"Crackerbox Palace" is the ninth track on

George Harrison George Harrison (25 February 1943 – 29 November 2001) was an English musician and singer-songwriter who achieved international fame as the lead guitarist of the Beatles. Sometimes called "the quiet Beatle", Harrison embraced Indian c ...

's 1976 album, ''

Thirty Three & 1/3 ''Thirty Three & ⅓'' (stylised as ''Thirty Three & 1/ॐ'' on the album cover) is the seventh studio album by English musician George Harrison, released in November 1976. It was Harrison's first album release on his Dark Horse record label, t ...

''. The song was released as the second single from the album and reached number 19 in the American pop charts.

History

The song was inspired by Harrison's

serendipitous Serendipity is an unplanned fortunate discovery. Serendipity is a common occurrence throughout the history of product invention and scientific discovery. Etymology The first noted use of "serendipity" was by Horace Walpole on 28 January 1754. I ...

meeting with George Greif. At the 1975 Midem Music Festival, Harrison remarked to Greif that he resembled the late comedian

Lord Buckley Lord Richard Buckley (born Richard Myrle Buckley; April 5, 1906 – November 12, 1960) was an American stand-up comedian and recording artist, who in the 1940s and 1950s created a character that was, according to ''The New York Times'', "an unl ...

, whom Harrison had admired for many years. Greif, who had been Buckley's manager, invited Harrison to Buckley's old Los Angeles home, "Crackerbox Palace". Thinking that the phrase had the makings of a song, Harrison jotted the words "Crackerbox Palace" down on a cigarette pack, and later wrote the song. The song includes references to Greif ("I met a Mr. Greif") and to Lord Buckley ("know that the Lord is well and inside of you"). ("Lord" could be a double entendre referring as well to either the Lord God or Lord Krishna.) Harrison says "It's twoo, it's twoo" during an instrumental break, a line said by

Madeline Kahn Madeline Gail Kahn (''née'' Wolfson; September 29, 1942 – December 3, 1999) was an American actress, comedian and singer, known for comedic roles in films directed by Peter Bogdanovich and Mel Brooks, including '' What's Up, Doc?'' (1972), ' ...

's German seductress-for-hire character Lili Von Shtupp in the 1974

Mel Brooks Mel Brooks (born Melvin James Kaminsky; June 28, 1926) is an American actor, comedian and filmmaker. With a career spanning over seven decades, he is known as a writer and director of a variety of successful broad farces and parodies. He began ...

comedy ''

Blazing Saddles ''Blazing Saddles'' is a 1974 American satirical western black comedy film directed by Mel Brooks, who also wrote the screenplay with Andrew Bergman, Richard Pryor, Norman Steinberg, and Alan Uger. The film stars Cleavon Little and Gene Wilde ...

''.

Video

A whimsical music video accompanied the single which was first shown on 20 November 1976 episode of ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves ...

''. Directed by

Monty Python Monty Python (also collectively known as the Pythons) were a British comedy troupe who created the sketch comedy television show ''Monty Python's Flying Circus'', which first aired on the BBC in 1969. Forty-five episodes were made over fou ...

Eric Idle Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943) is an English actor, comedian, musician and writer. Idle was a member of the British surreal comedy group Monty Python and the parody rock band The Rutles, and is the writer of the music and lyrics for the Broad ...

(who had a brief cameo in the video), the film featured Harrison,

Neil Innes Neil James Innes (; 9 December 1944 – 29 December 2019) was an English writer, comedian and musician. He first came to prominence in the pioneering comedy rock group Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and later became a frequent collaborator with the M ...

(as the carriage-pushing nanny/mother, a bathrobe-clad man with a duck on his head, and as a church authority), Harrison's future wife Olivia Arias, and various other friends, in an array of wild costumes. The gnomes of Friar Park are also prominent. The film was shot in and around the grounds of Harrison's home,

Friar Park Friar Park is a Victorian neo-Gothic mansion in Henley-on-Thames, England, built in 1889. It was originally owned by eccentric lawyer Sir Frank Crisp and purchased in January 1970 by English rock musician and former Beatle George Harrison. ...

, which Harrison had nicknamed "Crackerbox Palace" after Lord Buckley's home.

Personnel

– vocals,

slide guitar Slide guitar is a technique for playing the guitar that is often used in blues music. It involves playing a guitar while holding a hard object (a slide) against the strings, creating the opportunity for glissando effects and deep vibratos t ...

s, acoustic guitar,

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

, handclaps, backing vocals * Tom Scott – lyricon, saxophones *

Richard Tee Richard Edward Tee (born Richard Edward Ten Ryk; November 24, 1943 – July 21, 1993) was an American pianist, studio musician, singer and arranger, who had several hundred studio credits and played on such notable hits as "In Your Eyes", " Sl ...

– keyboards *

Willie Weeks Willie Weeks (born August 5, 1947) is an American bass guitarist. He has gained fame performing with famous musicians in a wide variety of genres. He has been one of the most in-demand session musicians throughout his career. Weeks has also ...

– bass guitar *

Alvin Taylor Alvin Taylor (born March 26, 1953) is an American drummer, producer and musical director, who is best known for his work with Elton John, Eric Burdon, George Harrison, Billy Preston, and Bob Welch. Early life and career Alvin Taylor start ...

– drums *

Emil Richards Emil Richards (born Emilio Joseph Radocchia; September 2, 1932 – December 13, 2019) was an American vibraphonist and percussionist. Biography Musician Richards began playing the xylophone aged six. In High School, he performed with the Hartf ...

–

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

Reception

Cash Box ''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an onli ...

'' said that "Harrison's melodic guitar work is here complemented by shimmering lines from the synthesized sax of Tom Scott, whose influence in the production is strongly felt." ''

Record World ''Record World'' magazine was one of the three main music industry trade magazines in the United States, along with '' Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 under the name ''Music Vendor'', but in 1964 it was changed to ''Record W ...

'' said that "a dreamy quality pervades the song and provides the hook that could send it to the top." ''

Ultimate Classic Rock Townsquare Media, Inc. (formerly Regent Communications until 2010) is an American radio network and media company based in Purchase, New York. The company started in radio and expanded into digital media toward the end of the 2000s, starting wi ...

'' critic Nick DeRiso rates it as the best song on ''Thirty-Three & 1/3'', calling it an "incredibly fun Top 20 hit".

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

External links

* {{authority control George Harrison songs 1976 songs 1977 singles Songs written by George Harrison Song recordings produced by George Harrison Music published by Oops Publishing and Ganga Publishing, B.V. Dark Horse Records singles