“George Harrison: The Quiet Beatle Whose Guitar Spoke to God”

It almost goes without saying that any Beatle could have earned themselves a spot on this list. The Fab Four practically acted like a single entity when they were still touring, but when they branched out into four musical thinkers in the back half of their career, people barely realised that they had a pure supergroup on their hands before the term was even trendy to use. If there was one member who knew the ins and outs of what music was supposed to be, it was George Harrison.

Despite Paul McCartney continuing to be the living embodiment of everything music is, Harrison was always uniquely in tune with his music whenever he played. He only played music after The Beatles because he loved to do it, and outside of having fantastic arrangements, albums like All Things Must Pass and 33 and ⅓ each have a story to tell, whether that’s him detailing his spiritual journey or teaching everyone how to make a guitar properly cry with his signature slide guitar licks.

Even when playing on tunes by everyone from Badfinger to Belinda Carlisle, it’s easy to take one listen to one of his solos and realise it’s him. Because when you think about it, Harrison’s entire spiritual journey was about perfecting a relationship on Earth to communicate with God, and with no disrespect meant to Patti Boyd and Olivia Harrison, his purest expression of love occurred whenever he had a guitar in his hands.