THE QUIET ONE

An album-by-album guide to George Harrison's greatest songs, solos, milestones and innovations away from The Beatles.

- Bill DeMain, Damian Fanelli, Ian Fortnam

Earier this year, George Harrison would have turned 82. But, as is often the case, the universe had a different plan in mind, and the former Beatle left us at age 58 way back in 2001. Despite his early exit, Harrison left behind a staggering amount of recorded music to listen to, much of which is - inarguably at this point - historically important, if not the fodder of legend. While he was an intrinsic part of the Fab Four, here we've attempted to pinpoint, album by album, his greatest songs, guitar solos, guest appearances and production credits away from The Beatles' albums. We've begun the timeline at 1968, excluded anything unofficial but included his most impactful cameos. No, it's not complete (not gonna happen!), but all the biggies (and a few smallies) are here.

GEORGE HARRISON

Wonderwall Music 1968

This unassuming little record represents a slew of firsts. It's George's first solo album. It's the first solo album to be released by any Beatle (unless you count 1967's The Family Way, but that's technically a McCartney/Martin project). It's the first album to be produced entirely by George. It's the first time Harrison and Eric Clapton recorded together. And because it beat the White Album (more on that soon) by three weeks, it was the first album to be released via Apple Records, The Beatles' new label. On top of all that, its title inspired Oasis's 1995 hit, and with all its Indian music and musicians (in addition to all its Western music and musicians) it was decades ahead of the world-music scene of the 80s. But for all its firsts, Wonderwall Music is, well, underwhelming. But when you consider that it's just an instrumental soundtrack album - for Wonderwall, an interesting little film by Joe Massot (the same gent who co-directed Led Zeppelin's