Here Comes the Sun: The Beatles Song George Wrote While Skipping Work

By Dan Cohen · Published 2026-06-27

Here Comes the Sun, from the Beatles’ 1969 album Abbey Road, is one of the most purely uplifting songs they ever recorded — and it was born from a small, very human act of escape. By George Harrison’s own account, he wrote it in Eric Clapton’s garden on a spring day, having played truant from the tense, draining business meetings that were part of the Beatles’ slow unraveling. He simply needed to be outside, and the relief of that became the song.

Spring after a long winter

That context explains its glow. On the surface it’s about the sun returning after a hard winter; underneath, it’s about emerging from a dark, exhausting period and feeling, finally, that things are going to be all right. The smallness of its origin — one man relieved to skip a meeting — is exactly what makes the joy feel real rather than grand.

Harrison’s quiet triumph

Long overshadowed by Lennon and McCartney, Harrison wrote here one of the most beloved songs in the entire catalog — today among the most-streamed Beatles tracks of all. It’s a fitting victory for the “quiet Beatle”: his sunniest song came from quietly stepping away from the noise.

What it measures like

On our scale it’s bright, gentle and warm — a light, mid-tempo lift built to reassure, opening up as it goes. Full profile on its song page.

Here Comes the Sun appears on the Beatles’ 1969 album Abbey Road. Harrison’s account of writing it in Eric Clapton’s garden while avoiding business meetings reflects the widely reported history. No lyrics are reproduced.