George Harrison's Favorite Candy Sparked A Wild Beatles Concert Trend

While he will forever remain a music icon and part of the legendary Beatles, George Harrison is, perhaps, the most subtle of the quartet of musicians. While John Lennon and Paul McCartney were wailing on lead vocals and writing most of the band's songs, and Ringo Starr was jamming on the drums, Harrison played lead guitar and stood somewhat apart, often being referred to as "the quiet Beatle." But this didn't mean that he was any less talented than the others, in fact, it was Harrison who wrote the acclaimed "Here Comes the Sun" on the album "Abbey Road." And Beatles fans certainly didn't love him any less. In fact, when his American fans learned that Harrison loved the British sweet called Jelly Babies, they literally showered him with the confection...sort of.

Because they couldn't find actual Jelly Babies in America at the time, Beatles fans reached for what they thought was the next best thing: jelly beans. At concerts, they began to throw this popular candy on stage, pelting the band mates from all directions (and if you know how jelly beans are made, the hard-coated shell probably didn't feel great). Wouldn't one of these gummy bear brands have been a better choice? Of course, Harrison also received plenty of the Jelly Babies candies in the mail from fans, which was far less perilous for the Fab Four.

George Harrison's beloved Jelly Babies are sweet, chewy, squishy, fruity candies that come in strawberry, orange, lemon, lime black currant, and raspberry flavors. They are shaped like — you guessed it — chubby little babies. They were originally supposed to be bear-shaped, but the original molds turned out candies that looked uncannily like tiny humans. Their story begins in 1864 when an Austrian candy maker developed them and gave them the name Unclaimed Babies. It wasn't until 1918, though, when the candies were re-branded and gained much more attention.

By this time, an English company called Bassett had taken over the candies and, at the end of World War I, renamed them "Peace Babies" in honor of the war's end. They were successful until World War II broke out and manufacturing was forced to stop. By 1953, Bassett picked them right back up, re-branding them again with their current name of Jelly Babies. A couple of pop culture events helped increase awareness of the candy: a reference to it on the British television show, "Doctor Who," and, of course, Harrison's name drop. This wasn't the only food he helped push into notoriety; he liked Marmite and cheese sandwiches so much, it ended up in the 2021 docuseries, "The Beatles: Get Back."