THE BEATLES

'White Album'

On this day in music history: December 28, 1968 - “The Beatles (aka "The White Album”)“, the ninth album by The Beatles hits #1 on the Billboard Top 200 for 9 weeks (non-consecutive). Produced by George Martin, it is recorded at Abbey Road Studios and Trident Studios in London from May - October 1968. Following the psychedelic influenced "Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” and “Magical Mystery Tour”, The Beatles begin the musical transition back to their rock & roll roots. The majority of the songs are written during the bands’ trip to India to study Transcendental Meditation with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Sessions are often tense as squabbling between the four begin to drive them apart, with Ringo Starr actually quitting the band temporarily and main recording engineer Geoff Emerick also walking out on the project. Though the album is self-titled, implying it is a full group effort, the opposite is actually true with the band members acting almost like side musicians for the other three, depending on whose song is being recorded. The thirty track double LP set comes to be regarded as one of The Beatles greatest and most musically diverse works. The album is also their last to be issued with separate mono and stereo mixes. The mono version is not issued in the US until 2009 when it is included in “The Beatles In Mono” CD box set. The set also comes packaged with a poster featuring a photo collage on one side and song lyrics printed on the other side, as well as four individual portraits of the band members*. In September of 2014, the mono version of the album is released in the US on vinyl for the first time, making it the first time “The White Album” has been available in that configuration since being briefly reissued in the UK in 1982. “The Beatles” is certified 19x Platinum in the US by the RIAA.

thanks to the most excellent Jeff Harris' blog 'Behind The Grooves

*Much as Sgt Pepper was designed by Peter Blake and his wife Jan Howarth, apparently at the invite of Paul who had (has) a strong interest in the visual arts, The 'White Album' was the design of British pop artist senior figure Richard Hamilton who came up with the white blank cover apart from the raised number after discussing it with the Beatles and opting for something in stark contrast to the psychedelia of Sgt Pepper and a nod to conceptual art and the inside collage poster featuring notorious references to the drug busts of the Beatles and Stones having a collage that includes pictures of the Mars bar (sic) and several other esoteric references (Rizla papers etc) The individual portraits shown on the inside sleeve in black & white were presented inside as full colour prints by John Kelly. The numbering suggests limited edition and Hamilton thought it ironic if it could be done to number something that would be made in the millions. The edition of the first run ran to two million. Lennon owned the one numbered 0001 allegedly because he "shouted the loudest" according to Paul.