All About George Harrison’s Son Dhani Harrison

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All About George Harrison’s Son Dhani Harrison

George Harrison welcomed his only child, son Dhani, in 1978

By Ellie Beeck  

People

August 11, 2026

George Harrison in Cannes, France for the Midem music industry trade fair on January 30, 1976. ; Dhani Harrison attends attend the UK Premiere of “The Beatles: Get Back” on November 16, 2021 in London, England.

Credit : Michael Putland/Getty ; Karwai Tang/WireImage

George Harrison found inspiration in many people throughout his storied career, including his son.

The late Beatles singer and his then-fiancée (soon-to-be wife) Olivia Harrison welcomed their only child, Dhani, on Aug. 1, 1978. Harrison, who was a follower of the Hare Krishna sect of Hinduism, named his son after the sixth and seventh notes on the Indian music scale, “dha” and “ni.”

Though The Beatles disbanded years before his birth, Dhani still grew up around music thanks to his dad’s solo career. “He’s lovely,” Harrison told PEOPLE in 1987 of his then-9-year-old son. “He’s good fun, good company. He can play ‘When We Was Fab’ on the piano.”

Harrison wrote several songs for Dhani over the years, including 1982’s “Unknown Delight.” “He was saying, ‘What should I write about? What should I write a song about?’ ” Olivia told NPR of her husband in a 2004 interview. “I said, ‘Write a song about Dhani.’ And he wrote this beautiful song which was very prescient, actually.”

Now 48, Dhani is following in Harrison’s footsteps as a musician while working to keep his dad’s legacy alive following his untimely death in November 2001.

From working as an aerodynamicist to winning a Grammy Award, here’s everything to know about George Harrison’s son.

He was born in August 1978

George Harrison and son Dhani Harrison at Christie’s London for a guitar auction in 1999.

Credit : Richard Young/Shutterstock

Dhani was born on Aug. 1, 1978, in Berkshire, England, and was raised on his dad’s estate, Friar Park. His birth came eight years after The Beatles broke up and Harrison moved on to a more quiet life on his 62-acre home.

“My earliest memory of my dad is probably of him somewhere in a garden covered in dirt, somewhere hot, a tropical garden, in jeans, khakis covered in dirt, just continuously planting trees,” Dhani said in Martin Scorsese’s 2011 documentary, George Harrison: Living in the Material World. “I think that’s what I thought he did for the first seven years of my life.”

He went to military school

Eric Idol, Paul McCartney, Olivia Harrison, Tom Hanks and Dhani Harrison attend the ceremony honoring the late George Harrison with a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame on April 14, 2009.

Credit : Lester Cohen/WireImage

As an act of teenage rebellion, Dhani enrolled at a military school to annoy his openly pacifistic dad.

“To rebel in my family was to go to…a semi-military school. We did CCF [Combined Cadet Force] one day a week,” he told TIME magazine in 2011. “That used to piss him off, me walking around in an Air Force uniform.”

He studied physics and industrial design

Dhani Harrison attends a private view of “Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser” on June 23, 2021 in London, England.

Credit : David M. Benett/Dave Benett/Getty

In 1997, Dhani moved to the United States to attend Brown University for college. While at Brown, he studied physics and industrial design, though he did try his hand at music.

“I did take a course in music and computers — and failed,” he told the Brown Alumni Magazine in 2018. He also joined the school’s rowing team, where he served as a coxswain.

After graduating in 2001, Dhani worked as an aerodynamicist for British sports-car company McLaren before turning to music, he told the Daily Mail in 2012.

He “freaked out” when he found out his dad was a member of The Beatles

George Harrison poses for a portrait in 1964 in London, England. ; Dhani Harrison arrives at the Friends And Family GRAMMY Event on January 29, 2010 in Los Angeles, California.

Credit : Cyrus Andrews/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty ; Dr. Billy Ingram/WireImage

Despite his global fame, Harrison didn’t tell Dhani that he was a member of The Beatles until he was in elementary school.

