The Beatles album: Encyclopedia II - The Beatles album - The songs

The Beatles album - The songs

Many of the songs here are personal and self-referencing; for example "Dear Prudence" is about actress Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, who attended Transcendental Meditation classes in Rishikesh, India at the same time as the group. In fact, many songs on The White Album were conceived during the group's ill-fated visit to India. "Sexy Sadie" is about the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who led those TM classes. "Glass Onion" is John's song for those fans who spent their time trying to find hidden meanings in the group's lyrics; it references several other Beatles songs in its lyric.

The only instrument available to the group during their Indian visit was the acoustic guitar, and several of the songs (such as "Dear Prudence", "Julia", "Blackbird" and "Mother Nature's Son") were written during their stay. These songs were recorded either solo, or by only part of the group.

Yoko Ono made her first appearance, adding backing vocals in "Birthday" (along with Pattie Harrison); Ono also sang backing vocals and a solo line on "Bungalow Bill" and was a strong influence on John's musique concrète piece, "Revolution 9".

Eric Clapton, at Harrison's invitation, provided an extra lead guitar for Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."

Several songs recorded during The White Album sessions were not part of the final album, such as the group's biggest hit, "Hey Jude" (released as a single backed with "Revolution"). Other songs would later surface on bootlegs as well as on The Beatles Anthology, including Harrison's "Not Guilty" and Lennon's "What's The New Mary Jane?".

The album was produced and orchestrated by George Martin, and was the first album released by Apple Records, and the only original double album released by the Beatles. Martin was personally dissatisfied with the double album and advised the group to reduce the number of songs in order to feature their stronger work on a single disc. However, the group overruled him.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "The songs", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki