Don't Let Me Wait Too Long

Music critics have traditionally viewed "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" as a highlight of the Material World album, praising its pop qualities and production, with some considering the song worthy of hit status.

Harrison wrote and recorded "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" during a period marked by his heightened devotion to Hindu spirituality, which coincided with marital problems with his first wife, Pattie Boyd, and the financial complications affecting his Bangladesh aid project.

Although produced by Harrison alone, the recording employs aspects of the Wall of Sound production synonymous with his former collaborator Phil Spector – through the use of reverb, two drummers and multiple acoustic rhythm guitar parts.

[13] In February 1972, Harrison and Boyd were injured in an automobile accident in England,[14][15] after which, author Alan Clayson writes, "her recovery was impaired by George's pounding on a drum-kit that he'd set up in the next room.

[17] While in Portugal, Harrison stayed with his musician friend Gary Wright, who, Huntley suggests, "play[ed] the diplomat" by telling the press:[18] "He's writing lots of new things and he seems to be having a good time ...

"[7] In his book The Words and Music of George Harrison, Ian Inglis writes that "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" incorporates many of the elements of pop composition pioneered during the early 1960s at New York's Brill Building,[19] where songwriters such as Barry Mann, Carole King and Gerry Goffin began their careers.

[20][21] Inglis lists these "stock motifs" as "a repetitive and attractive melody", "a stereotypical choice of language", "the familiar topic of lost, or unrequited, love" and "the conventional form of address from a man to a woman, in the persistent use of 'baby'".

[24] In reference to a lyric in the verses,[22] Clayson suggests: "Although 'Don't Let Me Wait Too Long' betrayed that George's sublimation of lust [in favour of an ascetic path] was by no means total, its consummation was, nonetheless, 'like it came from above'.

[44] Aside from Harrison on acoustic guitars, the musicians on the basic track for "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" were Nicky Hopkins (piano), Wright (keyboards), Voormann (bass), and Ringo Starr and Jim Keltner (both on drums).

[6] Despite Spector's absence, the song's production incorporates aspects of his signature Wall of Sound,[59] through the use of reverberation, multiple drummers and layers of rhythm instruments such as acoustic guitars and keyboards.

[89] Author Andrew Grant Jackson suggests that the reason for the cancellation was due to "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" having a similar sound to "When I'm Dead and Gone", a 1970 hit song by McGuinness Flint.

[94] In Melody Maker, Michael Watts wrote of the song's "Spector touches", including "a crashing two-beat on piano and a great surge of drums, straight from [the Ronettes'] 'Be My Baby'".

[95] While otherwise lamenting the overt religiosity of the album,[96] Tony Tyler of the NME identified "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" as the best track, describing it as "bright and hopeful" with a "memorable melody to commend it".

"[99] Among commentators in the 21st century, authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter describe "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" as "a marvelous track" and "a prime piece of pop songwriting",[57] and AllMusic's Bruce Eder praises its "delectable acoustic rhythm guitar" and "great beat".

[100] John Metzger of The Music Box writes of the track's "brightly colored radiance" being a "prime example" of how Harrison successfully mixed elements of Spector and Martin's individual styles on Material World.

[101] While considering the album's production an improvement on All Things Must Pass, Blogcritics writer Chaz Lipp views the "soaring 'Don't Let Me Wait Too Long'" as a song that "rank[s] right alongside Harrison's best work".

[105] Reviewing the 2014 reissue of Harrison's Apple catalogue, for Classic Rock, Paul Trynka writes that Living in the Material Word "sparkles with many gems", and adds: "but it's the more restrained tracks – Don't Let Me Wait Too Long, Who Can See It – that entrance: gorgeous pop songs, all the more forceful for their restraint.

"[108] Nick DeRiso, co-founder of the music website Something Else!, includes "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" among the highlights of Harrison's solo career on Apple Records, and terms it "[a] masterpiece of coiled anticipation".