Beatles: White Album - US White Vinyl 2LP

$

89

The Beatles

1978 US White Vinyl Pressing 2LP
with Poster and Photos
Outside of cover is a bit worn, but inside cover, poster, photos and LPs are like new!

The Beatles (White Album)

Capitol    SEBX-11841

Sleeve: VG
(ring wear, small price sticker residue)
Record: MINT-
(Looks unplayed!)

Actual Item Scans & Photos

The Beatles is the ninth official British album and the fifteenth American album by The Beatles, a double album released in 1968. It is commonly known as The White Album as it has no graphics or text other than the band's name (and, on the early LP and CD releases, a serial number) on its plain white sleeve. The album was the first The Beatles undertook following the death of their manager, Brian Epstein (Magical Mystery Tour is listed as a movie soundtrack). Originally entitled A Doll's House, the title was changed when the British progressive band Family released the similarly titled Music in a Doll's House earlier that year.

The Beatles was written and recorded during a period of turmoil for the group. After visiting the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in India and having a particularly productive songwriting session in early 1968, the group returned to the studio for recording from May to October 1968, only to have conflict and dissent drive the group members apart. Drummer Ringo Starr quit the band for a brief time, leaving bassist Paul McCartney to perform drums on some of the album's songs.

Upon release in November 1968, the album received mixed to positive reviews and reached the #1 spot on the charts in the United Kingdom and United States. The album is notable for the eclectic nature of its songs, which has divided critics in evaluating the album's legacy. Still, The Beatles is regarded as one of the greatest albums in rock history. In 2003, the album was ranked number 10 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".

Composition
Most of the songs were conceived during a transcendental meditation course with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India in the spring of 1968. Although the retreat, which had required long periods of meditation, was initially conceived by the band as a spiritual respite from all worldly endeavours—a chance, in John Lennon's words, to "get away from everything" — both Lennon and Paul McCartney had quickly found themselves in songwriting mode, often meeting "clandestinely in the afternoons in each other's rooms" to review the new work. "Regardless of what I was supposed to be doing," Lennon would later recall, "I did write some of my best songs there." Close to forty new compositions had emerged in Rishikesh, twenty-three of which would be laid down in very rough form at Kinfauns, George Harrison’s home in Esher, in May of 1968.

The Beatles had left Rishikesh before the end of the course, with Ringo Starr and then McCartney departing first, and Lennon and Harrison departing together later. According to some reports, Lennon left Rishikesh because he felt personally betrayed by rumours that Maharishi had made sexual advances toward Mia Farrow, who had accompanied The Beatles on their trip. Shortly after he decided to leave, Lennon wrote a song called "Maharishi" which included the lyrics, "Maharishi/You little twat"; the song became "Sexy Sadie". According to several authors, Alexis Mardas (aka "Magic Alex") deliberately engineered these rumours because he was bent on undermining the Maharishi's influence over each Beatle. Lennon himself, in a 1980 interview, acknowledged that the Maharishi was the inspiration for the song: "I just called him 'Sexy Sadie.."

Recording sessions
 
Abbey Road Studios in 2006.The Beatles was recorded between 30 May 1968 and 14 October 1968, largely at Abbey Road Studios, with some sessions at Trident Studios. Although productive, the sessions were reportedly undisciplined and sometimes fractious, and they took place at a time when tensions were growing within the group. Concurrent with the recording of this album, The Beatles were launching their new multimedia business corporation Apple Corps, an enterprise that proved to be a source of significant stress for the band.

The sessions for The Beatles marked the first appearance in the studio of Lennon's new girlfriend and artistic partner, Yoko Ono, who would thereafter be a more or less constant presence at all Beatles sessions. Prior to Ono's appearance on the scene, the individual Beatles had been very insular during recording sessions, with influence from outsiders strictly limited. McCartney's girlfriend at the time, Francie Schwartz, was also present at some of the recording sessions.

Author Mark Lewisohn reports that The Beatles held their first and only 24-hour recording/producing session near the end of the creation of The Beatles, during which occurred the final mixing and sequencing for the album. The session was attended by Lennon, McCartney, and producer George Martin.

Division and discord in the studio
Despite the album's official title, which emphasised group identity, studio efforts on The Beatles captured the work of four increasingly individualised artists who frequently found themselves at odds. The band's work pattern changed dramatically with this project, and by most accounts the extraordinary synergy of The Beatles' previous studio sessions was harder to come by during this period. Sometimes McCartney would record in one studio for prolonged periods of time, while Lennon would record in another, each man using different engineers. At one point in the sessions, George Martin, whose authority over the band in the studio had waned, spontaneously left to go on holiday, leaving Chris Thomas in charge of producing. During one of these sessions, while recording "Helter Skelter", Harrison reportedly ran around the studio while holding a flaming ashtray above his head.

Long after the recording of The Beatles was complete, Martin mentioned in interviews that his working relationship with The Beatles changed during this period, and that many of the band's efforts seemed unfocused, often yielding prolonged jam sessions that sounded uninspired. On 16 July recording engineer Geoff Emerick, who had worked with the group since Revolver, announced he was no longer willing to work with the group.

The sudden departures were not limited to EMI personnel. On 22 August, Starr abruptly left the studio, explaining later that he felt his role was minimised compared to that of the other members, and that he was tired of waiting through the long and contentious recording sessions. Lennon, McCartney and Harrison pleaded with Starr to return, and after two weeks he did. Upon Starr's return, he found his drum kit decorated with red, white and blue flowers, a welcome-back gesture from Harrison. The reconciliation was, however, only temporary, and Starr's exit served as a precursor of future "months and years of misery", in Starr's words. Indeed, after The Beatles was completed, both Harrison and Lennon would stage similar unpublicised departures from the band. McCartney, whose public departure in 1970 would mark the formal end of the band's ensemble, described the sessions for The Beatles as a turning point for the group. Up to this point, he observed, "The world was a problem, but we weren't. You know, that was the best thing about The Beatles, until we started to break up, like during the White Album and stuff. Even the studio got a bit tense then."

Instrumental contributions
According to Mark Lewisohn, McCartney played drums on "Back in the U.S.S.R." because Starr had left the group during the period when the song was being recorded. Lewisohn also reports that, in the case of "Dear Prudence", also recorded during Starr's absence, the three remaining Beatles each made contributions on bass and drums, with the result that those parts may be composite tracks played by Lennon, McCartney and/or Harrison. As of 2008, the actual musician/instrument lineup on the track remains disputed.

Other musicians
Eric Clapton played lead guitar without attribution on Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Harrison explains in The Beatles Anthology that Clapton's presence temporarily alleviated the studio tension and that all band members were on their best behaviour during his time with the band in the studio. Harrison, who had invited Clapton to the sessions, soon reciprocated by collaborating with Clapton on the song "Badge" for Cream's last album Goodbye.

Clapton was not the only uncredited outside musician to sit in on the sessions. Nicky Hopkins provided electric piano for the single cut of "Revolution" (recorded during these sessions); Hopkins also provided acoustic piano on a number of tracks. Several horns were also recorded on the album version of "Revolution". "Savoy Truffle" also features the horn section. Jack Fallon, a bluegrass fiddler, was recruited for "Don't Pass Me By", and a team of orchestral players and soothing background singers ended up being important contributors to "Good Night".

Technical advances
The sessions for The Beatles were notable for the band's formal transition from 4-track to 8-track recording. As work on the album began, Abbey Road Studios possessed, but had yet to install, an 8-track machine that had supposedly been sitting in a storage room for months. This was in accordance with EMI's policy of testing and customising new gear, sometimes for months, before putting it into use in the studios. The Beatles recorded "Hey Jude" and "Dear Prudence" at Trident Studios in central London, which had an 8-track recorder. When they learned about EMI's 8-track recorder, they insisted on using it, and engineers Ken Scott and Dave Harries took the machine (without authorisation from the studio chiefs) into the Number 2 recording studio at Abbey Road for the band's use.

