Long, Long, Long

"Long, Long, Long"
Cover of the Apple Publishing sheet music
Song by the Beatles from the album The Beatles
Published	Harrisongs
Released	22 November 1968
Recorded	7–9 October 1968, EMI Studios, London
Genre	Psychedelic folk
Length	3:04
Label	Apple
Writer(s)	George Harrison
Producer(s)	George Martin

"Long, Long, Long" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 album The Beatles (also known as "the White Album"). It was written by George Harrison following the group's attendance at Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's Transcendental Meditation course in India in early 1968. Although Harrison later stated that he was addressing God in the lyrics, it is the first of his compositions that invites interpretation as both a standard love song and a paean to his deity.

Harrison wrote "Long, Long, Long" during a period that marked his emergence as a prolific songwriter, coinciding with his return to the guitar after two years of studying the Indian sitar. His musical inspiration for the song was "Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands" by Bob Dylan, while the understated arrangement reflects the influence of the Band's 1968 album Music from Big Pink. The Beatles recorded the song in London towards the end of the troubled sessions for the White Album. Sequenced to follow the heavy rock-styled "Helter Skelter", the otherwise gentle and meditative track ends with a partly improvised segment, which was inspired by the eerie sound of a wine bottle vibrating on a speaker in the recording studio.

"Long, Long, Long" has received praise from many music critics for its lilting, expressive qualities. Ian MacDonald described it as Harrison's "touching token of exhausted, relieved reconciliation with God" and considered it to be his "finest moment on The Beatles".Elliott Smith and Jim James are among the other artists who have recorded or performed the song.

George Harrison wrote "Long, Long, Long" in August 1968, while the Beatles were part-way through the recording of their eponymous double album, also known as "the White Album". It was one of many songs that marked Harrison's return to the guitar as his principal musical instrument, after he had dedicated himself to mastering the Indian sitar in 1966. This period coincided with a new, prolific period in his songwriting, which musicologist Walter Everett likens to the arrival of John Lennon and Paul McCartney as composers in 1963.