Personally, if I had to name my favorite album of all time it would be The Beatles White Album. This was really the first of the rock double albums, and it’s still the best, setting a blueprint on how to show off multiple styles by one band.
Just a year earlier, The Beatles put their stamp on the psychedelic era with Sgt. Pepper Lonely Hearts Club Band, and it was rightly hailed as a masterpiece. Starting with the album cover it was a conceptual, complicated piece that upped the ante in the “rock as an art form” movement. Every artist had tried and failed to top it, and now everyone was looking to see if the Beatles could do it themselves.
What did they do instead? They produced this (mostly) straightforward rock album in a plain, white wrapper. No complicated cover images, just “The Beatles” in plain type. And, no one was prepared for the music inside. The White Album has got every style, tempo, and genre that they could think of, but it all works together. From rockers (Helter Skelter, Everybody’s Got Something to Hide…) to acoustic gems (I Will, Julia), blues (Yer Blues), and even Country (Ringo’s Don’t Pass Me By), The Beatles showed in one piece how varied their styles could be. Think of any band today showing off the range that they did.
Their producer, George Martin, complained about the length and said that if they had pared it down to the best songs, it would have been bigger than Sgt. Pepper’s. To which Paul McCartney has replied, “I think it’s a fine album. I’m not a great one for that ‘maybe it was too many.” What do you mean? It was great. It sold. It’s the bloody Beatles White Album. Shut up.” Enough said…
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