Songs
Although most of the songs on any given Beatles album are usually credited to the Lennon/McCartney songwriting team, that description is often misleading, and rarely more so than on The Beatles. With this album, each of the four band members began to showcase the range and depth of his individual songwriting talents, and to display styles that would be carried over to his eventual solo career. Indeed, some songs that the individual Beatles were working on during this period eventually were released on solo albums. These include Lennon's "Look at Me" and "Child of Nature", eventually reworked as "Jealous Guy"; McCartney's "Junk" and "Teddy Boy"; and Harrison's "Not Guilty" and "Circles".

Many of the songs on the album display experimentation with unlikely musical genres, borrowing directly from such sources as 1930s dance-hall music (in "Honey Pie"), classical chamber music (in "Piggies"), the avant-garde sensibilities of Yoko Ono and John Cage (in "Revolution 9"), and the sentimentality of elevator music (in "Good Night"). Such diversity was quite unprecedented in global pop music in 1968, and the album's sprawling approach provoked (and continues to provoke) both praise and criticism from observers. "Revolution 9", in particular, a densely layered eight-minute-and-thirteen-second sound collage, has attracted bewilderment and disapproval from both fans and music critics over the years.

The only western instrument available to the group during their Indian visit was the acoustic guitar, and thus most of the songs on The Beatles were written and first performed on that instrument. Some of these songs remained acoustic on The Beatles (notably "Rocky Raccoon", "Blackbird", "I Will" and "Mother Nature's Son") and were recorded in the studio either solo, or by only part of the group.

Compositions not included
 This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2009)

A number of songs were recorded in demo form for possible inclusion but were not incorporated as part of the album. These included "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam" (both of which would be used for the medley on Abbey Road); "Child of Nature" (recorded with drastically different lyrics as "Jealous Guy" for Lennon's Imagine), "Jubilee" (later retitled "Junk" and released on McCartney's first solo LP); "Etcetera" (a McCartney composition later recorded by the Black Dyke Mills Band as "Thingumybob"); "Circles" (which Harrison would return to fourteen years later on his 1982 album "Gone Troppo"); "The Long and Winding Road" (completed in 1969 for the Let It Be LP); "Something" (which ended up on Abbey Road); and "Sour Milk Sea" (which Harrison gave to friend and Apple artist Jackie Lomax for his first LP, Is This What You Want). Other songs recorded for, but ultimately left off The Beatles received significant exposure via bootlegs, notably Harrison's "Circles" and "Not Guilty" (which he would eventually re-record as solo tracks and release on his 1982 album, Gone Troppo and 1979 self-titled album, George Harrison respectively) and Lennon's manic "What's the New Mary Jane".

Editing concerns, and release
The Beatles was the first Beatles' album released by Apple Records, as well as their only original double album. Producer George Martin has said that he was against the idea of a double album at the time and suggested to the group that they reduce the number of songs in order to form a single album featuring their stronger work, but that the band decided against this. Interviewed for the Beatles Anthology, Starr said he now felt it should have been released as two separate albums (that he appropriately named The White Album and The Whiter Album). Harrison felt on reflection that some of the tracks could have been released as B-sides, but "there was a lot of ego in that band". He also supported the idea of the double album, to clear out the backlog of songs the group had at the time. McCartney, by contrast, said it was fine as it was and that its wide variety of songs was a major part of the album's appeal.

The Beatles shares the same November 22 release date as The Beatles' second album, With the Beatles, released five years earlier.

