George Harrison estate hit out at Donald Trump song use

Donald Trump (Image credit: Getty)

George Harrison’s estate has slammed Donald Trump’s use of Beatles classic Here Comes The Sun at the annual Republican convention.

They branded the presidential candidate’s use of the Abbey Road song written by the late Beatle “offensive” – but joked the song Beware Of Darkness from Harrison’s 1970 solo album All Things Must Pass may have been permitted instead.

They say: “The unauthorised use of Here Comes The Sun at the Republican Convention in Cleveland is offensive and against the wishes of the George Harrison estate.

“If it had been Beware of Darkness, then we may have approved it. #TrumpYourself.”

Queen also said they were “frustrated” with the politician’s “repeated unauthorised use” of their hit We Are The Champions, which was again played as Trump took the stage at the Cleveland conference. Blue Mountain Music Publishers have requested that the Trump campaign to refrain from using Paul Rodgers’ Free song All Right Now.

Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Neil Young and REM have also previously objected to Trump’s use of their music at previous rallies.

Political candidates don’t require express permission from musicians to use their songs on their campaign trail – as long as they obtain a blanket license under a performing rights organisation, such as ASCAP or BMI.

The top 10 best Beatles songs written by George Harrison

Former TeamRock news desk member Christina joined our team in late 2015, and although her time working on online rock news was fairly brief, she made a huge impact by contributing close to 1500 stories. Christina also interviewed artists including Deftones frontman Chino Moreno and worked at the Download festival. In late 2016, Christina left rock journalism to pursue a career in current affairs. In 2021, she was named Local Weekly Feature Writer of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards.