While Lennon gave us anger (“Working Class Hero”) and McCartney gave us nostalgia (“Yesterday”), Harrison gave us relief . He reminded us that no matter how dark the boardroom, how cold the argument, how long the winter…

And it almost didn’t happen.

It is the universal antidepressant. It plays at the end of disaster movies ( Parent Trap ), during post-9/11 charity concerts, and at the funeral of George Harrison himself in 2001—where Eric Clapton and Paul McCartney stood together and played it one last time for their friend.

“Here Comes the Sun,” George later wrote in his autobiography, I, Me, Mine , “was written in the garden at Eric’s house. The relief of not having to go back to the Apple meeting… It was a lovely day.”

“I’m not going back,” he told Clapton. “Let’s just go for a walk.”