Singles
Although "Hey Jude" was not intended to be included on any LP release, it was recorded during the White Album sessions and was released as a stand-alone single before the release of The Beatles. "Hey Jude's" B-side, "Revolution", was an alternate version of the album's "Revolution 1". Lennon had wanted the original version of "Revolution" to be released as a single, but the other three Beatles objected on the grounds that it was too slow. A new, faster version, with heavily distorted guitar and a high-energy keyboard solo from Nicky Hopkins was recorded, and was relegated to the flip side of "Hey Jude". The resulting release — "Hey Jude" on side A and "Revolution" on side B — emerged as the first release on the Beatles' new Apple Records label. It went on to become the best selling of all Beatles' singles in the US.

Four tracks from the "White Album" were released on two American and one British single almost eight years after the original album was released. In the summer 1976, to promote the compilation album, Rock 'n' Roll Music, EMI's Parlophone label in the UK and its Capitol label in the US each released a single that contained A and B-sides that appeared on the compilation album. In Britain, Parlophone issued "Back in the U.S.S.R." as the single. (Its B-side was "Twist and Shout", which originally appeared on the group's first album, Please Please Me.) In America, Capitol released "Got to Get You Into My Life" (from the group's 1966 album, Revolver) on the A-side, but selected "Helter Skelter," to serve as the flip side. "Helter Skelter" was likely chosen for the B-side because a cover version of the song had been prominently featured in a made-for-tv movie about the Charles Manson murders that had aired on CBS shortly before the release of Rock 'n' Roll Music. The singles were successful, with "Got to Get You into My Life" hitting No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US and "Back in the U.S.S.R." hitting No. 18 on the New Musical Express chart in Britain. Both records also helped sell Rock 'n' Roll Music, which hit No. 2 in the United States and No. 10 in the UK. With the success of the singles from the compilation album, Capitol followed-up "Got To Get You Into My Life" with the release of another single in November 1976. Instead of taking two more tracks from Rock 'n' Roll Music, however, Capitol selected two "White Album" tracks—"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" as the A-Side, and "Julia" as the B-Side. The "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" single was sold in an individually-numbered white picture sleeve that mimicked the design of the original album. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" did not duplicate the success of its predecessor, however, as it failed to make the Top Forty, stalling out at No. 49 on Billboard.

Mono version
The Beatles was the last Beatles album to be released with a unique, alternate mono mix, albeit one issued only in the UK. Twenty-eight of the album's 30 tracks ("Revolution 1" and "Revolution 9" being the only exceptions) exist in official alternate mono mixes.

Beatles' albums after The Beatles (except Yellow Submarine in the UK) occasionally had mono pressings in certain countries (such as Brazil), but these editions—Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road and Let It Be—were in each case mono fold-downs from the regular stereo mixes.

In the US, mono records were already being phased out; the US release of The Beatles was the first Beatles LP to be issued in the US in stereo only.

Sleeve
 
A vintage circa-1970 pressing of The Beatles. Note the serial number and the embossed, rather than printed, album title.The album's sleeve was designed by Richard Hamilton, a notable pop artist who had organised a Marcel Duchamp retrospective at the Tate Gallery the previous year. Hamilton's design was in stark contrast to Peter Blake's vivid cover art for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and consisted of a plain white sleeve. The band's name was discreetly embossed slightly below the middle of the album's right side, and the cover also featured a unique stamped serial number, "to create," in Hamilton's words, "the ironic situation of a numbered edition of something like five million copies." Indeed, the artist intended the cover to resemble the "look" of conceptual art, an emerging movement in contemporary art at the time. Later vinyl record releases in the US showed the title in grey printed (rather than embossed) letters. Early copies on compact disc were also numbered. Later CD releases rendered the album's title in black or grey. The 30th anniversary CD release was done to look like the original album sleeve, with an embossed title and serial number, including a small reproduction of the poster and pictures (see re-issues).

The album's inside packaging included a poster, the lyrics to the songs, and a set of photographs taken by John Kelly during the autumn of 1968 that have themselves become iconic. This is the only sleeve of a Beatles studio album not to show the members of the band on the front.

