Wonderwall Music is the debut solo album by George Harrison and the soundtrack to the 1968 film Wonderwall. Released in November 1968, it was Harrison’s first solo album and the first album issued on the band’s Apple record label. The songs are all instrumental pieces, except for occasional non-English language vocals, and mostly comprise short musical vignettes. The title inspired that of Oasis’ 1995 hit song ‘Wonderwall’
About Wonderwall Music in brief
Wonderwall Music is the debut solo album by George Harrison and the soundtrack to the 1968 film Wonderwall. Released in November 1968, it was Harrison’s first solo album and the first album issued on the band’s Apple record label. The songs are all instrumental pieces, except for occasional non-English language vocals, and mostly comprise short musical vignettes. Harrison recorded the album between November 1967 and February 1968, with sessions taking place in London and Bombay. The album was first remastered for CD release in 1992, for which former Apple executive Derek Taylor supplied a liner-note essay. In September that year, the album was reissued in remastered form as part of Harrison’s Apple Years 1968–75 box set, with the addition of three bonus tracks. The 2014 reissue of Wonderwall Music recognises his contributions on keyboards and guitar. The title inspired that of Oasis’ 1995 hit song \”Wonderwall\”. Harrison’s full soundtrack for the film was made available on DVD in early 2014, aspart of the two-disc Wonderwall Collector’s Edition. The film’s premise concerns a lonely professor and his increasing obsession with his female neighbour, a fashion model named Penny Lane, whose life he spies on via a hole in the wall separating their apartments. The Western music features contributions from Tony Ashton and the latter’s band, the Remo Four, as well as guest appearances by Eric Clapton and Ringo Starr. Harrison omitted his name from the list of performing musicians, leading to an assumption that he had merely produced and arranged the music.
Although the Wonderwall project marked the end of Harrison’s direct involvement with Indian music as a musician and songwriter, it inspired his later collaborations with Ravi Shankar, including the 1974 Music Festival from India. According to author Simon Leng: “The lack of dialogue left acres of room for music to speak, and a lack of cosmic apotheosis also helped… Harrison touch on themes that come to preoccupy George Harrison – the objectification of celebrities and celebrities shallowness of fame.’’ The album cover consists of a painting by American artist Bob Gill in which, as in Massot’s film, two contrasting worlds are separated by a wall, with only a small gap allowing visual access between them. The album’s title inspired Oasis’ 1995hit song ‘Wonderwall’. The soundtrack was Harrison”s first formal music project outside the Beatles and coincided with his continued immersion in Indian classical music. Since 1966, this association with India had given Harrison a distinct musical identity beside the band’S primary songwriters, John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Harrison led the group in terms of their shared philosophical direction, as his bandmates followed him in embracing Transcendental Meditation under the guidance of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. While he had minimal interest in the Beatles’ main projects during 1967 – the album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and their television film Magical Mystery Tour.
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This page is based on the article Wonderwall Music published in Wikipedia (as of Jan. 09, 2021) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
