"Love Comes to Everyone" is a song by English rock musician George Harrison from his 1979 album George Harrison. It is the opening track on the album and was also issued as the second single, after "Blow Away". The song reflects Harrison's contentment in his personal life as he was soon to become a father for the first time and married his second wife, Olivia Arias. Despite its commercial qualities, and contrary to some reviewers' predictions at the time of release, the song failed to become a hit.
The lyrics to the song refer to human love and spiritual love as one, furthering a characteristic of Harrison's songwriting. He recorded the track at his Friar Park home studio in England in 1978 following a year away from the music industry. The recording includes synthesizer solos played by Steve Winwood and a guitar contribution from Eric Clapton over the intro to the track. Clapton's presence on the song formally signalled the continuation of his and Harrison's musical friendship after the potential complications presented by Clapton having eloped with Pattie Boyd, Harrison's first wife, in 1974.
Harrison included "Love Comes to Everyone" on his Dark Horse Records compilation Best of Dark Horse 1976–1989. Clapton covered the song on his 2005 album Back Home as a tribute to Harrison, four years after his death.
Background
George Harrison began writing "Love Comes to Everyone" in September 1977 and finished it in Hawaii in February 1978. Its writing and recording coincided with a period of domestic contentment for Harrison, who married his second wife, Olivia Arias, and saw the birth of his only child, son Dhani, during the sessions for his self-titled album. In his autobiography, I, Me, Mine, he describes the message of the song as "very optimistic". He also says the melody came about through using a Roland chorus effect on his guitar.
According to the date given in I, Me, Mine, "Love Comes to Everyone" was the first new song Harrison wrote for the George Harrison album. He approached the project after taking a sabbatical for much of 1977, during which he and Arias travelled and attended races in the Formula 1 World Championship. In June that year, Harrison and his first wife, Pattie Boyd, divorced amicably, and he continued to maintain a close friendship with Boyd's partner, Eric Clapton, whom Harrison took to calling his "husband-in-law" and "guitarist-in-law". He later attributed the relaxed mood of the album to "everything ... happening nice for me" in the two years since Thirty Three & ⅓, adding, "I'm happy, and I think that it's reflected in the music."
Composition
Music critic David Fricke describes the mood of "Love Comes to Everyone" as "church-bell strum and beatific stroll". Author Simon Leng likens the song's harmony to that in "Far East Man", a 1974 composition in the soul style that Harrison wrote with Faces guitarist Ron Wood.
The lyrics continue a theme typical of Harrison's songwriting since his 1968 Beatles track "Long, Long, Long", whereby human love and spiritual or divine love are inseparable concepts. He states the song's message with an ambiguity that initially suggests it is focused on human love and romance. The lyrics encourage the listener that love is there for all to experience, and that it "only takes time" before "that door" opens. In the song's bridges, he sings of a love "here in your heart" that will not change or age, referring to the assuredness of divine love and the inward journey required to experience it.
While Harrison's songs often focus on the Hindu deity Krishna as his idea of God, "Love Comes to Everyone" includes imagery equally typical of Christian teaching. In the final verse, his line "Knock and it will open wide" recalls phrases from the New Testament books of Matthew and Luke.
Recording
Harrison recorded "Love Comes to Everyone" at his home studio, FPSHOT, between April and October 1978. As with all of the George Harrison album, he co-produced the track with Russ Titelman. The project marked the first time that Harrison had fully shared the producer's role on one of his albums since working with Phil Spector in the early 1970s. According to author Robert Rodriguez, "Love Comes to Everyone" is the one track on George Harrison that appeared to follow contemporary music trends. He says it incorporates a "danceable tom-tom" beat.
