Frank Sinatra called Beatles song ‘the best love song in a hundred years’ – but songwriter didn’t care

Legendary crooner Frank Sinatra called one of The Beatles‘ songs the “best love song” written in a century.

A performance of the song by Sinatra was preceded by plenty of praise from the much-loved performer. Sinatra covered hundreds of songs during his career, but a performance of a classic from The Beatles’ Abbey Road has been praised by fans. Though the crooner known for hits like My Way and Fly Me Too the Moon would regularly perform the song in question, many other artists were taken by it too. Elvis Presley, Smokey Robinson, and James Brown would also frequently perform the song during their live shows. Though the song would become a classic for George Harrison, he first offered it to Joe Cocker, who had previously covered The Beatles’ work.

Hailing Harrison as an incredible songwriter, Sinatra delivered a cover of Something, which was received with rapturous applause. Planting a stool in the middle of the stage and praising The Beatles’ songwriter, Sinatra went on to call Something one of the “best love songs to be written in fifty or a hundred years.”

Sinatra continued: “It never says ‘I love you’ in the song but it really is one of the finest.” Though Sinatra received rapturous applause after performing the “marvellous song,” Harrison is believed not to have cared for the performance at all.

Though Sinatra would frequently cover the song (and once jokingly referred to it as a Lennon-McCartney track), Harrison was unimpressed with the live version backed by an orchestra. Initially Harrison though the cover was impressive but changed his mind soon after, saying the Robinson and Brown versions were of much more interest to him.

Speaking on The Beatles’ Anthology, he revealed: “When I wrote it, in my mind I heard Ray Charles singing it, and he did do it some years later. At the time, I wasn’t particularly thrilled that Frank Sinatra did Something.”

Years later, Harrison added: “I’m more thrilled now than I was then. I wasn’t really into Frank – he was the generation before me. I was more interested when Smokey Robinson did it and when James Brown did it. But I’m very pleased now, whoever’s done it. I realise that the sign of a good song is when it has lots of cover versions.”

Harrison’s classic Abbey Road addition is still covered by major artists to this day. Billie Eilish most recently shared her love for The Beatles and noted Something was one of her favourites from the legendary band.

She said: “It’s such a thing that we feel, it’s such a human feeling. So this is Something by The Beatles.

“Also, everybody knows that The Beatles were the main, probably, pool of music that we listened to growing up. This is one out of basically all of their songs that I loved and adored growing up, but this one really stuck with me.”

You can watch Sinatra’s performance of Something below.