An anthemic ballad and one of Harrison's most celebrated compositions, "Isn't It a Pity" has been described as the emotional and musical centrepiece of All Things Must Pass[1] and "a poignant reflection on The Beatles' coarse ending".

Other musicians on the recording include Ringo Starr, Billy Preston, Gary Wright and the band Badfinger, while the reprise version features Eric Clapton on lead guitar.

While no longer the "really tight" social unit they had been throughout the chaos of Beatlemania[3] – or the "four-headed monster", as Mick Jagger famously called them[4][5] – the individual Beatles were still bonded by genuine friendship during their final, troubled years as a band,[6] even if it was now more of a case of being locked together at a deep psychological level after such a sustained period of heightened experience.

[8] When the band finally split, in April 1970 – a "terrible surprise" for the outside world, in the words of author Mark Hertsgaard, "like the sudden death of a beloved young uncle"[9] – even the traditionally most disillusioned Beatle, George Harrison, suffered a mild bereavement.

[37] Eric Clapton's lead guitar fills, phased piano from Tony Ashton, and John Barham-arranged woodwinds dominate Version Two,[37] which is also more in keeping with the Beatles' earlier attempts on the track; as with "Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp", it features extensive use of the Leslie speaker sound so familiar from the band's Abbey Road album.

[37][38] It is also the most extreme example of Harrison's stated intention to allow some of the songs on All Things Must Pass to run longer and feature instrumentation to a greater degree than had been possible within the confines of the more pop-oriented Beatles approach to recording.

[22][nb 2] "Isn't It a Pity" (Version One, in its All Things Must Pass context) starts small and builds,[40] and reflects Harrison and Barham's interest in incorporating orchestration into the album's rock sound.

"[49] "Isn't It a Pity" provided a showcase for Harrison's newly adopted slide guitar style, which incorporated aspects of Indian music, particularly in its evocation of a sarod,[50] and the Western blues tradition.

[51] Inglis writes that the effect of Harrison's "elaborate patterns" on slide guitar is to "counterbalance the underlying atmosphere of pessimism with shafts of beauty", similar to the "notes of light and dark" provided by Pete Drake's pedal steel on the song "All Things Must Pass".

[52] Author Simon Leng comments on the similarity of Harrison and Barham's combined musical counterbalance in the first instrumental break with elements of Indian raga, in the number of swaras (tones) in both ascending and descending scales.

[25] Only at the one-minute mark, at the start of verse two, does the rhythm section come in, after which the instruments begin to "break out of their metronomic straitjacket to attain an almost ecstatic release", as Beatles Forever author Nicholas Schaffner put it in 1977.

[29][40] The long coda sees what Schaffner termed the "pseudo-symphonic tension" burst into a frenzy of brass and timpani, further slide guitar soloing, and the "What a pity" mantra joined by "Hey Jude"-style "Na-na-na-na" chorus.

[56] "Isn't It a Pity" featured the largest line-up of musicians found on the album – including three or four keyboard players, a trio of extra rhythm guitarists, the orchestral strings, brass and tympani, and a male choir.

[80] Allan Steckler, who ran the US operation under Apple manager Allen Klein,[81] was "stunned" by the quality of Harrison's material and identified "Isn't It a Pity", "My Sweet Lord" and "What Is Life" as the album's three hit singles.

[93] "Isn't It a Pity" was issued on All Things Must Pass as the final track on side one of the triple LP, providing, in biographer Elliot Huntley's words, an "elegiac, plaintive song of reconciliation" after the angry "Wah-Wah".

[100][101] Gerson also lauded the album's production[101][102] and described "Isn't It a Pity" as a "lament ... whose beginning is the broken thirds of John's 'I Am the Walrus' and whose end is the decadent, exultant last half of Paul's 'Hey Jude'".

[105] Mike Gormley of the Detroit Free Press wrote that the two sides typified the "drifting feeling" evoked by the album, which he described as "a beautiful, very deep set of songs" with lyrics that impart "a lot but aren't fancy".

[131][nb 12] In his review of the super deluxe box set, Tom Pinnock of Uncut welcomed the new mix of the original album, citing the clarity afforded the "acoustic guitar picking, timpani rolls and low, buzzing synth" on "Isn't It a Pity".

"[34] In his book 1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die, Tom Moon names it as one of the album's three "key tracks", saying that with All Things Must Pass, Harrison approached the Beatles' ignominious break-up philosophically and thereby "attains (and sustains) a state of radiant grace".

[136] Simon Leng recognises the song as musically "sumptuous" and praises Harrison's melody and "unique" use of notes beyond the key signature, as well as John Barham's "evocative, suspended orchestration".

[20] Elliot Huntley rues the song's enforced period in hibernation, saying: "[It] simply beggars belief that the track was rejected by Martin, Lennon and McCartney – three men whose reputations rested on their ability to spot a good tune when they heard one.

"[143] Huntley views "Isn't It a Pity" as worthy of "fully fledged standard" status, with Barham's "soaring" strings and Harrison's "sublime" slide guitar combining to take the song "into the heavens, where it stays".

[144][nb 14] Music historian Andrew Grant Jackson credits its droning backing vocal arrangement as the inspiration for "generations of indie rockers", especially producer Mitch Easter in his work on "Pilgrimage" and other songs from R.E.M.

[54][nb 15] Will Hodgkinson of The Times describes "Isn't It a Pity" as "simply one of the best songs in history" while commenting that, at its best, Harrison's music "displayed an unobtrusive kind of wisdom and real emotional maturity".

[citation needed] In 2019, financial commentator J. Mulraj of The Hindu wrote that, in an international climate of distrust fostered by the Military–industrial complex, oil prices and irresponsible banking practices, "World leaders should listen to George Harrison's song.

[163] Ireland's Eurovision Song Contest 1970 winner, Dana, recorded a rendition that author Alan Clayson views as "more poignant" than Harrison's or Monro's, given the political upheaval gripping Ulster at the time.

[165] Jayson Greene of Pitchfork writes that Simone's reading "turns the song into a small dead planet with herself as the only inhabitant", and he cites this as an example of how Harrison's songwriting appealed to soul and jazz artists and invited fresh interpretations.

[170] Cowboy Junkies performed "Isn't It a Pity" on tour in 2004 and it was one of two songs that informed their subsequent album Early 21st Century Blues, the theme of which they described as "war, violence, fear, greed, ignorance, or loss".

[176] A version by Jonathan Wilson and Graham Nash appeared on Harrison Covered,[177] a tribute CD accompanying the November 2011 issue of Mojo and coinciding with the release of Scorsese's Living in the Material World documentary.

[184] The video for the track opens with footage from Frampton's farewell US tour,[184] which he undertook in the knowledge that the degenerative effects of his inclusion body myositis (IBM) would limit his ability to play in the coming years;[185] it then shows him acclimatising to life under lockdown with the cancellation of his 2020 concert itinerary, struggling with boredom at home, and Zooming with family members.