Phil Collins, Peter Frampton, and the Making of George Harrison's All Things Must Pass

This article is part of our Beatles Deep Dives series. For the complete Beatles history timeline, visit our On This Day in Beatles History blog.

The Album That Changed Everything

When George Harrison walked out of the Beatles in January 1969 — briefly, furiously, before being coaxed back — he had a backlog of songs that his bandmates had never had time to hear. Lennon and McCartney dominated the Beatles' recording sessions. Harrison's compositions were rationed, often to two per album. By the time the group finally dissolved in 1970, he had accumulated enough material for a triple album.

All Things Must Pass, released in November 1970, was that album. Produced by Phil Spector and recorded at Abbey Road Studios over the summer of 1970, it remains one of the most celebrated solo debuts in rock history — a record that didn't just announce Harrison as a solo artist, but immediately established him as one of the finest songwriters of his generation.

What is less well known is who else was in the room.

A 19-Year-Old Phil Collins and His £15 Session

In the summer of 1970, Phil Collins was nineteen years old and largely unknown. He had recently joined Genesis as their drummer, but the band had not yet broken through. When a session call came in for conga work on a George Harrison album, Collins took it — earning £15 for his trouble, roughly £280 in today's money.

He recorded conga parts for Art of Dying, one of the album's most urgent and propulsive tracks. His contribution, however, never made the final cut. Collins thought little of it at the time. He was a teenager doing session work. These things happened.

For thirty years, he assumed that was the end of the story.

The Tape, the Note, and the Prank

When Harrison began preparing the 30th-anniversary reissue of All Things Must Pass in 2000, he unearthed old session tapes from the original recordings. Among them was a tape featuring the conga player from the Art of Dying session. Harrison sent Collins a copy with a handwritten note:

"Dear Phil, could this be you? Love George."

Collins listened eagerly. He was finally going to hear the performance he had recorded as an unknown teenager — the contribution that had been left on the cutting room floor three decades earlier. Instead, he got a shock.

"The conga player sounded like a hyperactive toddler," Collins later recalled to Mojo. "At the end, I heard George's voice saying, 'Can we try one without the conga player?'"

He rewound the tape. He played it again. And again.

"I rewound it and played it again and again and thought, 'Fuck… I was sacked, and I never knew!'"

He left the listening session feeling, in his own words, "angry, depressed and sad." For a few days, he was convinced he had finally discovered the truth: that George Harrison had quietly fired him as a teenager, and he had spent thirty years none the wiser.

Harrison Reveals the Truth

A few days later, Harrison called to ask whether Collins had received the tape.

"I said, 'You fucking bastard. You sent me this tape, and it turns out I was sacked!'"

Harrison burst out laughing. When he finally caught his breath, he revealed what had actually happened: the tape wasn't Collins at all. It was a different conga player entirely. Harrison had simply found an old tape, thought it might be Collins, and sent it on a whim — with no idea it would send the Genesis drummer into a spiral of retrospective professional humiliation.

"We eventually managed to have a laugh about it," Collins said. "And yeah, I swore at a Beatle."

Of course, Collins' career — from Genesis to a string of chart-topping solo hits and even Disney film soundtracks — suggests he wasn't too badly wounded by the experience.

Peter Frampton: The Other Future Star in the Room

Collins wasn't the only future superstar who passed through the All Things Must Pass sessions. Peter Frampton — then a twenty-year-old guitarist who had recently left the Herd and was about to co-found Humble Pie — contributed electric guitar leads to the album.

Like Collins, Frampton was years away from international stardom. His 1976 live album Frampton Comes Alive! would become one of the best-selling live albums in history. But in the summer of 1970, he was simply a young musician good enough to be called into a George Harrison session.

The All Things Must Pass sessions were, in retrospect, an extraordinary gathering of talent — a snapshot of a moment when the rock world was reshaping itself after the Beatles' dissolution, and when Harrison, freed at last from the constraints of the group, was finally able to record on his own terms.

All Things Must Pass: The Album's Legacy

All Things Must Pass entered the UK Albums Chart at number one and reached the top spot in the United States. It contained My Sweet Lord — Harrison's first solo single, which became the best-selling single of 1971 in the UK — as well as What Is Life, Isn't It a Pity, and Beware of Darkness. Rolling Stone has ranked it among the greatest albums ever made.

It was the sound of a songwriter who had been waiting years for his moment. When it finally came, he didn't waste it.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Did Phil Collins play on All Things Must Pass?

Phil Collins recorded conga parts for 'Art of Dying' during the All Things Must Pass sessions in 1970, but his contribution did not appear on the finished album. Collins was nineteen at the time and had recently joined Genesis. George Harrison later played a prank on Collins by sending him a tape of a different conga player, leading Collins to believe he had been silently fired from the session thirty years earlier.

Did Peter Frampton play on All Things Must Pass?

Yes. Peter Frampton contributed electric guitar leads to George Harrison's All Things Must Pass, recorded in the summer of 1970. Frampton was twenty years old at the time and had recently left the Herd. He would go on to co-found Humble Pie and later achieve international fame with the 1976 live album Frampton Comes Alive!

When was All Things Must Pass recorded?

All Things Must Pass was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in the summer of 1970, following the dissolution of the Beatles. It was produced by Phil Spector and George Harrison, and released in November 1970. The sessions featured a large cast of musicians including Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Phil Collins, and Peter Frampton.

What prank did George Harrison play on Phil Collins?

While preparing the 30th-anniversary reissue of All Things Must Pass in 2000, George Harrison found an old session tape featuring a conga player and sent it to Phil Collins with a note asking if it was him. Collins listened and heard Harrison's voice on the tape saying "Can we try one without the conga player?" — leading Collins to believe he had been fired from the session as a teenager. Harrison later revealed the tape was of a different musician entirely.

Was All Things Must Pass a commercial success?

Yes. All Things Must Pass reached number one in both the UK and the United States. It spawned My Sweet Lord, which became the best-selling single of 1971 in the UK. The album is widely regarded as one of the greatest solo albums in rock history and has been ranked among the greatest albums ever made by Rolling Stone magazine.

Further Reading

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