“I was completely unaware that he had anything to do with music,” Dhani said of his dad in the 2011 documentary about his dad. “I came home one day from school after being chased by kids singing ‘Yellow Submarine,’ and I didn’t understand why. It just seemed surreal.”

Dhani added that he “freaked out” at his dad when he got back from school that day. “‘Why didn’t you tell me you were in The Beatles?’ “ he said in the documentary of the moment. “And he said, ‘Oh, sorry. Probably should have told you that.’ ”

He helped his dad make music

Dhani Harrison, Sir Paul McCartney, Olivia Harrison, Yoko Ono, Barbara Bach and Ringo Starr.

Credit : KMazur/WireImage

Growing up, Dhani often sat in on his dad’s recording sessions. “My dad treated me like an adult – I got involved, he taught me how to make records from an early age. I grew up in a recording studio,” he told the Daily Mail.

In 2001, Dhani officially started helping Harrison make music, co-writing the song “Horse to the Water” and performing lead guitar behind his dad’s vocals. Dhani also helped his father produce his final album, Brainwashed, which was released in 2002, nearly a year after his death.

In 2021, Dhani worked as the executive producer on the star-studded music video for Harrison’s “My Sweet Lord,” 51 years after the song’s release. He and his mom also made appearances in the video alongside Harrison’s Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr, actors Mark Hamill and Darren Criss, and more.

He’s a Grammy-winning musician

Dhani Harrison performing on ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’.

Credit : Randy Holmes/Getty

Though he studied physics, Dhani quickly realized that he wanted to follow in his dad’s footsteps and pursue music after working on Brainwashed. He started a rock band called thenewno2, and released their first album, You Are Here, in 2009.

“I did everything I could to not be a musician,” he told Billboard at the time. “It’s in the DNA, I guess.”

Dhani started another band, Fistful of Mercy, in 2010 with Ben Harper. In 2017, he released his first solo album, IN///PARALLEL.

Dhani honored his dad at the 2004 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame ceremony – when he was posthumously inducted – by performing a rendition of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” alongside Tom Petty, ELO frontman Jeff Lynne and Prince.

In 2022, Dhani won his first Grammy Award for his work remastering Harrison’s album All Things Must Pass for its 50th anniversary.

He loves Star Wars

Hayden Christensen and Danni Harrison attend the Redbull Star Wars Grand Prix Party on May 22, 2005 in Monte Carlo, Monaco.

Credit : Dave Benett/Getty

Dhani has been open about his love of the Star Wars series, saying he “grew up” with the films and collects Star Wars toys and memorabilia.

In a 2017 interview with StarWars.com, Dhani revealed that his dad was also a fan of the series: “I’ve always done martial arts, and I’ve done meditation since I was a kid, so ‘Jedi training’ is a very familiar thing in my family,” he joked.

He’s been married

Dhani Harrison and Solveig ‘Sola’ Karadottir at the LACMA 2015 Art+Film Gala Honoring James Turrell And Alejandro G Inarritu on November 7, 2015 in Los Angeles, California.

Credit : Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic

In 2012, Dhani married former model Sólveig Káradóttir. Per Vogue, Káradóttir’s dress was designed by Stella McCartney, the daughter of Beatle Paul McCartney, who also attended the nuptials along with Starr. Other celebrity guests included Tom Hanks and Clive Owen, according to E! Online.

Dhani and Káradóttir were regular fixtures at red carpet events and even attended Stella’s Ready-to-Wear show at Paris Fashion Week in 2013. In 2016, the couple separated, per TMZ. Dhani is now dating British musician Mereki Beach.

He says he’s similar to Stella McCartney

Dhani Harrison speaks onstage at the 32nd Annual Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony on April 7, 2017 in New York City. ; Stella McCartney attends The 2023 Met Gala Celebrating “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line Of Beauty” on May 01, 2023 in New York City.

