Led by Harrison's acoustic guitar, the track features a Moog synthesiser, which he had introduced to the band's sound after acquiring an early model of the instrument in California.

Combined with his other contribution to Abbey Road, "Something", it gained for Harrison the level of recognition as a songwriter previously reserved for his bandmates John Lennon and Paul McCartney.

[4] Writing in Oz magazine at the end of the year, Barry Miles commented on the "isolated life" of the individual Beatles, with "George strangely upset by his bust, uncertain about his friends but singing Hare Krishna.

The Greenwich data also show that February and March were much colder than the norm for the 1960s, which would account for Harrison's reference to a "long, cold, lonely winter".

[10] In his 1969 interview with reporter David Wigg for the BBC Radio 1 series Scene and Heard, subsequently included on the 1976 album The Beatles Tapes,[11] Harrison recalled that, due to the many business meetings, he had not played guitar for a couple of weeks, "And the first thing that came out was that song.

[15] The lyric's affirmation of life through the natural occurrence of the sun was in keeping with a contemporary trend, following examples such as "Good Morning Starshine" and "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" from the popular musical Hair.

[32] The mixing session on 20 August 1969, when the band oversaw the creation of the master tape for Abbey Road, marked the last time that all four Beatles were together in the recording studio.

[37][38][39] According to author Alan Clayson, Harrison's two Abbey Road compositions received "the most widespread syndication" of all the tracks on the album, partly through the number of cover versions they attracted.

[43] In 1973, "Here Comes the Sun" and "Something" were included on the double album The Beatles 1967–1970,[44] giving Harrison half the quota of songs representing Abbey Road on the compilation.

[54] In the context of the late 1960s, according to cultural commentator Steven D. Stark, the song's "promise of a new dawn after a lonely winter caught the wearied sensibility of the counterculture".

[56] Time magazine described it as a "dawn-flecked prelude" to the side-two medley, which the reviewer deemed "a kind of odyssey from innocence to experience", and said that Harrison had "achieve[d] a new confidence in his own musical personality" on Abbey Road.

[57] Lon Goddard of Record Mirror described "Here Comes the Sun" as his "pet track", adding: "Nice string picking backs it as the vocals approach Beach Boys or Vanity Fare.

"[58] Writing for Rolling Stone in 2002, Mikal Gilmore likened the song to the McCartney-written "Let It Be" and Lennon's solo hit "Imagine", as Harrison's "graceful anthem of hope amid difficult realities".

[59] In the same publication, Greg Kot described it as "simpler, but just as intoxicating [as 'Something']" and said that "Harrison's acoustic-guitar intro is a song in itself, its warmth and fragility presaging the guarded optimism of the lyric.

[68] Among reviews of the Concert for Bangladesh live album, Ed Kelleher of Circus described the rendition as "outstanding",[69] while Rolling Stone's Jon Landau cited it as the best example of Harrison's "capacity for pacing and timing" in his organisation of the show, as the low-key performance provided an effective change of mood after Leon Russell's songs and before Bob Dylan's arrival on stage.

[77][nb 4] "Here Comes the Sun" was included on the Beatles' 2006 remix album Love,[80][81] which was created for the Cirque du Soleil stage show of the same name.

The initial success of the campaign, according to author Nicholas Schaffner, was a "triumph for the counterculture's attempt to wield power via conventional electoral politics".

[86] In 1977, astronomer and science populariser Carl Sagan attempted to have "Here Comes the Sun" included on a disc of music accompanying the Voyager space mission.

Writing in his book Murmurs of Earth, Sagan recalls that the Beatles favoured the idea, but "[they] did not own the copyright, and the legal status of the piece seemed too murky to risk.

[95][nb 6] In 2004, Mike Love of the Beach Boys wrote "Pisces Brothers" as a tribute to Harrison and their shared experiences in India,[97] and referenced the song in his closing line "Little darlin', here comes the sun".

[102][103] The performance was accompanied by sixteen dhol drummers and, in sociologist Rodanthi Tzanelli's description, given the struggles that inspired Harrison to write the song, it suitably conveyed the leisure and labour themes of Olympic competition.

"[105][106] That same year, British novelist David Mitchell quoted the lyrics to "Here Comes the Sun" in From Me Flows What You Call Time, a novella that will remain unpublished until 2114.

Pinnock added, "Musically ... he seems to make sense in our anxious times: the most played Beatles song on streaming services, by a country mile, is Here Comes The Sun.

[118] Following the singer's death in 2013, Wook Kim of Time described the track as a "wonderful mid-tempo interpretation" and included it among Havens' six "essential performances".

[123][nb 9] Jon Dennis of The Guardian includes a 1972 recording by Charles Wright – the former leader of the soul/funk Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band – as one of the ten best cover versions of any Beatles song.

[125] In 1976, "Here Comes the Sun" was covered by the British rock band Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel, and released as the lead single from their fifth studio album, Love's a Prima Donna.

[130] The single's success coincided with an unusually hot British summer[40] and a wave of nostalgia for the Beatles, as EMI was contractually free to promote and repackage their music without the former band members' agreement.

[77] Cover versions have also appeared in feature films such as The Parent Trap – which includes a scene referencing the Abbey Road sleeve photo – I Am Sam, Bee Movie and Imagine That.

[136] On 29 November 2002, Joe Brown performed the song at the Concert for George tribute,[49] which was organised by Clapton and held at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

[144] In 2021, Jon Bon Jovi performed an acoustic rendition of "Here Comes the Sun" as part of the Celebrating America special during the inauguration of President Joe Biden.