George Harrison's 'All Things Must Pass' Receives 50th Anniversary Re-Release

“All Things Must Pass,” George Harrison’s landmark 1970 album, is being released in an extravagant 50th-anniversary presentation that includes previously unheard recordings and ephemera related to its creation.

What Happened Then: Harrison had recorded two solo albums while still part of the Beatles — 1968’s “Wonderwall” and 1969’s “Electric Sound” — and began work on “All Things Must Pass” six weeks after the Beatles disbanded.

Harrison would later acknowledge that much of the music on the three-record “All Things Must Pass” was written during the Beatles’ era but was rejected by his bandmates for inclusion on the band’s albums.

“I had so many songs and I had so much energy,” Harrison said. “For me to do my own album after all that — it was joyous. Dream of dreams.”

Harrison collaborated with producer Phil Spector (who left the project before its completion) and an expansive parade of musical talent including fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Klaus Voorman, Eric Clapton, Ginger Baker and a 20-year-old Peter Frampton.

The album included the hit singles "My Sweet Lord" and "What Is Life" plus two compositions that many music scholars consider to be among Harrison’s finest, "Isn't It a Pity" and the title track.

Harrison released a 30th anniversary remixed edition in 2001, the year he passed away at the age of 58 from cancer-related health issues. After “All Things Must Pass” was reissued, it was certified six times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America.

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What Happened Now: Harrison’s son Dhani has executive produced the new re-release, which offers remixes of the original contents plus 42 tracks consisting of outtakes, studio jams and demo recordings that were never previously released.

The new edition will be available in different formats. The most lavish is a $998.98 limited-edition boxed deluxe set featuring an artisan-designed wooden crate including eight LPs, five CDs and an audio Blu-ray disc. Joining it is a 96-page scrapbook curated by Harrison’s widow Olivia featuring archival notes and track-by-track annotations by Harrison and photographs from the recording session, as well as a 44-page book about the album’s production.

This set also includes a wooden bookmark made from a felled oak tree on the singer/songwriter’s estate and miniature replicas of Harrison and the garden gnomes that were part of the album’s cover art.

“All Things Must Pass” will also be released in five LP and three CD editions. Capitol/Ume, a division of Vivendi SE's VIVHY Universal Music Group, is releasing the 50th-anniversary edition.

(George Harrison —center — with Billy Preston and President Gerald Ford at a 1975 White House function. Photo courtesy of the U.S. National Archives.)