Credit : Kevin Kane/WireImage ; Jamie McCarthy/Getty

Dhani and Stella, are very supportive friends: he’s cheered her on from the front row at fashion shows, and she tapped him to perform at her Autumn 2016 showcase in Los Angeles.

In his 2012 interview with the Daily Mail, Dhani revealed that he and Stella have both worked hard to make names for themselves separate from their famous dads.

“Of all of them, I think I’m most similar to Stella and Mary [McCartney],” he said of all the Beatles children. “I really relate to the way they’ve dealt with their circumstances — they’re like big sisters to me.”

Paul McCartney's 'WINGS: The Story of a Band on the Run' Out in Paperback Oct. 6

www.theglassonionbeatlesjournal.com

Paul McCartney's 'WINGS: The Story of a Band on the Run' Out in Paperback Oct. 6

The Glass Onion Beatles Journal

on August 12, 2026

From the news release:

The internationally bestselling oral history returns in paperback with a candid new conversation between Paul McCartney and Oscar-winning filmmaker Morgan Neville.

This remarkable cast tells the story of a band who made history – selling over 22 million albums and becoming the first band to achieve sales of over two million in the UK singles charts with Mull of Kintyre. A band who pushed the boundaries in both the studio and in live performances, from their first university tour through to pioneering large scale concerts, long before stadiums and arenas were commonly used for rock shows. 

The book includes a foreword written by Paul McCartney and is compiled from over 42 hours of recent and historical interviews from Paul's personal archive. WINGS: The Story of a Band on the Run features over 150 photographs capturing Wings throughout the years – many previously unseen – and shot by an array of photographers including Linda McCartney, Mike McCartney, Clive Arrowsmith, Henry Diltz, Robert Ellis and Paul himself. The book also includes memorabilia, including some of Paul’s diary page entries from the time and handwritten lyrics.

The new paperback includes a candid conversation between Paul and director Morgan Neville, recorded around the launch of Neville's highly acclaimed documentary Paul McCartney: Man on the Run, released earlier this year. Together they reflect on Paul's creative reinvention after The Beatles and the enduring legacy of Wings.

Available to order now via Bookshop.org

bookshop.org

Wings

The Story of a Band on the Run

Paul McCartney 

(Author)

Ted Widmer 

(Edited by)

Hardcover

$41.94

Ebook

$40.51

Paperback

$21.39

Pre-Order

(10/6/26

This title will be released on

OCT 6, 2026

Description

An engrossing oral history of a band that came to define a generation, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run tells the madcap story of Paul McCartney and his newly formed band, from their humble beginnings in the early 1970s to their dissolution barely a decade later. Drawn from over 500,000 words of interviews with McCartney, family and band members, and other key participants, Wings recounts--now with a half-century's wisdom--the musical odyssey taken by a man searching for his identity in the aftermath of The Beatles' breakup. Soon joined by his wife - American photographer Linda McCartney - on keyboard and vocals; drummer Denny Seiwell; and guitarist Denny Laine, McCartney sowed the seeds for a new band that would later provide the soundtrack of the decade.

Organized chronologically around McCartney, RAM, and nine Wings albums, the narrative begins when a twenty-seven-year-old superstar, rumored to be dead, fled with his new wife to a remote sheep farm in Scotland amid a sea of legal and personal rows. Despite the harsh conditions, the Scottish setting gave McCartney time to create, and it was here where this new band emerged. Wings then follows the group as they play unannounced shows at university halls, tour in a sheared-off double-decker bus with their children, survive a robbery on the streets of Nigeria, and eventually perform blockbuster stadium shows on their world tour, all while producing some of the most enduring music of the time.

With extraordinary recollections collected by Oscar-winning director Morgan Neville and edited into a genre-defining oral history by Ted Widmer, Wings transports the reader, as if on a magic carpet, to the grit and glamour of the 1970s. Pushing creative forms to produce a new history, even a Wings bible, the book refracts a bygone era in a totally new light. And now featuring a brand-new interview with McCartney and Neville, the book refracts a bygone era in a totally new light. Introduced with a personal, heartfelt foreword by McCartney, Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run has emerged as a work of soaring originality that presents a new art form all its own.