Tape versions of the album did not feature a white cover. Instead, cassette, reel-to-reel, and 8-track versions (first issued on two cartridges in early 1969) contained cover artwork that featured a black and white (with no grey) version of the four Kelly photographs. In both the cassette and 8-track versions of the album, the two tapes were sold in a black slip-cover box that bore the title, "The BEATLES" in gold lettering along the front. This departure from the LP's design not only made it difficult for less-informed fans to identify the tape in record stores, but it also led some fans at the time to jokingly refer to the 8-track or cassette not as the "white album" but as the "black tape." In 1988, Capitol/EMI re-issued the 2-cassette version of the album, still with the same cover artwork as the original cassettes — but without the black slip-cover box.

Critical reception and legacy
The Beatles were at the peak of their global influence and visibility in late 1968. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, released the previous year, had enjoyed a combination of commercial success, critical acclaim, and immense cultural influence that had previously seemed inconceivable for a pop release. Time, for instance, had written in 1967 that Pepper constituted a "historic departure in the progress of music—any music," while Timothy Leary, in a widely quoted assessment of the same period, declared that the band were prototypes of "evolutionary agents sent by God, endowed with mysterious powers to create a new human species." After releasing an album that had delivered such critical, commercial, and generational shockwaves, The Beatles faced the inevitable question of what they could possibly do to top it. The next full-length album, whatever it was, was destined to draw considerable scrutiny. The intervening release of Magical Mystery Tour notwithstanding (released as a double-EP package in the UK), The Beatles represented the group's first major musical statement since Sgt. Pepper, and thus was a highly anticipated event for both the mainstream press and the youth-oriented counterculture movement with which the band had by this time become strongly associated. Expectations, to say the least, were high.

Reviews
The reviews were mixed to mostly positive.

Tony Palmer, in The Observer, wrote shortly after the album's release: "If there is still any doubt that Lennon and McCartney are the greatest songwriters since Schubert, then . . . [the album The Beatles] . . . should surely see the last vestiges of cultural snobbery and bourgeois prejudice swept away in a deluge of joyful music making. . . ."
Richard Goldstein, writing in The New York Times on 8 December 1968, described the album as a "major success."
Another review in The New York Times, this one by Nik Cohn, considered the album "boring beyond belief" and described "more than half the songs" as "profound mediocrities."
Alan Smith, in an NME review entitled "The Brilliant, the Bad, and the Ugly," derided "Revolution #9" as a "pretentious" example of "idiot immaturity" and, in the following sentence, assigned the benediction "God Bless You, Beatles!" to "most of the rest" of the album.
The New Rolling Stone Album Guide praises the album but maintains that it has "loads of self-indulgent filler," identifying "Revolution #9" in particular as "justly maligned," and suggests that listeners in the CD era, who can program digital players to skip over unwanted tracks, may have an advantage over the album's original audience.
Some contemporary critics say the album's inclusion of supposedly extraneous material is a part of its appeal. The allmusic.com review contends that:

"Each song on the sprawling double album The Beatles is an entity to itself, as the band touches on anything and everything they can. This makes for a frustratingly scattershot record or a singularly gripping musical experience, depending on your view, but what makes the White Album interesting is its mess."
One important current trend in critical assessments of the album is to draw parallels between the band's disintegrating ensemble and the chaotic events of the tumultuous year in which The Beatles was created, 1968. Along these lines, Slant Magazine observed that:

"(The album) reveals the popping seams of a band that had the pressure of an entire fissuring generational/political gap on its back. Maybe it's because it shows The Beatles at the point where even their music couldn't hide the underlying tensions between John, Paul, George, and Ringo, or maybe because it was (coincidentally?) released at the tail end of a year anyone could agree was the embittered honeymoon's end for the Love Generation, the year when, to borrow from a famous Yeats poem, the center decidedly could not hold ... for whatever reason, The Beatles is still one of the few albums by the Fab Four that resists reflexive canonization, which, along with society's continued fragmentation, keeps the album fresh and surprising."
In 1997, The Beatles was named the 10th greatest album of all time in a 'Music of the Millennium' poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian and Classic FM. In 1998, Q magazine readers placed it at number 17, while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 7 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.

