Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/ UMe
Apple Corps Ltd./Capitol/ UMeIf you’re a Beatles fan, take a moment during your festivities this Thursday to give thanks for the band’s classic self-titled double album, a.k.a. The White Album, which is celebrating its 50th birthday. Released on November 22, 1968, the eclectic 30-track collection went on to spend nine weeks at #1 on the Billboard 200 chart.
Beatles historian Bruce Spizer tells ABC Radio that following the innovative Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the Fab Four delivered an even more diverse set of songs with The White Album.
“When you think about it, this was like Sgt. Pepper on steroids, as far as different genres of music,” Spizer notes.
“You open up with ‘Back in the U.S.S.R.,’ which is a rock ‘n’ roll song in the Chuck Berry vein,” he points out. “And then you go into ‘Dear Prudence,’ which is this wonderful acoustic guitar song…You have ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’ [which you could call] calypso or reggae or ska.”
“Beautiful ballads such as ‘Julia.’ Heavy metal rock ‘n’ roll such as ‘Helter Skelter,'” he continues. “A lush symphonic song, ‘Good Night’…[And an] experimental sound collage with ‘Revolution 9.'”
In contrast to Sgt. Pepper, which found the group immersed in studio experimentation, Spizer says The White Album “was more The Beatles being a band, [focusing on] ‘two guitars, bass and drums’ basics.” (AUDIO IS ABC 1-ON-1)
While John Lennon and Paul McCartney continued to dominate The Beatles’ songwriting, George Harrison made major contributions to The White Album, most notably with “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” which features a memorable guitar solo by Eric Clapton.
Fiftieth anniversary reissues of The White Album are available now, including a seven-disc Super Deluxe edition boasting three CDs of studio outtakes, a CD of demos, a Blu-ray audio disc and more.
Here’s The White Album‘s original track list:
Side One
“Back in the U.S.S.R.”
“Dear Prudence”
“Glass Onion”
“Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da”
“Wild Honey Pie”
“The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill”
“While My Guitar Gently Weeps”
“Happiness Is a Warm Gun”
Side Two
“Martha My Dear”
“I’m So Tired”
“Blackbird”
“Piggies”
“Rocky Raccoon”
“Don’t Pass Me By”
“Why Don’t We Do It in the Road?”
“I Will”
“Julia”
Side Three
“Birthday”
“Yer Blues”
“Mother Nature’s Son”
“Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey”
“Sexy Sadie”
“Helter Skelter”
“Long, Long, Long”
Side Four
“Revolution I”
“Honey Pie”
“Savoy Truffle”
“Cry Baby Cry”
“Revolution 9”
“Good Night”
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