Product Details

Publisher   Liveright Publishing Corporation

Publish Date October 06, 2026

Pages         608

Language English

Type         Paperback

EAN/UPC 9781324099918

About the Author

Born in Liverpool in 1942, Paul McCartney was raised in the city and educated at the Liverpool Institute. Since writing his first song at fourteen, McCartney has dreamed and dared to be different. He lives in England.

Ted Widmer is a historian, writer, librarian, and musician who writes about American history in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and other venues. He has taught at Harvard, Brown, and Washington College. In 2022 he was awarded a prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship.

Reviews

Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run is the astonishing, unruly story of how [Paul McCartney found] a way to exist alongside his inescapable past. Structured as an oral history ... interleaved with rich archive material [and] elegantly annotated with timelines and discographies ... this book skillfully patchworks together testimony from all the Beatles, McCartney's family, friends and bandmates, and external sources ... demanding re-evaluation, fostering revelation. [It] is ... the story of a man who climbed every mountain, then set out to do it all over again.--Victoria Segal "Sunday Times [UK]"

A comprehensive oral history of the outfit, 'Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run' (out now, Liveright/ W.W. Norton & Company) unfurls 42 hours of new interviews, historical records, and previously unheard interviews from McCartney's archives. . . . Some stories, such as Wings losing the master tapes to 'Band on the Run' after being robbed and mugged while recording the album in Lagos, Nigeria, might be familiar to Wings aficionados. But most other tales are newly shared and offer fascinating insight even for casual fans.--Melissa Ruggieri "USA TODAY"

A must-read for fans of The Beatles in general and their solo careers in specific. And the story of Wings is a doozy, to put it mildly. . . . Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run takes readers on an inspiring journey from the rudimentary efforts behind Wings' Wild Life in 1971 through the apex of arena rock in the mid-1970s and beyond. The book includes a vast assemblage of band member recollections as collected by Academy Award-winning director Morgan Neville. And they don't disappoint. . . . A powerful rejoinder to the band's critics--and there were many in the 1970s who queued up in hopes of seeing McCartney's post-Beatles experiment fail.--Kenneth Womack "Salon"

A weighty new oral history .... crammed with fascinating details and amusing observations.--Neil McCormick "Telegraph"

An exhaustive, forensic and fascinating inside story of the band who achieved the impossible.--John Aizlewood "i Paper"

It's an impressive undertaking that follows the band from their founding in the 1970s to their dissolution in 1981, featuring extensive commentary from McCartney as well as co-founding members, the late Linda McCartney and Denny Laine, and many more. For the Beatles fan in your life and then some.--Maria Sherman "Associated Press"

The first decade of Paul McCartney's second act is fully illuminated in 'Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run, ' an oral history drawn from interviews with band and family members, as well as other interested parties, and edited by Ted Widmer. . . The story is augmented by timelines that add a contextual charm all their own. . . . The book brims with often captivating details.--Dave Shiflett "Wall Street Journal"

What is there left to know about Paul McCartney in 2025? Actually, quite a bit. . . .There is still much to be excavated from what is the most examined life in pop music history, especially when it comes from the horse's mouth. . . . Wings: The Story of a Band on the Run is a smooth, frictionless ride across the arc of McCartney's '70s career, when he continued to mint more hits, and secured a lock on a massive career that is presently in its 55th year.--Marc Weingarten "Los Angeles Times"

Widmer does an expert job of stitching this into a compelling narrative that includes cultural context - like what else was in the charts at the time - and plenty of photographs, many previously unseen. The result is a portal into a more eccentric age of pop, a fable about the tension between celebrity and creativity, and a story with elements of Spinal Tap and Wacky Races. . . .Under McCartney's contrarian, impulsive, endlessly generative leadership, it blended imperial rock grandeur with a homemade ethos and a certain stoned nonchalance. Wings was always bound to be a spin-off from the Beatles universe - but what a spin-off it was.--Ian Leslie "The Guardian"

