Critical reception
The White Album was highly anticipated, being The Beatles' first full-length collection of new songs since Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967, and it quickly topped the album charts in the UK and US.
Reviews were mostly positive, though some critics were bewildered or vexed by the eclecticism of the songs. In subsequent years, however, it has been regarded as one of the most significant albums of all time.
Sgt Pepper did its thing - it was the album of the decade, of the century maybe. It was very innovative with great songs, it was a real pleasure and I'm glad I was on it, but the White Album ended up a better album for me.
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Contemporary reviews included Tony Palmer in the UK Sunday newspaper The Observer. He wrote: "If there is still any doubt that Lennon and McCartney are the greatest song writers since Schubert, then next Friday - with the publication of the new Beatles double LP - should surely see the last vestiges of cultural snobbery and bourgeois prejudice swept away in a deluge of joyful music making, which only the ignorant will not hear and only the deaf will not acknowledge." The full article was used weeks later for the sleeve notes on the UK release of the Yellow Submarine soundtrack.
In the New York Times, Richard Goldstein described the White Album as a "major success", but his enthusiasm was countered by Nik Cohn, who considered it to be "boring beyond belief" and full of "profound mediocrities".
Writing in the NME, Alan Smith described Revolution 9 as "pretentious" and an example of "idiotic immaturity", although he wrote enthusiastically about "most of the rest" of the album.
George Martin later claimed he had wanted the group to omit their weaker songs and focused instead on producing a solid single-disc release.
I thought we should probably have made a very, very good single album rather than a double. But they insisted. I think it could have been made fantastically good if it had been compressed a bit and condensed. A lot of people I know think it's still the best album they made. I later learnt that by recording all those songs they were getting rid of their contract with EMI more quickly.
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Ringo Starr agreed with the sentiment.
There was a lot of information on the double album, but I agree that we should have put it out as two separate albums: the 'White' and the 'Whiter' albums.
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Despite its faults as a collection, Paul McCartney stands by the album, saying that the wide variety of songs was a major part of its appeal.
I think it was a very good album. It stood up, but it wasn't a pleasant one to make. Then again, sometimes those things work for your art. The fact that it's got so much on it is one of the things that's cool about it. The songs are very varied. I think it's a fine album.I don't remember the reaction. Now I release records and I watch to see who likes it and how it does. But with The Beatles, I can't ever remember scouring the charts to see what number it had come in at. I assume we hoped that people would like it. We just put it out and got on with life. A lot of our friends liked it and that was mainly what we were concerned with. If your mates liked it, the boutiques played it and it was played wherever you went - that was a sign of success for us.
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Chart success
The White Album was released on 22 November in the United Kingdom, five years to the day after the group's second album With The Beatles.
It was the last Beatles album to be released with different mono and stereo mixes. The mono mix was issued only in the UK, with 28 of the songs - the exceptions being Revolution 1 and Revolution 9 - having alternative mono versions. Subsequent Beatles releases in certain countries were released in mono, but these were fold-down versions of the regular stereo mixes.
On 1 December 1968 the album had its UK chart debut at number one, becoming their third album to do so after Help! and Revolver. In total, the album spent 24 weeks on the UK charts before dropping out.
It spent seven weeks at the top of the UK charts, including the entire Christmas period, and was eventually displaced by The Best Of The Seekers on 25 January 1969. The following week it returned to number one for an eighth and final week.
Thereafter it spent a further four weeks in the top 10. The White Album also forced The Beatles' Yellow Submarine soundtrack into the number three position, when it debuted and peaked on the charts on 8 February.
In the United States the White Album debuted at number 11, then reached number two, before finally topping the charts on its third week of release. It spent nine weeks in the top spot, with a total of 155 weeks on the Billboard 200.
According to the Recording Industry Association of America, The Beatles is The Beatles' best-selling album at 19-times platinum, and is the 10th bestselling album of all time in the United States.
No singles were taken from the White Album at the time in the UK or US, although the standalone single Hey Jude/Revolution was recorded during the same sessions. In some countries Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da was issued as a single, although this was a decision made by foreign record companies rather than The Beatles themselves.
When we started, I don't think we thought about whether the White Album would do as well as Sgt Pepper - I don't think we ever really concerned ourselves with the previous record and how many it had sold. In the early Sixties, whoever had a hit single would try to make the next record sound as close to it as possible - but we always tried to make things different. Things were always different, anyway - in just a matter of months we'd changed in so many ways there was no chance of a new record ever being like the previous one.After Sgt Pepper, the new album felt more like a band recording together. There were a lot of tracks where we just played live, and then there were a lot of tracks that we'd recorded and that would need finishing together. There was also a lot more individual stuff and, for the first time, people were accepting that it was individual.
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Related articles:
- US LP release: The Beatles (White Album)
- Recording: Revolution 1
- UK LP release: The Beatles (White Album)
- Demo recordings for the White Album
- I Will
"The Beatles" (white album) became the best selling album in the world (for a double album)
Colonel Salt doesn't like The White Album. No cohesiveness, no one getting along, Revolution 9, Glass Onion, Piggies, Yoko. A real downer record. Second rate. It's like they used up all their good juju on Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour and then a slow slide into decay. Very sad.
