The Smith Tapes: George Harrison

Released just after George left Apple for his own Dark Horse label (and appearing in stores just in time for the Christmas season of 1976), The Best of George Harrison neatly splits into a side of Harrison solo hits and a side of his Beatles tunes. This is the only solo Beatles hits compilation to rely so heavily upon Fab Four recordings, which is a good indication of how George didn't rack up as many charting singles as John, Paul, or Ringo, but having the Beatles tunes here does paint a fuller portrait of Harrison's work as a singer/songwriter, even if it makes the collection somewhat less useful — after all, most listeners would want a George Harrison compilation to focus on his solo recordings, not the Beatles' hits they already have. But all this is down to a matter of timing and circumstance: Harrison needed to have a hits collection out in 1976, he didn't have enough big hits to fill out 13 tracks (even if he certainly had enough great album tracks to do so), and so the Fabs were brought in to fill in the cracks. The result might be a little underwhelming in retrospect, but it's undeniably entertaining.