Happy heavenly birthday to George Harrison!
George Harrison – Devil’s Radio
Never released commercially as a single, but rather a promo single from George Harrison’s 1987’s ‘Cloud 9’ album, “Devil’s Radio” was a well crafted, sardonically humorous song about George’s feeling about talk radio.
George detested misinformation and lies fed over the talk radio airwaves, not to mention unsubstantiated gossip. Hence the song also known as: “Devil’s Radio (Gossip)”.
The song title was inspired by a church billboard George saw that said, “Gossip: The Devil’s Radio…Don’t Be a Broadcaster”. Gossip is something George knew only too well as an ex-Beatle, reading about things that were totally fabricated or outright lies, about himself in magazines and tabloids.
An all-star line-up of musicians help in the recording of the song, such as Eric Clapton, Ray Cooper (Clapton’s percussionist you see in the MTV Unplugged episode), Ringo Starr, Elton John, and Jeff Lynne, who also produced the ‘Cloud 9’ album.
“Devil’s Radio” climbed the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart and peaked at #4 in 1987.