George Harrison ‘The Third Eye – Early Photographs’

beatlesblogger.com

George Harrison ‘The Third Eye – Early Photographs’

by BeatlesBlogger

Posted on August 12, 2026

Ver esta publicación en Instagram

Una publicación compartida de Random House Publishing Group (@randomhouse)

There’s an out-of-reach-for-most-of-us Deluxe Edition coming on 26 October:

It is a cloth-bound book that comes in a clamshell box and has four fine art prints, a 5×7″ letterpress print signed and numbered by Olivia Harrison, and a vinyl single with a previously unreleased George track of him covering a 1950’s Eartha Kitt song called ‘Apres Moi’:

Why ‘Apre Moi’, and why Eartha Kitt? Instgrammer @innerlightpodcast explains:

Ver esta publicación en Instagram

Una publicación compartida de The Inner Light : A George Harrison Podcast (@innerlightpodcast)

Anyhow, for the rest of us it’s most probably going to be the standard edition at around US$65.00….which is due for release on October 6. It really does look to contain some special images – all taken by George:

www.penguinrandomhouse.com

The Third Eye

Early Photographs

By George Harrison

Foreword by Olivia Harrison

Introduction by Colm Toibin

Afterword by George Saunders

Hardcover

$65.00

Available on Oct 06, 2026 | 352 Pages

Book Description

An intimate, beautiful collection of more than two hundred never-before-collected photos of the Beatles at work and at play—many published for the first time—taken by their lead guitarist, George Harrison

This extraordinary book features:

• 200+ intimate images chronicling the Beatles’ rise to world fame, captured by one of their own

• Running commentary on the photos including never-before-seen quotes from Harrison himself

• Essays by Harrison’s widow, Olivia Harrison, and writers Colm Tóibín and George Saunders

From 1963 to 1969, George Harrison traveled the world with his bandmates, Pentax in hand, chronicling their impossible path from Liverpool to Ed Sullivan, Adelaide to Rishikesh, the Eiffel Tower to the beaches of Tahiti and beyond.

In this extraordinary collection of George’s personal photos and 8mm film stills—curated by Olivia Harrison, George’s widow—are singular images of Paul, John, Ringo, and George and the band’s friends and entourage as they rocketed to stardom and fostered the joyful madness that came to be known as Beatlemania. This revelatory, beautifully designed book takes the reader along on their first plane ride to the US, motorcades through the Australian outback, shopping trips in Paris, and more.

The candid, unguarded photos, brimming with Harrison’s wit, intelligence and penchant for experimentation (he was enamored of selfies, long before the iPhone), and snapped in those rare moments out of the spotlight offer a remarkable, inside look at the human beings behind the Beatles, trying to hold onto themselves—and enjoy themselves—while standing at the center of the storm.

The Third Eye opens a window into the world of the Beatles—and the transformative cultural moment that they sparked—through the singular artistic vision of George Harrison.

Product Details

ISBN  9798217154852

Available on  Oct 06, 2026

Published by  Random House

Pages  352

Dimensions  9 x 12

The John Lennon song from 1965 that The Beatles Never Released

www.guitarplayer.com

John wrote it, Ringo sang it and Paul played guitar. Behind the recording the Beatles refused to release. Said George Harrison, “It’s the most weird song”

By Christopher Scapelliti

Guitar Player

Published  Mon, August 10, 2026

Recorded for 1965’s ‘Help!’ album, the track was left in the vault for just over 30 years

“It's the funniest thing I've ever done,” said Lennon, shown (right) with McCartney on the Beatles’ 1965 U.S. tour. (Image credit: Mark and Colleen Hayward/Getty Images)

By the time the Beatles broke up in late 1969, they had recorded and released more than 200 songs — most of them originals — and left dozens more in the vault. While the bulk of those unissued tracks ranged from rough demos to jams, several were completed recordings that they rejected for one reason or another.

