For any songwriter, a tune usually never arrives fully formed. Even if a song ends up birthing itself out of nothing within the span of a few minutes of playing the guitar, it has to go through a million different demos before it’s ready to be recorded and mastered to be put on a record for casual fans to hear. While George Harrison had more than enough golden tracks to go around after leaving The Beatles, one song that he wrote for Ronnie Spector, ‘You’, had to wait nearly half a decade to see the light of day.

Then again, working with Spector was far from outside his playbook. Harrison had already become acquainted with Phil Spector when making his debut album, All Things Must Pass, and while he hated what the massive echo did to songs like ‘Wah-Wah’, he did think enough of him to write a handful of tunes for Ronnie, who had stepped out of the Ronnettes for a solo career.

Despite writing the tune ‘Try Some Buy Some’ for her, Harrison also took a swing at the song when tucking it away on Living in the Material World. While the story-driven track didn’t sit well on an album all about introspection, ‘You’ is closer to the kind of mindless pop song that would drive any pop-rock insane.

While it was written around the time of All Things Must Pass, Harrison put it on ice until the right time came for it. Since it had a more soulful feel to it, it might not have fit in with the many songs that populated his debut, including the gospel-tinged ‘My Sweet Lord’ or the country flavours of ‘Behind That Locked Door’.

When Harrison started putting together Extra Texture in 1975, he ended up taking ‘You’ out of hiding to open the record. Considering that it came from the same person who added those trademark harmonies to songs like ‘She Loves You’, it sounds immaculate. His voice is admittedly a little strained when going for the high notes, but that’s bound to come with the territory when you’re singing a song that was meant for the opposite gender.

For a song that kicks down the door like this, you’d think that the rest of the album would be the same kind of pop-tinged good time, right? Wrong. Because after this track, most people would be hardpressed to find another tune with half as much energy on the entire record, including a sequel to ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ entitled ‘This Guitar (Can’t Keep From Crying)’, which pales in comparison to the original.

And given the way that the tracks are organised, something tells me that Harrison knew that he had little to work with on this album outside of the one hit. Because when you look at how the album is constructed when looking at it as a vinyl release, bringing back the one hit from the first side to open up side two for a couple of seconds just feels like teasing the audience of the better parts of the record.

But compared to every other pop smash that the ex-Beatles had, Harrison does hold his own next to John Lennon and Paul McCartney for a pure, infectious rock tune. And no matter how much he was treated as the lesser band member throughout the group’s tenure, ‘You’ is at least on the same level as something like ‘Silly Love Songs’.