How can you call Abbey Road part of the slide into decay? It's one of the greatest albums of all time. In my opinion, so is the White Album and Let It Be. Although I don't like Revolution 9, most people probably agree there, however it is... interesting.
For those four songs that you don't like there's 20 good songs on this double album. The point of this album was to be loose and genuine while sgt. peppers was self-conscious and self-indulgent. Sgt. Peppers had amazing production, but most of the compositions were on the weak side. Revolver and The White album has better songs IMO.
Slide into decay? LOL!!!
There are numerous excellent songs on the White Album.
It is different than the previous albums which was the main quality of the Beatles. Progression.
Magical Mystery Tour is their worst batch of songs in my opinion (still great stuff, it is The Beatles for Christ's sske!). Of course, you can't count that second side of singles and b-sides on Magical Mystery Tour as part of the original e.p.
The White Album would have made a great single disc, but the Beatles did it that way in order to get their recording contract over with sooner.
Why is Paul listed as producer and not John?
Good point. I've added him to the list due to his production of Revolution 9.
I gotta disagree with those that suggest that The White Album should have been cut down to a single album. I think they should have added more songs to the record! They could have left "Not Guilty", a Harrison composition, on the record and they could have put his other songs "Sour Milk Sea" and "Circles" on there as well. The McCartney track "Etcetera" (later recorded by the Black Dyke Mills Band) and the Lennon track "What's the New Mary Jane" could have been left on as well in my opinion! The thing that makes The White Album one of my absolute favorites, and indeed, one of the best albums in history is it's very speratic and bi-polar, if-you-will, nature. It's up and down and back and forth, there's so much on there but everything is completely different. The album successfully never repeates itself.
I don't count myself among those that would reduce the "The Beatles" lp down to one disc but obviously Revolution 9 is it's most disposable track. While it does make for an interesting listen, it's quite indulgent, certainly not musical, and makes me feel the album isn't truly four sides of Beatle content but more like three and three quarters.
Has anyone ever heard of a Beatles White Album having the nude picture of John & Yoko holding a newspaper in front of them on the inside cover? The picture has only their lower half's covered. I have a Korean label double LP that has that picture in it. I had my Brother, who was stationed in Korea at the time, send me albums from the PX as they were only a $1.00 to purchase.
I have read a lot of stories, but never anything about this. I do know that John & Yoko's album, Two Virgins, was released at the same time, with similar pictures.
So I'm wondering, do I have something that is quite rare? I believe the records themselves are produced in Mono.
I was 15 or 16 when the album came out. The album had a nude picture of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It was quickly pulled from the stores and replaced with the white album. It was even said then that whoever bought the original album it would be worth a lot of money.
I think you're getting this confused with Two Virgins.
i've been readin that NICKY HOPKINS who did play on the REVOLUTION single also played on various other songs on the White Album and also on the HEY JUDE single. Someone needs to check on this.
On his site it also says he started playin sessions startin with SPLHCB.
The thing that makes the White Album interesting for me (beyond the incredible music) is that the production techniques are pretty much just as complex as Pepper and Mystery Tour - the songs however are more straight forward.
There's tons of orchestra, horns, weird instruments and mixing tricks, and sound effects on the White Album yet it "appears" to be a simpler album.
Listen to the horns on Revolution 1 - the strings on Piggies or at the end of Glass Onion - elaborate stuff yet used sparingly.
It's very sophisticated rock album
Well said, Robert! And how about the horns on Martha My Dear or the woodwinds on Honey Pie or the messed-up saxes on Savoy Truffle.
Exactly, Eyes, there's a ton of complex yet sparingly used detail on that album.
Almost every track has something on it that makes one think "Wow, that's a little bit more involved than I first realized"
The White Album, as great as it is, may be the most under appreciated album out there - and not just of the Beatles' but in music overall.
Anyone know why it was self-titled?
My biggest beef with this album is that the songs don't sound very "together"-- so many of them sound like a lead singer and his "backing band." Not that there aren't songs on this album that are group efforts!
I know that this was originally going to be titled "A Doll's House" but another band had something similar already. My guess and from what I've read is that to make it contrast Sgt Pepper (with the cover art) that they made a minimalist cover design and to go along with it, they named it after themselves. I don't really know why it's self titled, I more so know why it's not it's original name!
I didn't say anything about the cover art-- I was talking about the songs!
I saw a video of John and Yoko staring into each others eyes during the white album sessions, but I can no longer find it.. If anyone has/knows where it is, could you possibly post the link?
I have a Beatles double LP Album titled The Beatles. It is in a white cover with the songs listed on the inside left side and the pictures of the Beatles on the right side. On the outside of the white cover is printed The Beatles. Also, the number C1-46443 is printed on the inside left side. On the back is printed 1968 Original sound Recordings made by EMI Records Ltd. 1968 EMI Records Ltd. The two records have the label Capitol. The records have all the original songs. I was under the impression the label was Apple. Do I have a remake or a bootleg copy?
Only the first few editions were on Apple. You appear to have the 1987 U.S.A. Capitol vinyl edition.