17 Facts About Wonderwall Music

Wonderwall Music is the debut solo album by English musician George Harrison and the soundtrack to the 1968 film Wonderwall, directed by Joe Massot.

The 2014 reissue of Wonderwall Music recognises his contributions on keyboards and guitar.

Wonderwall Music agreed to write the musical score for Massot's film Wonderwall in October 1967, after the Bee Gees had become unavailable.

Wonderwall Music touched on themes that would come to preoccupy George Harrison – critically, the objectification of celebrities and the shallowness of fame.

Wonderwall Music score was Harrison's first opportunity to compose extensively for a single project.

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Wonderwall Music adds that their musical compatibility made Barham a natural choice over George Martin, the Beatles' producer and orchestral arranger.

Barham attended this session and contributed to some of the Western recordings for Wonderwall Music, playing piano, harmonium and flugelhorn, and providing orchestral arrangements for flutes, oboes and trumpet.

The performer credits in the 2014 reissue of Wonderwall Music rectified the situation, and list Harrison on piano and guitar.

Everett describes "Wonderwall Music to Be Here" as a tune "based on a minor-mode I-VII-VI-V progression, styled like Liberacian variations on 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps'".

Harrison attended the world premiere of Wonderwall Music, held at the Cannes Film Festival on 17 May 1968, accompanied by his wife Pattie Boyd, Starr and Birkin.

Wonderwall Music therefore became Apple's first album release, as well as the first solo album by a member of the Beatles.

Together with "The Inner Light", the Wonderwall project marked the end of Harrison's overtly Indian musical phase.

Wonderwall Music placed in the top 30 on Canada's RPM albums chart and in West Germany, where it peaked at number 22.

Harrison supplied Massot with a tape containing various pieces recorded for Wonderwall Music, which led to the unearthing of the Remo Four's "In the First Place".

Record Worlds reviewer said that Wonderwall Music was an example of the Beatles beginning to "stretch out on their own separate tethers" and described the mix of Indian and Western music as "moody and pretty".

Wonderwall Music says that, in response to the soundtrack restrictions, Harrison skilfully abbreviates the Indian raga form, "somehow capturing an essence, and condensing it to the fleeting, the elemental", while similarly presenting Western experimentalism "cloaked in a velvet glove".

Leng credits Wonderwall Music with having established Harrison as "a pioneer in fusing global music", and Madinger and Easter similarly view it as "an early example of what would eventually become known as 'World Music': the mixing of Western music with other types from around the globe".