Among them was the first song written for drummer Ringo Starr: “If You’ve Got Trouble.” Composed by John Lennon for inclusion on 1965’s Help!, the tune was a heavy riff-rocker built on a modified three-chord blues progression.

From the start of the Beatles’ recording career, Starr was given a vocal spot on each of their albums (except for 1964’s A Hard Day’s Night) in order to please his fan base. Because he wasn’t a songwriter in the group’s early years, he sang either covers — “Boys,” on 1963’s Please Please Me, and “Honey Don’t” on 1964’s Beatles for Sale — or Lennon and McCartney cast-offs like “I Wanna Be Your Man,” from 1963’s With the Beatles.

“If You’ve Got Trouble” falls into the second category. According to Ray Coleman, the former editor-in-chief of Melody Maker, Lennon knew it was not his finest work.

“I wrote it. It's the funniest thing I've ever done,” Lennon told Coleman, who attended the recording session for the track on February 18, 1965, and wrote about it for the magazine's February 27 issue,. “Listen to the words,” Lennon said, laughing. “I didn't expect anybody to want to record it.”

Despite Lennon’s disregard for the tune, the Beatles put a fair amount of effort into the recording. The basic track — drums, bass guitar and rhythm guitar, played by George Harrison on one of his Gretsch electrics, according to producer George Martin’s notes — is energetic and polished. As Coleman reported, McCartney was happy with the vibe the group was creating.

“Paul thought the sound was one of the best ever,” he wrote.

The song is notable as one of the first Beatles tracks on which McCartney played guitar, joining Harrison to perform its driving riff with his Epiphone Casino hollowbody electric. Interestingly, in the same week that it was recorded, the Beatles also cut “Ticket to Ride,” “Another Girl” and “The Night Before,” three Help! songs that were among the first to feature McCartney playing guitar solos and leads.

“Hey, listen, hear that play by Paul?” John asked Coleman at one point. “He’s been doing quite a bit of lead guitar work this week.”

Ringo Starr and John Lennon in a scene from the 1965 movie Help! (Image credit: Allstar Picture Library Limited. / Alamy Stock Photo)

McCartney’s sudden emergence as a guitarist during this week in the group’s history may help to explain Starr’s rather unusual shout out leading into the guitar solo on “If You’ve Got Trouble.” On previous recordings, he had made a habit of announcing Harrison’s solo breaks, calling out “All right, George,” on “Boys,” and “Rock on, George, one time for Ringo,” on “Honey Don’t.”

But on “If You’ve Got Trouble,” he says the rather unusual, “Oh, rock on, anybody!” Perhaps the Beatles had yet to decide whether Harrison or McCartney would play the solo; according to George Martin’s notes, Ringo’s vocals (which he double-tracked) were recorded before the solo was laid down.

That job eventually fell to Harrison, who delivered what is easily his most uninspired solo in the Beatles’ catalog. Perhaps everyone realized by the night’s end that the song was hopeless. Although the song received mono and stereo mixes on February 20 and 23, respectively, it was ultimately abandoned.

Remarkably, that February 20 mix session saw the Beatles record yet another song that wouldn’t be released for years. “That Means a Lot” was a McCartney tune played in a heavy, R&B style, with a thudding beat and a medium tempo similar to “Ticket to Ride.” It would be subjected to a remake one month later, on March 30. Dissatisfied with the results, the Beatles gave the song to American singer P.J. Proby, whose version reached number 24 on the U.K. charts that September.

“If You’ve Got Trouble” was nearly released in 1984 when former Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick prepared the recording for inclusion on the group’s unreleased rarities album, Sessions. His work included cutting the first verse, thereby shortening the song by 20 seconds.

