<P> The Beatles undertook the recording of Abbey Road with a sense of discipline and cooperation that had largely been absent while making the White Album and Let It Be . Having temporarily left the group in January 1969 partly as a result of McCartney's criticism of his musicianship, Harrison exhibited a greater level of assertiveness regarding his place in the band, particularly while they worked on his compositions "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun". In addition, like Lennon and McCartney, Martin had come to fully appreciate Harrison as a songwriter, later saying: "I first recognised that he really had a great talent when we did' Here Comes the Sun .' But when he brought in' Something,' it was something else...It was a tremendous work--and so simple ." </P> <P> The group recorded "Something" on 16 April before Harrison decided to redo the song, a new basic track for which was then completed at Abbey Road on 2 May . The line - up was Harrison on Leslie - effected rhythm guitar, Lennon on piano, McCartney on bass, Ringo Starr on drums, and guest musician Billy Preston playing Hammond organ . On 5 May, at Olympic Sound Studios, McCartney re-recorded his bass part and Harrison added lead guitar . At this point, the song ran to eight minutes, due to the inclusion of an extended coda led by Lennon's piano . </P> <P> After taking a break from recording, the band returned to "Something" on 11 July, when Harrison overdubbed what would turn out to be a temporary vocal . With the resulting reduction mix, much of the coda, along with almost all of Lennon's playing on the main part of the song, was cut from the recording . The piano can be heard only in the middle eight, specifically during the descending run that follows each pair of "I don't know" vocal lines . On 16 July, Harrison recorded a new vocal, with McCartney overdubbing his harmony vocal over the middle eight and Starr adding both a second hi - hat part and a cymbal . </P> <P> Following another reduction mix, at which point the remainder of the coda was excised from the track, Martin - arranged string orchestration was overdubbed on 15 August, as Harrison, working in the adjacent studio at Abbey Road, re-recorded his lead guitar part live . Writing for Rolling Stone in 2002, David Fricke described the Beatles' version of "Something" as "actually two moods in one: the pillowy yearning of the verses...and the golden thunder of the bridge, the latter driven by Ringo Starr's military flourish on a high - hat cymbal". Leng highlights Harrison's guitar solo on the recording as "a performance that is widely regarded as one of the great guitar solos", and one in which Harrison incorporates the gamaks associated with Indian classical music, following his study of the sitar in 1965--68, while also foreshadowing the expressive style he would adopt on slide guitar as a solo artist . </P>

Who sang lead vocals on something by the beatles