George Harrison’s No. 1 hit “My Sweet Lord” will be re-released soon and proceeds given to charity, a spokesman for record company EMI Group Plc said Friday.
“We are definitely re-releasing it, and it will be for charity. It is the original version,” spokesman Murray Chalmers said. “But so far we have no date and no name for the charity.”
He said the company, which took the decision to re-release the single in consultation with Harrison’s widow Olivia and son Dhani, had not yet decided whether to reissue the spiritually tinged hit before or after Christmas.
The former Beatle died from cancer last week at age 58.
A spokesman for British music retailer HMV, owned by EMI and U.S. venture capital fund Advent, said earlier this week that if “My Sweet Lord” were reissued before Christmas it would be a sure-fire No. 1 again.
The record was No. 1 on the British charts for five weeks in January and February 1971. It was the first single by a solo Beatle to top the charts after their breakup and appeared on Harrison’s album “All Things Must Pass,” which was digitally remastered and reissued earlier this year.