Original Release (LP): 1969
Side One
| 1 | Back In The U.S.S.R. | 2:43 | McCartney |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Dear Prudence | 3:57 | Lennon |
| 3 | Glass Onion | 2:17 | Lennon |
| 4 | Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da | 3:09 | McCartney |
| 5 | Wild Honey Pie | 1:02 | McCartney |
| 6 | The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill | 3:05 | Lennon |
| 7 | While My Guitar Gently Weeps | 4:45 | Harrison |
| 8 | Happiness Is A Warm Gun | 2:44 | Lennon |
Side Two
| 1 | Martha My Dear | 2:29 | McCartney |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | I'm So Tired | 2:03 | Lennon |
| 3 | Blackbird | 2:18 | McCartney |
| 4 | Piggies | 2:05 | Harrison |
| 5 | Rocky Raccoon | 3:41 | McCartney |
| 6 | Don't Pass Me By | 3:42 | Starkey |
| 7 | Why Don't We Do It In The Road | 1:41 | McCartney |
| 8 | I Will | 1:47 | McCartney |
| 9 | Julia | 2:54 | Lennon |
Side Three
| 1 | Birthday | 2:43 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Yer Blues | 4:01 | Lennon |
| 3 | Mother Nature's Son | 2:48 | McCartney |
| 4 | Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey | 2:25 | Lennon |
| 5 | Sexy Sadie | 3:15 | Lennon |
| 6 | Helter Skelter | 4:30 | McCartney |
| 7 | Long, Long, Long | 3:04 | Harrison |
Side Four
| 1 | Revolution 1 | 4:16 | Lennon |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Honey Pie | 2:41 | McCartney |
| 3 | Savoy Truffle | 2:55 | Harrison |
| 4 | Cry Baby Cry | 3:11 | Lennon |
| (Can You Take Me Back) | McCartney | ||
| 5 | Revolution 9 | 8:13 | Lennon |
| 6 | Good Night | 3:12 | Lennon |
| Original - Apple | Remastered - Apple | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Mono | Stereo | Stereo | |
| CD | --- | --- | 368 746443 8 (old) 672 746443 2 (new) |
| Cassette | --- | 31C 266 04173/4 (?) | 968 791460 4 (old) 470 791460 4 (new) |
| LP | BTX 1005/6 | SBTX 1005/6 31C 166 04173/4 |
168 791460 1 (old) 170 791460 1 (new) |
After the psychodelic experience of Sgt. Pepper's and the failed movie Magical Mystery Tour, The Beatles decided to go back to the roots and make songs more simple and more rocky, without the studio wizardry that marked their last recordings. The "White Album" was the first to follow this new philosophy, which culminated with the "Get Back" project.
In February 1968, The Beatles went to India to study transcendental meditation with Maharishi. It was some kind of disappointing to them, but they came back with a lot of newly composed songs. In May 1968, at George's home in Esher, they recorded acoustic demos of these songs, which became the basis of this album. The "Esher demos", some of the most famous bootleg recordings of the group, finally saw an official release on Anthology 3, which brings 7 of these demos, 3 of them unreleased on bootlegs.
With so many songs composed and demoed, this had to be a double album. First George Martin refused, and intended to make two single albums, but later accepted the idea.
Including the songs only demoed at Esher but never recorded properly, The Beatles made 36 songs in this period. 32 were recorded, of which two were dropped (Not Guilty and What's The New Mary Jane, both appeared on Anthology 3), leaving 30 tracks on the released album.
Also, after creating the imaginary Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to represent them on the previous album (remember that Magical Mystery Tour was an American compilation), they decided to be themselves again, so the album title was just The Beatles. And finally, after the colourful, complex and full of details cover of Sgt. Pepper's, this time they presented a plain white sleeve.
It is a "non-stop" album, having almost no spaces between songs, but without crossfading. The only crossfade, joins Back In The USSR and Dear Prudence with airplane sounds. Because of this, some pressings of the album on some countries were not banded (no spaces between tracks on the LP) making it hard to find the beginning of songs.
This time there are no differences: only similarities! The Brazilian
cover reproduce exactly the British with all details: plain white cover
with nothing written on it, only the catalog number on the spine (in grey);
embossed "THE BEATLES" on the cover; on the first issues, there
was also a serial number stamped near the right bottom corner. Inside,
the names of the songs and four black and white pictures of the boys. Later
non-remastered issues have also the catalog number on the back cover.
Coming along there was a folded poster with several images on one side
and the lyrics on the other; and four coloured pictures of John, Paul,
George and Ringo. These pictures are the same that appear in black-and-white
on the sleeve and were used later on the cover of the Brazilian album Beatles
Forever.
Just like the British album, and unlike all Odeon albums, the sleeve opened
from the top and not from the sides. It was also plastified, which is not
a common practice in Brazil. This way it didn't featured the "Odeon-patented"
plastic sleeve.
The LPs were always banded. Also, in Brazil there was no special edition on white vinyl (issued in the USA and UK in the late 1970s).
I own a mono album from the first issue, with the number 22125 on the cover, that has two defects: Don't Pass Me By is credited to Lennon-McCartney on the disc label, and Side 4 was pressed at unsteady speed, causing the sound to "oscillate". These defects are certainly on other copies, but I wonder when they were fixed.
The remastered LP cover looked much like the old one, but opened from the sides and not from the top. It was still plastified. It also had the catalog number on the back cover (in gray). Everything else was the same: poster, pictures and so on.
As CDs can't have the embossed title on the cover, the title was print in grey. No serial numbers appeared. The booklet splits the poster among its pages, together with lyrics and the pictures of the group.
There have been Brazilian pressings of the CDs, but today they are mostly imported. Imported CDs have white background.
Also, the Brazilian CDs (at least first pressings) swapped the discs on the back cover, so disc 1 begins with "Birthday". [I'm not sure of this, though!]
Only Some Northern
Songs (E.Cabrera)
Beatles CDography
(M.Rolig)