The contributing musicians include Steve Winwood, Neil Larsen, Willie Weeks and Andy Newmark, with Eric Clapton and Gary Wright making guest appearances.

[9][10] As a rare artistic project during that time,[11] Harrison assisted comedian Eric Idle in developing his Beatles satire, the Rutles, into the 1978 TV film All You Need Is Cash.

[12] After a chance meeting with representatives from Genesis Publications at a hotel near Heathrow Airport in July 1977,[13] he also began compiling his song manuscripts for a limited edition leather-bound book, leading to his 1980 autobiography I, Me, Mine.

[31][32] He wrote "If You Believe", incorporating musical and lyrical elements familiar from All Things Must Pass,[33] with American musician Gary Wright on New Year's Day 1978 at Friar Park.

[34] Harrison then met with Warner's staff producers Lenny Waronker, Russ Titelman and Ted Templeman in Los Angeles to discuss the new album and play them demos of his latest songs.

[44] In addition to revisiting "Not Guilty", a song he had first recorded with the Beatles in 1968,[45] Harrison wrote "Here Comes the Moon" as a lyrical successor to his 1969 Abbey Road composition "Here Comes the Sun".

[51] Harrison said the melody originated from him playing the horn line from the All Things Must Pass track "Run of the Mill" on acoustic guitar, after which he sought to convey the atmosphere around him: "the wind, the cool breeze blowing, the palm trees, the new moon rising".

He recognised Harrison's "fluid approach" in the guitar parts on "Dark Sweet Lady", "Love Comes to Everyone" and "Blow Away" as a legacy of his immersion in Indian music.

Leng says that the participation of these two English musicians reflected the apparent waning of American musical influences on Harrison, as suggested by the minimal presence of horns, previously a staple of the artist's sound since 1970.

[73] At the end of the track, the recording was subjected to heavy varispeeding, creating dramatic changes in pitch;[74] Leng views the song as the first example of Harrison evoking Monty Python in his music.

[78] That same month, he performed with Bad Company's Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke and Boz Burrell, and Deep Purple members Jon Lord and Ian Paice – as the Pisshole Artists – in the Oxfordshire village of Pishill, near Henley.

[17] In addition to acknowledging Stewart and Lauda's inspiration,[85] a caption under the song's lyrics gave "special thanks" to Scheckter and dedicated "Faster" to the memory of Ronnie Peterson,[82] who had died as a result of an accident at the start of the 1978 Italian Grand Prix.

[98] In early February, Harrison appeared with Michael Jackson as a guest singles reviewer on BBC Radio 1's Roundtable, during which he discussed his year away from music and writing "Blow Away" and "Here Comes the Moon".

[104][nb 9] Harrison's lightheartedness extended to the usual questions about when the Beatles might re-form;[31] the Associated Press photo from the event showed him holding his hands up to his ears in response.

[24][137][nb 11] Billboard featured George Harrison as its "Spotlight" album (meaning "the most outstanding new product of the week's releases") and highlighted "Love Comes to Everyone", "Here Comes the Moon" and "Not Guilty" among the "best cuts".

[138] Rolling Stone's album reviewer, Stephen Holden, deemed it "refreshingly light-hearted"[139] and wrote: "After several highly uneven LPs that saw the audience for his mystic musings dwindle dramatically, Harrison has come up with his finest record since All Things Must Pass.

Thribb said it was an album that "grows in its effect" and highlighted "Love Comes to Everyone", "Blow Away" and "Not Guilty" as songs in which "the chords roll and tumble, the melodies are good to chant, and the lyrics are simple but tell their story.

He recognised "Faster" and "Not Guilty" as examples of Harrison's growth as a songwriter, and identified "melodies of unassuming completeness" in other tracks where "Crafty harmonies and skilfully-layered guitars recall the sun-soaked vistas of [the Beatles]' 'Because' and 'Sun King' on Abbey Road.

"[142] Bob Spitz of The Washington Post praised the album for its "sense of structure", a quality he found lacking in Harrison's four "dreadful" LPs since All Things Must Pass, and said that it re-established him as a "first-rate composer".

[143] Less impressed, People's reviewer found the music "arch-Harrison: lyrically cheery and thematically uplifting" but "so restrained and subdued that the tunes track through a whole side unnoticed and indistinguishable".

[145] According to authors Chip Madinger and Mark Easter, further to the welcome "lightening up" evident on Thirty Three & ⅓ in 1976, Harrison's self-titled album completed his "musical rehabilitation".

[24] Writing in 1981, NME critic Bob Woffinden opined: "George Harrison is his most successful album since All Things Must Pass, and would probably have sold in its millions had it arrived at the beginning rather than the end of the decade."

[54] In their review in the 1981 edition of The Beatles: An Illustrated Record, Roy Carr and Tony Tyler welcomed Harrison's continued avoidance of the "half-baked proselytisation" that they thought had marred his solo work until 1976, saying that it showed he had shed his past insecurities.

The authors added: "To detect this pleasing phenomenon here, the trick is to back away from the musical and lyrical detail (not that this is by any means incompetent or jarring) and allow the totality of the sound ... to wash over one in a series of charmed ripples.

"[146][nb 13] George Harrison actually signaled the start of the musician's retreat into an internal musical dialogue, set amid the woods and gardens of Friar Park.

'"[149] Writing for Goldmine magazine in 2002, Dave Thompson deemed it Harrison's "most natural-sounding album" since All Things Must Pass and an "exquisite" work that reflected changes in the artist's life as profound as those in John Lennon's during the latter's five-year hiatus from recording between 1975 and 1980.

[49] Among reviews of the 2004 reissue, Kit Aiken of Uncut gave George Harrison a rating of four stars out of five, and described it as "a freshly enthused, minor treat – a fulsome acoustic rocker replete with sunshine melodies and gorgeous slide guitar".

[150] PopMatters' Jason Korenkiewicz similarly welcomed the reissue, saying that the album's "languid and addictive" mood conveyed Harrison's humour and a "new found sense of calm and peace that speaks through his ever-emotive guitar".

"[155] On the occasion of the LP's 40th anniversary in 2019, Morgan Enos of Billboard described it as Harrison's "most peaceful album", with songs that showed him "happier than he'd been in years", and where "inner tranquility and outer splendor were one and the same".

Enos added that "The results don't get as much play as agreed-upon classics, such as All Things Must Pass or Cloud Nine, but George Harrison conjures an intoxicating world all its own.