


After a series of problems, including producer George Martin taking an unannounced holiday and engineer Geoff Emerick suddenly quitting during a session, Ringo Starr left the band for two weeks in August. During these sessions, arguments broke out among the foursome over creative differences and John Lennon's new partner, Yoko Ono, whose constant presence subverted the Beatles' policy of excluding wives and girlfriends from the studio. The Beatles also broke with the band's tradition at the time of incorporating several musical styles in one song by keeping each piece of music consistently faithful to a select genre.Īt the end of May 1968, the Beatles returned to EMI Studios in London to commence recording sessions that lasted until mid-October. The production aesthetic ensured that the album's sound was scaled down and less reliant on studio innovation than most of their releases since Revolver (1966). There, the only western instrument available to the band was the acoustic guitar several of these songs remained acoustic on The Beatles and were recorded solo, or only by part of the group. The album features 30 songs, 19 of which were written during March and April 1968 at a Transcendental Meditation course in Rishikesh, India. It has since been viewed by some critics as a postmodern work, as well as one of the greatest albums of all time. The Beatles is recognised for its fragmentary style and diverse range of genres, including folk, British blues, ska, music hall, proto-metal and the avant-garde. This was intended as a direct contrast to the vivid cover artwork of the band's previous LP Sgt. Featuring a plain white sleeve, the cover contains no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed. The Beatles, also referred to colloquially as the White Album, is the ninth studio album and only double album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 22 November 1968.
