was one of 30 or more tracks that Harrison recorded for his All Things Must Pass triple album. He was initially reluctant to record the song, for fear of committing himself to such an overt religious message. In I, Me, Mine, he states: "I was sticking my neck out on the chopping block because now I would have to live up to something, but at the same time I thought 'Nobody's saying it; I wish somebody else was doing it. Principal recording took place at EMI Studios (now Abbey Road Studios) in London, with Phil Spector co-producing the sessions. Phil McDonald was the recording engineer for the basic track. It was taped on 28 May, the first day of formal recording for All Things Must Pass, after "Wah-Wah". Having assembled a large cast of backing musicians for the sessions, Harrison initially recorded five takes of "My Sweet Lord" with just acoustic guitars and harmonium before changing to a full band arrangement. The line-up of musicians on the song has been hard to ascertain due to the lack of available studio documentation and conflicting recollections over the ensuing decades. The musicians were requested by Harrison and booked by former Beatles roadie Mal Evans, acting in a role that Beatles scholar Kenneth Womack likens to a stage manager for the project. According to Womack and his co-author Jason Kruppa, Evans' diaries from the period provide the first reliable record of the participants at the All Things Must Pass sessions, since Evans paid the musicians and had to justify this expenditure to Apple. Harrison said that the musicians included "about five" acoustic guitarists, Ringo Starr and Jim Gordon on drums, two piano players and a bassist. Evans' diary entry for 28 May lists the players on "My Sweet Lord" as Harrison, Eric Clapton and Badfinger guitarists Pete Ham and Joey Molland, all on acoustic guitars; Gary Brooker on piano; Bobby Whitlock on harmonium; Klaus Voormann on bass; Starr on drums; and Alan White on tambourine. Harrison recalled working hard with the other acoustic guitarists "to get them all to play exactly the same rhythm so it just sounded perfectly in sync". To achieve the resonant guitar sound on this and other All Things Must Pass tracks, Molland said that he and his bandmates were partitioned off inside a plywood structure. McDonald put what he terms a "half soundproof box" around Harrison, to help