George Harrison recalls the first ‘rock and roll record’ he ever head

One of the earliest influences on The Beatles’ guitarist George Harrison appeared to be his first “rock and roll” record.

The so-called quiet one of the group would confirm the rock and roll album he first heard in an episode of Anthology. The Beatles’ documentary series featured Harrison, along with bandmates Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr. Archival footage and interviews of John Lennon were used to complete the overview of The Beatles’ history. During the first episode of the show, the four would share their earliest musical influences. For McCartney, it was seeing a picture of Elvis Presley which would click into place his love for music. For Harrison, it was a similarly impactful singer and his album, I’m In Love Again.

Speaking in the first episode of Anthology, Harrison would say the legendary Fats Domino was the first rock and roll artist he heard. He said: “As I became a teenager, I was about twelve or thirteen, I first heard Fats Domino, I’m in Love Again, the first what I would call rock and roll record I ever heard.”

The band would go on to meet Domino while on the road in the United States. The Fab Four met with the Blueberry Hill hitmaker in New Orleans on September 16, 1964. Harrison said the stage veteran was his first musical influence, and had a bigger impact on him than The King.

He shared: “The main thing that really buzzed me, even before I heard Elvis, was ‪Fats Domino‬’s I’m In Love Again. I can even see exactly where I was when I heard that. There was this little place near where I was born called Wavertree, a district.

“And right at that point there’s a thing called the Picton Clock Tower, this tower in the middle of the road with this clock on it, and then nearby there used to be this old art-deco cinema called the Abbey.

“I was just walking across the road there when I heard ‪Fats Domino‬: Yes it’s me and I’m in love again! It must have been on a radio or a record player somewhere. And it touched somewhere deep in me.”

In an interview given in 1997, Harrison would share other influences on his music, includign Buddy Holly and Little Richard. He said: “I still prefer the music I liked as a teenager — Little Richard, Larry Williams and Buddy Holly. That’s classical music to me.

“But I like all kinds of music, Hawaiian, Spanish, Cab Calloway, Jorge Negrete… I like music that is not ego music. Real music doesn’t make you think of cash registers. It should transport you somewhere nice.”

Holly would be a huge influence on the rest of The Beatles, with McCartney sharing three things about the Everyday hitmaker which made him such an important figure in their early years.

He said: “There were lots of people coming up then, and one of them was Buddy Holly. We loved his vocal sound and we loved his guitar playing, but most of all, I think, was the fact that he wrote the stuff himself. That’s what turned us on.”