In 2001, the TV network VH1 named it as the 11th greatest album ever.

It was ranked number 10 in Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time in 2003.

In 2006, the album was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 best albums of all time.

On the 40th anniversary of the album's release the Vatican issued an unusual review of the album. The official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, published a lengthy article which declared that "Forty years later, this album remains a type of magical musical anthology: 30 songs you can go through and listen to at will, certain of finding some pearls that even today remain unparalleled." Forgiving John Lennon's "more popular than Jesus" remark, the paper called the White Album the "creative summit" of the Beatles' career, comparing it favorably to contemporary music and taking note of the now antiquated equipment used, concluding that "a listening experience like that offered by the Beatles is truly rare."

Cultural responses
Ian MacDonald, in his book Revolution in the Head, argues that The Beatles was the album in which the band's cryptic messages to its fan base became not merely vague but intentionally and perhaps dangerously open-ended, citing oblique passages in songs like "Glass Onion" (e.g., "the walrus was Paul") and "Piggies" ("what they need's a damn good whacking"). These pronouncements, and many others on the album, came to attract extraordinary popular interest at a time when more of the world's youth were using drugs recreationally and looking for spiritual, political, and strategic advice from The Beatles. Steve Turner, too, in his book A Hard Day's Write, maintains that, with this album, "The Beatles had perhaps laid themselves open to misinterpretation by mixing up the languages of poetry and nonsense." Bob Dylan's songs had been similarly mined for hidden meanings, but the massive countercultural analysis of The Beatles surpassed anything that had gone before.

Even Lennon's seemingly direct engagement with the tumultuous political issues of 1968 in "Revolution 1" carried a nuanced obliqueness, and ended up sending messages the author may not have intended. In the album's version of the song, Lennon advises those who "talk about destruction" to "count me out." As McDonald notes, however, Lennon then follows the sung word "out" with the spoken word "in." At the time of the album's release — which followed, chronologically, the up-tempo single version of the song, "Revolution," in which Lennon definitely wanted to be counted "out" — that single word "in" was taken by many on the radical left as Lennon's acknowledgment, after considered thought, that violence in the pursuit of political aims was indeed justified in some cases. At a time of increasing unrest in the streets and campuses of Paris and Berkeley, the album's lyrics seemed to many to mark a reversal of Lennon's position on the question, which was hotly debated during this period. However, the recording chronology belies the interpretation that from the single to the album Lennon moved from a definite position to one of ambivalence, since despite the single's earlier release it was the album version that was recorded first.

The search for hidden meanings within the songs reached its low point when cult leader Charles Manson used the record, and generous helpings of hallucinogens, to persuade members of his "family" that the album was in fact an apocalyptic message predicting a prolonged race war and justifying the murder of wealthy people. The album's association with a high-profile mass murder was one of many factors that helped to deepen the accelerating divide between those who were profoundly skeptical of the "youth culture" movement that had unfolded in the middle and late 1960s in the UK, the United States and elsewhere, and those who admired the openness and spontaneity of that movement. Prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi wrote a best-selling book about the Manson "family" that explicated, among other things, the cult's fixation with identifying hidden messages within The Beatles; Bugliosi's book was entitled Helter Skelter, the term Manson took from the album's song of that name and construed as the conflict he thought impending.

Cultural responses to the album persisted for decades, and even offer a glimpse into the process of collective myth-making. In October 1969, a Detroit radio program began to promote theories based on "clues" supposedly left on The Beatles and other Beatles albums that Paul McCartney had died and been replaced by a lookalike. The ensuing hunt for "clues" to a "coverup" The Beatles presumably wanted to suppress (and simultaneously publicise) became one of the classic examples of the development and persistence of urban legends.

