All Things Must Pass by George Harrison, three LP box set on Apple record label 1971, value £100

IF YOU own a copy of this album on CD, you will notice that it is in glorious colour, unfortunately for vinyl collectors, it has only been released in black and white, writes MICHAEL BROOKS.

George Harrison was always known as 'the quiet Beatle'. He was only 15 years old when Paul McCartney invited him to join the band after dissolving The Quarrymen. Harrison, influenced by Lonnie Donegan, developed an early distinctive guitar style modelled on rockabilly legend Carl Perkins and later introduced the sitar after being taught by guitar maestro Ravi Shankar. But throughout his career with The Beatles, his aspiring talent as a songwriter was constantly overshadowed by the prodigious output of songs by Lennon and McCartney; this led to Harrison's contributions making barely two songs on each of The Beatles original albums.

At the end of The Beatles career his calibre as a songwriter was as good as any by John and Paul: Here Comes The Sun and While My Guitar Gently Weeps were acknowledged as his finest, though Something, the last Beatle chart hit of the sixties, became their last chart topper of the decade. It was later recorded by Frank Sinatra who later commented it as "the greatest love song of the past fifty years". Acclaimed as the best song on the Abbey Road, album it became the second most covered song after Paul McCartney's Yesterday.

This box set contains two discs of mostly Harrison's own songs with the third consisting of impromptu jam session recordings with his friends. The album produced the single My Sweet Lord, which topped both the UK and USA charts as did the album. Harrison was influenced to write the song after hearing Oh Happy Day by the Edwin Hawkins Singers. The following year Harrison was sued for copyright infringement over My Sweet Lord owing to its similarity to the 1963 hit He's So Fine by the Chiffons. When the court case was heard, Harrison denied plagiarising the song, but lost the case as the judge ruled that he had copied the tune subconsciously and had to pay out in excess of £200,000 in costs.

The album was not only a critical success but a financial one too. In the circumstances, it was probably just as well.