THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE: Is George Harrison the...

THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE: Is George Harrison the most significant living figure in the pop world?

Or is it just the best name that Billboard magazine could get to come on its television awards show this week to accept the award?

That’s what some music business insiders were asking after Harrison was named--over such obvious candidates as Paul McCartney, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, James Brown, et al.--as the first winner of the magazine’s new Century Award last week, an award aimed at saluting the “uncommon excellence of a still unfolding body of work.”

Billboard editor Timothy White said the choice was strictly his and it doesn’t have anything to do with the fact that Harrison is appearing on the Billboard telecast Wednesday to accept it.

“I want Billboard to focus on people of special merit that aren’t omnipresent in people’s minds,” he says. “There are artists in the rock pantheon that people would think of first, but that’s not the idea of the award. It’s meant to engender a kind of dynamic reassessment of an artist’s career.”