Harrisongs

• 1. Introduction

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  Harrisongs Ltd sits at 27 Ovington Square in London's Knightsbridge district, sharing a building with the Beatles' company Apple Corps. George Harrison founded it in 1964, while he was still a member of the Beatles, to publish his own songs. Before that, his compositions belonged to a different publishing company, one built for the group's two main songwriters. Harrison felt that arrangement undervalued him, and by the end of the decade he had broken from it entirely. What pushed him to build a publishing house of his own? And what became of that catalogue in the decades since he wrote it?

• 2. Breaking From Northern Songs

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  On the 11th of September 1964, Harrison registered a company called Mornyork Ltd. By the 7th of December that year, Mornyork had been renamed Harrisongs Ltd.

  Northern Songs was the company handling Harrison's music before then. Dick James and Brian Epstein had set it up in 1963 for John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the band's two main writers. Harrison and Ringo Starr had each signed contracts with Northern Songs too, but neither was happy with the royalties or the status that came with it.

  In 1967, Harrison put that frustration into a song called "Only a Northern Song". He let his Northern Songs contract expire in March 1968 and began publishing through Harrisongs instead. Starr took a similar path, setting up his own company, Startling Music.

  That break coincided with a solo album Harrison was already finishing, one that would mark the last time Northern Songs touched his music.

• 3. A New Catalogue Takes Shape

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  Wonderwall Music, released in 1968, was the last Harrison album published under Northern Songs and its American counterpart, Maclen Music. That same year, Harrisongs began publishing his output directly, starting with a song called "Sour Milk Sea".

  The Beatles' self-titled double album that year carried four more of his compositions, among them "While My Guitar Gently Weeps".

  Two further Harrison songs landed on 1969's Abbey Road: "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something". Both became the most widely syndicated songs from that album, spread further by the many cover versions they attracted.

  "Something" alone drew more than 150 cover recordings. Combined with the lasting popularity of the Beatles' original, author Mark Lewisohn says the song gave Harrisongs "a rich flow of royalties down the years".

  Harrison's stake in his own company grew from 80 per cent to 100 per cent in 1970. Lewisohn notes that this shift away from Northern Songs paid off especially well. Disputes between Lennon and McCartney had cost them control of their own songs, along with much of the money those songs earned.

  Full ownership meant every song he wrote next, starting with his first album after the Beatles, would answer only to him.

• 4. Beyond The Beatles

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  All Things Must Pass, released as Harrison's first solo album after the Beatles, went straight to Harrisongs for publishing.

  In 1973, he assigned the publishing rights for his next record, Living in the Material World, to a charity he had set up himself, the Material World Charitable Foundation. Harrisongs administered the foundation, which was built to aid people in starving countries.

  That arrangement sent the album's royalties to charity rather than to Harrison directly. His next albums would move to different publishers again.

• 5. Changing Hands

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  Starting with 1974's Dark Horse, Harrison's new songs went to two different publishers. Ganga Publishing, B.V. handled the United States, while Oops Publishing covered the United Kingdom and everywhere else.

  Those catalogues now belong to Umlaut Corporation, a company controlled by Harrison's widow, Olivia Harrison.

  As of 2016, the wider Harrisongs catalogue has been administered worldwide by the Bicycle Music Company, a division of Concord Music.

  Harrisongs is also the publishing company for thenewno2, the indie rock band led by Harrison's son Dhani. That portion of the catalogue is handled separately, by BMG Rights Management.

  More than sixty years after Harrison first broke from Northern Songs, that same independence now extends to his son. Dhani's band answers to its own publisher, kept separate from the Umlaut catalogue that carries his father's name.