But after the surviving Beatles blocked the album, “If You’ve Got Trouble” remained unreleased until it was included in its full length on Anthology 2 in 1996. Commenting on the song, music critic Ian MacDonald called it “the only unmitigated disaster in the Lennon–McCartney catalog.”

Even George Harrison was unsparing in his criticism. “It’s the most weird song,” he commented in the Beatles’ Anthology book. “I’ve no recollection of ever recording it. It’s got stupid words and is the naffest song. No wonder it didn’t make it onto anything.”

A Night Celebrating The Music Of Yoko Ono

www.rollingstone.com

RUFUS WAINWRIGHT, KATHLEEN HANNA, YO LA TENGO CELEBRATE THE RADICAL MUSIC OF YOKO ONO

“Yoko Only,” a night of inspired performances and collaborations, honored Ono’s boundary-pushing songs, feminist vision, and enduring influence

By KATHERINE TURMAN

Rolling Stone

AUGUST 9, 2026

Artists onstage at ‘The Broad Presents: Yoko Only’ in Los Angeles on Aug. 8.

SALVADOR CEJA GARCIA/COURTESY OF THE BROAD

“I’d like to dedicate this to the Beatles,” Yo La Tengo guitarist and singer Ira Kaplan said from the stage, introducing Yoko Ono’s 1973 song “What Did I Do!” He added, by way of explanation, “It’s been long enough that we no longer bear a grudge for them trying to break up the Plastic Ono Band.” The quip resonated with most of the fans and other musicians — geezers and hipsters of all stripes — pressed up to the stage outside Los Angeles’ the Broad museum for “Yoko Only: A Night Celebrating the Music of Yoko Ono.”

Ono, 93, was not in attendance at the event, but it was a varied and star-studded tribute to her work. Performed mostly with the world’s coolest house band in Yo La Tengo, the 19-song set saw iconoclastic singers and musicians add their own flavor to Ono originals. The setlist ranged from the avant-garde (“AOS” — the original done by Ono in 1970 with Ornette Coleman Quartet) to bona fide hits like 1981’s disco tune “Walking on Thin Ice” to the painfully personal “No, No, No,” a guttural reaction to her husband’s murder the year prior.

"Tabetai"

Yo La Tengo turned into a five-piece for the evening thanks to Wilco member and guitar virtuoso Nels Cline and Cibo Matto’s Yuka Honda. The latter curated the event, hand-selecting performers and often songs, also playing keyboards throughout the night. The concert was presented in conjunction with the museum’s ongoing special exhibition, Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind.

Tuneyard’s Merrill Garbus kicked things off with “We Are All Water,” adding to Ono’s lyrics about “Chairman Mao and Richard Nixon” some timely references to villains whose names rhyme with Rump and Titler. The playful “Tabeti” (“I want to eat” in English) was staccato and percussive, delivered with perfect verve by Deerhoof singer Satomi Matsuzaki. Both songs, like much of Ono’s musical and visual work, underline and encourage community, humanity, and creativity in everyone while simultaneously excoriating a pervasive malevolence.

Kathleen Hanna and Sleater-Kinney : "No, No, No"

Ono’s songs proved as diverse as the artists tackling them. Bikini Kill’s Kathleen Hanna joined Sleater-Kinney’s Corin Tucker for an impassioned “No, No, No.” Backstage, pre-gig, Tucker expressed thoughts no doubt shared by many of the women participating: “Yoko Ono was just so ahead of her time and so influential to my generation, the riot grrrl generation,” Tucker said. “She was a direct influence for us of someone who was, like, no filter. Music is about expressing yourself and about being who you truly are and putting out these ideas into the world. That was a huge impact on us.”

Hanna and Tucker performing Ono’s “No, No, No.” Tucker called Ono “so influential to the riot grrrl generation.”

JULIAN HAMILTON/GETTY IMAGES

Indeed, Ono is a household name, though often considered a musical outlier, as her approach to music and singing — like art — has remained singular. If some in the Broad crowd might have been hard-pressed to name more than a song or two of Ono’s, or had only a passing acquaintance with the 1964 feminist performance art Cut Piece and other highlights in her seven-decade career in favor of her collaborations with John Lennon, it didn’t matter. Ono’s influence is myriad.

