Songoftheday 11/26/15 - Back then long time ago when grass was green, woke up in a daze...

"When We Was Fab" - George Harrison
from the album Cloud Nine (1987)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #23 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 6

Today's Song of the Day comes from the late George Harrison, who had a big "pop" comeback in 1987 with his pseudo-rockabilly hit cover of "Got My Mind Set On You".  The second single from his Cloud Nine album was a sonic throwback to his days with the Beatles, "When We Was Fab". Written and produced by Harrison with Jeff Lynne from ELO (and Harrison side-act The Traveling Wilburys), the song sounded plucked from one of the Fab Four's later psychedelic albums, while being accessible enough for the youngsters to sing along. The music video, directed by special effects and pop stars in their own right Godley and Creme, sported cameos from Lynne, fellow Beatle-mate Ringo Starr and Elton John...

"When We Was Fab" became George's thirteenth and final top-40 solo pop hit in America in March of 1988. The song climbed as high as #2 on Billboard's Mainstream Rock radio chart (his highest rank there), while stopping up at #10 on their Adult Contemporary (or 'easy listening') list. Internationally, the record made it to #25 in his native UK, #20 in Canada, #24 in Ireland, and #40 in Germany.

The third release from the album, "This Is Love", reached the top-20 on the Rock (#17) and Adult Contemporary (#20) chart in America, while Cloud Nine album tracks "Devil's Radio" and the title song made the top ten on the rock list. In 1989, Harrison contributed the song "Cheer Down" to the soundtrack to Lethal Weapon 2, and was his last top-ten rock hit at #7. His greatest hits set did place a minor hit "Poor Little Girl" on the list at #21. George stayed pretty quiet after that, though he did collaborate with Lynne again with Paul McCartney for the Beatles' Anthology compilations project. George passed away from lung cancer in November of 2001; in memoriam, a re-release of his first solo hit "My Sweet Lord" lept back on to the singles charts topping the British chart in January of 2002 and popping in at #94 on the American Hot 100 pop chart.

Cloud Nine would be Harrison's final solo studio album released in his lifetime; in 2002 the posthumously completed Brainwashed was put out, and from it the single and Grammy nominated song "Any Road" went to #37 on the British chart, while "Stuck Inside A Cloud" made it to #27 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart.

(P.S. - this one's for Joe.)

Up tomorrow: a Midwesterner wants you to give it a looksie.