock each ranked it at number 4,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> while Mojo placed it at number 17.<ref name="Alexander/Mojo">Template:Cite magazine</ref> In his commentary for the Mojo selection, English songwriter Chris Difford said that he had only come to fully appreciate the lyrics following Harrison's death in 2001; describing them as a "riposte" to Harrison's bandmates, particularly Lennon and McCartney, Difford added: "George was the one who came back from India with the spiritual awakening and carried it through to the rest of his life, whereas the others came back with the postcards."<ref name="Alexander/Mojo" /> In 2018, the music staff of Time Out London ranked "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" 20th on their list of the best Beatles songs.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the White Album's release, Jacob Stolworthy of The Independent listed it at number 1 on his ranking of the album's 30 tracks. He said the song was "hands down one of The Beatles' greatest" and, having been conceived through "disharmony – in the world, as well as in the band he'd grown up with", "testament to Harrison's genius".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Harrison live performances

Harrison played "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at every one of his rare concerts as a solo artist. Writing for Mojo in 2003, Ashley Kahn attributed the track's "classic" status to its evocation of "a band falling out of harmony" and, with regard to the enduring musical bond between Harrison and Clapton, its standing as "their song".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> At Harrison's Concert for Bangladesh, held at Madison Square Garden in New York on 1 August 1971, Clapton performed the song on a Gibson Byrdland, a hollow-body guitar more suited to jazzTemplate:Sfn or country music than rock.<ref name="Clapton/BD Revisited" /> He later said that this was a poor decision and, as with his substandard playing at the event, one that was indicative of his descent into heroin addiction.<ref name="Clapton/BD Revisited">The Concert for Bangladesh Revisited with George Harrison and Friends, DVD, 2005.</ref>Template:Sfn In his entry for The Concert for Bangladesh in the book 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, Tom Moon nevertheless describes Clapton and Harrison's interplay as "one of the more thrilling two-man guitar explorations in rock", adding: "As they finish each other's thoughts, the two extend and amplify the song's intent: You haven't heard the full gamut of gentle (and not so) guitar weeping until you've heard this."<ref>Template:Cite book Quoted in "The Super Seventies "Classic 500": The Concert For Bangla Desh – George Harrison and Friends". superseventies.com. Retrieved 19 March 2019.</ref>Template:Refn

The version performed by Harrison during his brief set at the 1987 Prince's Trust Concert reunited him with Starr and Clapton,Template:Sfn and features an extended coda with the guitars of Harrison and Clapton interweaving.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> On their 1991 tour of Japan, Harrison and Clapton performed "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" with additional background vocals. An edit combining parts of the 14 December and 17 December Tokyo Dome performances of the song was included on Harrison's 1992 double album Live in Japan.Template:Sfn

Harrison also featured the song in the set list for his only other tour as a solo artist, a series of North American concerts over November–December 1974 with Ravi Shankar.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Harrison shared the lead guitarist's role with Robben Ford, often extending the piece to eight minutes.Template:Sfn While it was a popular inclusion in a set list that barely acknowledged Harrison's past as a former Beatle, his alteration of some of the lyrics – so that his guitar "gently smiles" and "tries to smile" – disappointed many concert-goers and reviewers.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Author Simon Leng comments that on Harrison's return to Madison Square Garden towards the end of the tour, his playing on the song nevertheless received a standing ovation.Template:Sfn Template:Clear

Cover versions

Canadian guitarist Jeff Healey covered "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" on his 1990 album Hell to Pay. Harrison participated in the recording, contributing on acoustic guitar and backing vocals.Template:Sfn Also issued as a single, Healey's version peaked at number 27 in Canada,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> number 85 in the UK<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and number 25 in New Zealand.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

During the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II concert at Buckingham Palace Garden on 3 June 2002, McCartney performed the song with Clapton, as a tribute to Harrison.Template:Sfn The performance appears on the DVD release Party at the Palace.<ref>Template:Cite AV media notes</ref> On 29 November the same year, Clapton, backed by a large band that included McCartney, Starr, Dhani Harrison, Jeff Lynne and Marc Mann, performed "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at the Concert for George in memory of Harrison.Template:Sfn Author Ian Inglis writes that while Clapton was already "permanently associated" with "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" due to his presence on the White Album recording and the Concert for Bangladesh and Live in Japan versions, his long, closing solo at the Concert for George contained "perhaps the most expressive" playing of all those versions.Template:Sfn

American musician Todd Rundgren covered "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" for the 2003 album Songs from the Material World: A Tribute to George Harrison. Rundgren said of his contribution to the multi-artist tribute: "[Before the Beatles], I'd never heard the term 'lead guitarist.' George created the job description for my first paying gig, the vocation that I'm still lucky enough to practice today …"<ref name="BB Dec02">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Johnny Loftus of AllMusic views the recording as one of the collection's highlights, saying that Rundgren "effortlessly replicates the grandeur" of the Beatles' track.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> As his personal tribute to Harrison,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Peter Frampton released a version of the song on his 2003 album Now.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

In 2004, when Harrison was inducted posthumously into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist, "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" was played in tribute by a large band that included Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne, Steve Winwood, Marc Mann, Dhani Harrison, Prince and Steve Ferrone.Template:Sfn The performance concluded with a highly acclaimed extended guitar solo by Prince, who was also being inducted into the Hall of Fame.<ref name="princeNYT">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Among other cover versions, the song has also been recorded by musicians such as Marc Ribot, Phish, Built to Spill, Charlie Byrd, and on ukulele by Jake Shimabukuro.<ref name="Glide2011">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Toto did a cover version for their album Through the Looking Glass and in a live performance in Live in Amsterdam.<ref name="Glide2011" /> Santana did a cover for his twentieth album Guitar Heaven: The Greatest Guitar Classics of All Time, in 2010, featuring singer India Arie and cellist Yo-Yo Ma.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> Released as a single, it charted on BillboardTemplate:'s Adult Contemporary.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> A recording of the song by Regina Spektor appears in the 2016 film Kubo and the Two Strings.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

2016 music video

In June 2016, Apple Corps and Cirque du Soleil released a music video for "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". The video was created for the tenth anniversary re-staging of Cirque du Soleil's Love theatrical production.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The video was directed by Dandypunk, André Kasten and Leah Moyer. Ryan Reed, describing the clip for Rolling Stone, wrote that "Dandypunk's hand-drawn illustrations depict Harrison's lyrics falling off the page into the air, transporting LOVE performer Eira Glover into a series of fantastical locations. Projection mapping – and no CGI – was used to create the clip".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

Personnel

According to Ian MacDonald,Template:Sfn Walter EverettTemplate:Sfn and John C. Winn:Template:Sfn

The Beatles

• George HarrisonTemplate:Snd double-tracked vocals, backing vocal, acoustic guitar, Hammond organ
• John LennonTemplate:Snd electric guitar with tremolo
• Paul McCartneyTemplate:Snd harmony vocal, piano, bass guitarsTemplate:Refn
• Ringo StarrTemplate:Snd drums, tambourine, castanets

Additional musician

• Eric ClaptonTemplate:Snd lead guitar

Sources

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External links

• Full lyrics for the song at the Beatles' official website