Especially captivating performances came thanks to Sylvan Esso’s take on “Sisters O Sisters,” singer Amelia Meath embodying the whimsical empowerment of Ono’s 1972 ditty. Meath was likewise vibrant, potent but never performative on “Walking on Thin Ice,” likely the show’s best-known song.

Cello and saxophone (from musicians Maggie Perkins and Shiroishi, respectively) augmented numbers including the unhinged “AOS,” rendered by composer and jazz singer Theo Bleckmann. At one point Bleckmann joked, “Sing along if you like,” his idiosyncratic style proving an ideal fit to capture Ono’s original musical conversation with Ornette Coleman. When the song delved into a cacophony as loud as Bleckmann’s green patterned suit, the crowd was at once laughing and holding their ears.

Chicago’s Finom — Macie Stewart and Sima Cunningham — did Ono proud with an often operatic drama and feral vocalizing on the plaintive, short on lyrics, long on emotion “Why” (2018). The duo was equally compelling on the boldly orgasmic “Kiss, Kiss, Kiss,” from Lennon-Ono’s Double Fantasy.

In marked contrast, Ono’s gentler songs worked equally well in the set, with New York multimedia artist Emi Helfrich offering a compelling stillness augmented by acoustic guitars on “Remember Love.” The 1969 gem, wrought with acoustic guitars, was originally the B side of “Give Peace a Chance” from John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. (Helfrich had more in common with Ono than anyone else on stage: She’s Ono’s granddaughter, her mother being Yoko Ono’s daughter Kyoko Ono Cox.) Helfrich also performed “Higa Noboru,” a song that Honda describes as carrying “a quiet yet immense gravity,” and that was exactly the tone and mood Helfrich achieved.

Wainwright wore tinted shades during his performance in homage to Ono’s signature look.

JULIAN HAMILTON/GETTY IMAGES

A “sad” song and a “pissed off” tune were on tap for Wainwright, who wore dark glasses, he said, in tribute to Ono’s own face-shielding specs. The bittersweet, timeless “I’m Going Away Smiling” was one Wainwright said always made him cry, and was beautifully intimate with Perkins on cello, cinematic without being maudlin. Ono’s original recording, from 2009’s Between My Head and the Sky, also featured Honda, while a fan-beloved cover of the song by Iggy Pop in 2012 confirms its sumptuous composition. Equally well-crafted is “What a Bastard the World Is,” a sad turned mad, powerfully human narrative with 1973 lyrics — “And all of us live under the mercy of male society / Thinking that their want is our need” — that regrettably still resonate.

Rufus Wainwright

Bikini Kill’s Hanna, hair piled high, fist in the air, introduced the final number culled from Ono’s large, disparate catalog, commenting on the “roller coaster of emotions” invoked by the evening’s song choices. The predominantly female all-star ensemble created a joyous assemblage onstage to perform “Woman Power,” first released in 1973. As a singer, Ono’s vocal approach and tone may not be traditionally crowd-pleasing, but her wishes and hopes for humanity have resonated across the decades. As Hanna, Tucker, and company sang Ono’s lyrics — “You may be the president now/You may still be a man /But you must also be a human /So open up and join us in living” — the sold-out crowd was on board, though not as fervent in a hands-raised, fist-thrusting unity as one might hope for, given the intent and clear follow-through of Ono’s life and art.

Still, as the audience streamed out of the concert courtyard, earlier words from Finom lingered. The duo were among the most instructive in their stage banter — a quality Ono surely would appreciate — reminding the audience to “celebrate the creative courage” of the evening’s honoree, and encouraging the throng to “Channel your inner Yoko!” As the performers hugged onstage, positivity and connectivity were decidedly in the air. Ono, likely asleep across the country New York, would have been proud.