attention, beatles fans

Let's have some fun today and do something that I don't think has been done before. This is mainly for us old farts, who still remember where we were when they first saw The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show, but the young can play along.

Most Beatles fans know that George Martin tried desperately to talk the band into releasing the White album as a single LP, but they had so much material and couldn't agree on much of anything by then, so they ended up throwing everything in there and put it out as a double disc.

But let's suppose that Martin got his way, and now you have the job of culling all that material down to one album. What stays and what goes?

Here's how I'd play it:

Side 1
Back In the USSR
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Obladi-Oblada
Yer Blues
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Julia

Side 2
Revolution (the electric version that wasn't on the album, but should have been)
Blackbird
Don't Pass Me By
Piggies
Rocky Raccoon
Happiness Is a Warm Gun
Helter Skelter
Long, Long, Long

 

Side 1:
"Back In The U.S.S.R."
"Dear Prudence"
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
"Happiness Is A Warm Gun"

Side 2:
"Blackbird"
"Birthday"
"Mother Nature's Son"
"Helter Skelter"
"Revolution 1"

 

There are some pretty easy cuts on the White Album -- Wild Honey Pie, Martha My Dear, Don't Pass Me By, I Will, Birthday, Revolution 9, etc.
The good songs on there are fantastic, but the lows are very low (it doesn't get lower than Revolution 9).

 

Yeah, but you've got to have a Ringo song on there. Agree with you on Revolution 9. It's absolutely unlistenable.

 

Side 1:
"Back In The U.S.S.R."
"Dear Prudence"
"Glass Onion"
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"
"Happiness Is A Warm Gun"

Side 2:
"Blackbird"
"Yer Blues"
"Rocky Racoon"
"Sexy Sadie"
"Helter Skelter"
"Revolution 1"
"Good Night"

 

Georgia Satellites did a great version of "Don't Pass Me By".

 

Just reading the song title "Revolution 9" gives me the creeps... what an eerie track on an otherwise fantastic album. The White Album is always among my answers to "what albums would you bring to a deserted island" assuming, of course, that island has electricity.

 

Here's mine:

Side 1
Back In The USSR
Dear Prudence
Glass Onion
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Happiness Is A Warm Gun

Side 2
Mother Nature's Son
I'm So Tired (mystified that I'm the first one to pick this - one of my top 5 Beatles songs)
Helter Skelter
Rocky Raccoon
Don't Pass Me By
Long, Long, Long
Revolution 1

 

Lack of love for "I Will" bothers me.

 

Wasn't Revolution 9 Lennon's way of saying FU to McCartney because he insisted Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da be included and Lennon hated the song?

 

That was my toughest cut (well, that and Birthday). Went to an outdoor wedding last year where the musician was a solo guitarist playing Beatles songs. The couple left the ceremony to I Will, and it was really, really cool.

 

Great song. Honestly, I forgot all about it when making my list.