Sales
As it was their first studio album in almost eighteen months (and coming after the blockbuster success of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band) expectations were high at time of release of The Beatles. The album debuted straight at #1 in the UK on 1 December 1968, (becoming their third album to do so, after Help! and Revolver). It spent seven weeks at the top of the UK charts (including the entire competitive Christmas season), until it was replaced by The Seekers' Best of the Seekers on 25 January 1969, dropping to number two. However, the album returned to the top spot the next week, spending an eighth and final week at #1. Then, it spent another four weeks on the Top 10, and then dropped the charts quicker than Sgt. Pepper. The White Album was particularly notable for blocking the Beatles follow-up album, Yellow Submarine, which debuted (and peaked at) #3 on 8 February 1969, the same week The White Album was dominating the second position on the charts. In all, The Beatles spent 24 weeks on the UK charts (a far cry comparison to the over 200 weeks spent by Sgt. Pepper's).

In the United States, the album was received with huge commercial success. It debuted at #11, then reached #2, and finally peaked at #1 in its third week, spending a total of nine weeks at the top. In all, The Beatles spent 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 the tenth-best-selling album of all time in the United States.

Track listing

Side one
1. "Back in the U.S.S.R."   2:43
2. "Dear Prudence"   3:56
3. "Glass Onion"   2:17
4. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"   3:08
5. "Wild Honey Pie"   0:53
6. "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill"   3:14
7. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" 4:45
8. "Happiness Is a Warm Gun"   2:43

Side two
1. "Martha My Dear"   2:28
2. "I'm So Tired"   2:03
3. "Blackbird"   2:18
4. "Piggies" 2:04
5. "Rocky Raccoon"   3:32
6. "Don't Pass Me By" 3:50
7. "Why Don't We Do It in the Road?"   1:41
8. "I Will"   1:46
9. "Julia"   2:54

Side three
1. "Birthday"    2:42
2. "Yer Blues"   4:01
3. "Mother Nature's Son"   2:48
4. "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey"   2:24
5. "Sexy Sadie"   3:15
6. "Helter Skelter"   4:29
7. "Long, Long, Long"  3:04

Side four
1. "Revolution 1"   4:15
2. "Honey Pie"   2:41
3. "Savoy Truffle"  2:54
4. "Cry Baby Cry"    3:01
5. "Revolution 9"   8:22
6. "Good Night"    3:11

The arrangement of the songs on the The Beatles follows some patterns and symmetry. For example, "Wild Honey Pie" is the fifth song from the beginning of the album and "Honey Pie" is the fifth song from the end. Also, three of the four songs containing animal names in their titles ("Blackbird", "Piggies", and "Rocky Raccoon") are grouped together. "Savoy Truffle", the fourth song from the end of the album, contains a reference to "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," the fourth song from the beginning. In addition, the four songs composed by Harrison are distributed with one on each of the four sides.

