Story of the Song: He’s So Fine by The Chiffons

From The Independent archive: Robert Webb on a finger-snapping No 1 that landed George Harrison in trouble

The group’s song was rejected by Capitol before becoming a US No 1 (Pictorial Press/Alamy)

"He’s So Fine" is as well known for its association with George Harrison as it is for its, finger-snapping "doolang" opener. In 1971, the song’s publishers, Bright Tunes, issued what became one of rock’s most notorious lawsuits when they alleged that the former Beatle’s "My Sweet Lord" borrowed from the Sixties classic. Harrison denied that it was a deliberate steal but, in 1976, he was found guilty of "unconscious plagiarism" and ordered to pay $587,000 in royalty compensation. He couldn’t deny he knew, the song: it had been a hit in April 1963, the week "From Me to You" landed on the charts.

It was written in 1962 by a struggling songwriter, Ronnie Mack. One lunchtime, Mack overheard four schoolgirls singing in the Bronx. He invited Judy Craig, Patricia Bennett, Sylvia Peterson and Barbara Lee to run through some of his compositions. With the songs in his pocket, he eventually went to the vocal-group-turned- producers The Tokens. Mack brought in the four girls he’d discovered, who by now had christened themselves The Chiffons. The former Token, Jay Siegal, liked what he heard and took them down to Capitol studios, where they cut "He’s So Fine". The "doolang"s were in the background until an engineer with the appropriate name of Johnny Cue suggested them as the introduction.

Capitol rejected the song and it did the rounds until it was picked up by an independent, Laurie Records. Two months later the record was the Billboard No 1 and Mack, at 25, was dying of Hodgkin’s disease. Much later, Harrison wrote "This Song" about the lawsuit.