George Harrison has the unique distinction of being both the first and the last ex-Beatle to score a number one hit on the Billboard Hot 100. “My Sweet Lord” reached the top slot on December 26, 1970, and stayed there for four weeks; “Got My Mind Set on You” hit number one on January 16, 1988, for one week.

Paul was the next former Beatle to follow George to the top of the charts as “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”, which was credited to Paul & Linda Cartney, as well as written and produced by the husband-and-wife combo, topped the charts for one week on September 4, 1971. The next former member of the Fab Four to reach the coveted plateau was Ringo, who scored with “Photograph” for one week on November 24, 1973, a song written by Ringo and George Harrison, and produced by Richard Perry. Finally, John had his first number one hit with “Whatever Gets You Thru the Night”, a song he wrote and produced, which stayed in the top slot for one week beginning on November 24, 1974.

“My Sweet Lord” entered the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 on December 5, 1970, and stayed there for 13 weeks. The single was released in the U.S. prior to the release of the triple album All Things Must Pass whereas in the UK the single was released six weeks after the release of the album.

Of course, “My Sweet Lord” was the target of a copyright infringement lawsuit but that complicated issue is a whole blog post in itself. The March 6, 1971, issue of Billboard stated that royalty payments to Harrison had been halted all over the world until settlement of the dispute. Of course, the situation sparked the song “This Song” on George’s 1976 album Thirty Three and 1/3, which spoofed the whole plagiarism case.

In the summer of 1963, the four members of The Beatles had a two week vacation that saw George visit his sister Louise in the U.S. While there he bought an album by James Ray, which included a song written by Rudy Clark “Got My Mind Set on You”. The song stuck in Harrison’s memory bank.

“Got My Mind Set on You” was the second number one song by an ex-Beatle to have been written by someone else. The first was when Ringo topped the charts in January 1974 with “You’re Sixteen”, which was written by Richard Sherman and Robert Sherman.

With “Got My Mind Set on You” topping the charts in January 1988, it set a record for the longest gap between number one hits for an artist or group, as Harrison’s previous number one record was “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” which reached the top slot on June 30, 1973. However, that record was broken months later when the Beach Boys scored a number one with “Kokomo” on November 5, 1988, some 22 years after their last number one hit o “Good Vibrations” topped the charts on December 10, 1966.

Two videos were made for the song, both of which were directed by Gary Weis. The second video, which shows Harrison playing guitar in a haunted house while various things around him come alive, definitely became the most popular one.