Personnel
The Beatles
George Harrison – lead, harmony and background vocals; lead and rhythm (electric and acoustic) guitars, four- and six-string bass guitar; Hammond organ; drums and assorted percussion (tambourine, hand shake bell, handclaps and vocal percussion) and sound effects
John Lennon – lead, harmony and background vocals; lead and rhythm (electric and acoustic) guitars, 4 and 6-string bass guitar; pianos (electric and acoustic), Hammond organ, harmonium, mellotron; drums and assorted percussion (tambourine, maracas, thumping on the back of an acoustic guitar, handclaps and vocal percussion); harmonica, saxophone and whistling; tapes, tape loops and sound effects (electronic and home-made)
Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and background vocals; lead and rhythm (electric and acoustic) guitars, 4 and 6-string bass guitar; pianos (electric and acoustic), Hammond organ, drums, timpani and assorted percussion (tambourine, handclaps and vocal percussion; drums on "Back in the U.S.S.R." and "Dear Prudence"); recorder, flugelhorn and sound effects
Ringo Starr – drums and assorted percussion (tambourine, bongos, cymbals, maracas, vocal percussion); lead vocals, electric piano and sleigh bell (on "Don't Pass Me By") , lead vocals (on "Don't Pass Me By" and "Good Night") and backing vocals ("The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill")
Guest musicians
Eric Clapton – lead guitar on "While my Guitar Gently Weeps"
Mal Evans – backing vocals and handclaps on "Dear Prudence","The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" and "Birthday", saxophone and sound effects on "Helter Skelter"
Jack Fallon – violin on "Don't Pass Me By"
Pattie Harrison – backing vocals on "Birthday"
Jackie Lomax – backing vocals and handclaps on "Dear Prudence"
Jimmy Scott – congas on "Ob-La-Di-Ob-La-Da"
Maureen Starkey – backing vocals on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill"
Yoko Ono – backing vocals and handclaps on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" and tapes and sound effects on "Revolution 9", backing vocals on "Birthday"
Session musicians
Ted Barker – trombone on "Martha My Dear"
Leon Calvert – trumpet and flugelhorn on "Martha My Dear"
Henry Datyner, Eric Bowie, Norman Lederman, Ronald Thomas (all on "Glass Onion"), Bernard Miller, Dennis McConnell, Lou Soufier and Les Maddox (all on "Martha My Dear") – violins
Reginald Kilby (on "Glass Onion" and "Martha My Dear"), Eldon Fox (on "Glass Onion") and Frederick Alexander (on "Martha My Dear") – cellos
Harry Klein – clarinet on "Honey Pie", saxophone on "Savoy Truffle"
Alf Reece – tuba on "Martha My Dear"
The Mike Sammes Singers – backing vocals on "Good Night"
Stanley Reynolds and Ronnie Hughes – trumpet (all on "Martha My Dear")
Tony Tunstall – French horn on "Martha My Dear"
John Underwood, Keith Cummings (all on "Glass Onion"), Leo Birnbaum and Henry Myerscough (all on "Martha My Dear") – violas
Production team
Geoff Emerick – engineer, vocal on "Revolution #1" ("Take 2")
George Martin – record producer and mixer; string, brass, clarinet, orchestral arrangements and conducting; piano on "Rocky Raccoon"
Ken Scott – engineer and mixer
Chris Thomas – producer; mellotron on "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", harpsichord on "Piggies" and piano on "Long, Long, Long"

Please use shipping calculator for US postage costs.
I offer Media Mail or Priority Mail.

US/International handling cost of $1.00 includes a new LP shipping box, poly sleeve and bubble wrap sheets.

 Priority Mail International shipping is available AT COST +$1 for materials(see below).
First Class International Mail available for MOST countries.

I ship worldwide!
Email me for a country-specific shipping quote or wait for invoice.
(Please ignore the first Ebay automatic invoice. Second invoice will have your specific postage cost).
You pay only the ACTUAL international postage. No mark-up!

 Due to several recent losses to overseas buyers (packages were lost/stolen and I lost items and all money to chargebacks), I must change my International shipping policy.

Not responsible for loss or theft in postal system!
International buyers from Mexico, Brazil or Germany must choose Priority Mail International with tracking.
First Class International Mail is NOT trackable or insurable.

I will only ship via First Class International Mail to Mexico, Brazil and Germany if I receive a request in an email from buyer through Ebay's message system stating that you accept responsibility for any loss or theft in postal transit and that buyer will NOT file claim for non-receipt of item.

Sorry, I know Priority Mail International Mail is VERY expensive but I WILL NOT lose any more items and money to International buyers who choose First Class Mail without accepting the above method.

 United States: I prefer Paypal for payment.
Ebay has banned other payment methods, but email me if you need another option.

International: Paypal only please.

Substantial postage reductions for multiple auction wins!

 Full refund(-postage) if not satisfied.

Thank you for reading my listing

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