He’d begun writing the song in late 1969, while on tour in Denmark with Delaney & Bonnie’s band, along with Eric Clapton and Billy Preston. The initial inspiration came from The Edwin Hawkins Singers recording of “Oh Happy Day,” not The Chiffons’ “He’s So Fine,” despite the well-documented 20+ years of legal wrangling associated with the song. Recording began on May 28, 1970 with a band consisting of Ringo, Clapton, Gary Brooker, Bobby Whitlock, Pete Ham and Joey Molland of Badfinger, Klaus Voormann, and future Yes drummer Alan White on tambourine. The 16th take was the one. In July, Peter Frampton overdubbed additional acoustic guitar. The backing vocal chorus was sung entirely by the composer, credited to The George O’Hara-Smith Singers.

And on this day in 1971, George Harrison became the first former Beatle to have a solo #1 hit single when “My Sweet Lord” tops the charts in the UK. It would also hit #1 in the US, Ireland, Australia, Canada, Austria, France, Mexico, Spain, Sweden, and West Germany.

While the recording does not feature playing of George’s that are indicative of one of his major influences, it is imperative to point out that born on this day in 1910 was the legendary Django Reinhardt.

Django’s two-fingered fretboard style was born out of disaster. At 18, his left hand was badly burned in a house fire, costing him the full use of his third and fourth fingers. Doctors suggested he take up the guitar in order to keep flexibility in the two working fingers. His style and playing would become the stuff of legend. With Stephane Grappeli he would form the Quintette du Hot Club de France, one of the first Jazz groups to feature the guitar as the lead instrument. He would go on to perform with both Coleman Hawkins, Duke Ellington, Benny Carter, Louis Armstrong, and Dizzy Gillespie.

His influence went far beyond Jazz. Jimmy Page was blown away by his playing. Dickey Betts wrote The Allman Brothers’ “Jessica” in tribute. Jerry Garcia and Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi, both of whom lost fingers in accidents, were inspired to play in light of learning about Django’s own physical limitations. David Grisman said, “as far as I’m concerned, no one since has come anywhere close to Django Reinhardt as an improviser or technician.” But no other musician can surpass Willie Nelson’s love of Reinhardt. He wrote, “this was a man who changed my musical life by giving me a whole new perspective on the guitar and, on an even more profound level, on my relationship with sound. During my formative years, as I listened to Django’s records, especially songs like ‘Nuages’ that I would play for the rest of my life, I studied his technique. Even more, I studied his gentleness. I love the human sound he gave his acoustic guitar.” Willie opened his great album Teatro with a cover of Django’s “Ou Es-Tu, Mon Amour?”

One of Django’s earliest recordings was the sublime “I’ll See You In My Dreams,” which would go on to become a Jazz standard:

British musician Joe Brown, a close friend of George’s since 1962, would perform this very song in 2002 to close out the Concert for George:

Today’s Playlist is an all-too-brief SomethingIsHappening compendium of some of Django’s astounding work:

#DjangoReinhardt #GeorgeHarrison #JerryGarcia #WillieNelson #DavidGrisman #CarmineBellucci #HotClubOfFrance #MySweetLord #BillyPreston #TheBeatles #RingoStarr

Portrait of Django Reinhardt by Carmine Bellucci

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