Should The White Album not have been a double album?

The “fillers” give the album the chaotic personality. In a way choosing your own favourite tracks from the album and making it your own is the part of the charm of this album.

Author — souvik singh

As Paul said “It’s the white album” and it is what it is! I love it all. Yes you could make a super single album….but you’d still leave off some amazing songs.

Author — Keith Enness

It’s a sprawling masterpiece as a double album, an intricate and intimate snapshot of a band trying everything and anything in the studio in the midst of their most prolific period as songwriters. Sexy Sadie, I’m So Tired, Yer Blues, Monkey, and Bungalow Bill are top notch Beatles songs and I’m So Tired is one of my favorite songs of all time of any band ever.

Author — Tom Conlon

I’m So Tired is EASILY Lennon’s best recorded vocal performance of all time. It just goes through the whole range of his vocal quirks and power. It’s be my first pick for a must-stay on a one album White Album. (And also definitely keep Martha My Dear, Honey Pie, Savoy Truffle, and Sexy
Sadie and cut Mother Nature’s Son and everybody’s got something to Hide and on la di on la da!)

Author — J. Kenji López-Alt

Considerations at the time of the album's release would've included not just overall length, but also making the A and B sides of the record approximately equal in length, starting the B side with a good song, and not putting a loud song as the last track on each side, as that would make the inner groove distortion more noticeable. (For that reason, most albums from the vinyl era end with a ballad as the last track on each side.)

Author — VWestlife

This entire album is made up of Paul's George's John's and Ringo's individual composing styles. It's brilliant

Author — HappyFeet

“I Will” is one of Paul’s best songs and nobody seems to give it the love it deserves.

Author — George Lucas

The White Album is my personal favorite Beatles album so trying to reduce this to one disc was very difficult for me, and the runtime ended up still being too long

Author — skakirask

The brilliance of the White Album is that everyone thinks it should be a single album, but no one can agree on which songs to keep. So it stays a double album.

Author — Don L

Pretty good selection, but IMO a hypothetical "single record" should be limited to 14 songs to match the rest of their catalog. Also, I personally think it's better as a double album. Because of its length, the "White Album" stood out and established a rich tradition of 70's bands releasing their own uneven but endlessly fascinating double albums. Without that length, it'd just be an average Beatles album rather than one of their most famous.

Author — Aaron G

I really think revolution 9 gets too many hate of what it really Should. Idk, I have allways seen it as a very amazing and really fun to listen in a technical level

Also, in my opinion, it fits perfectly with the Good Night song at the end, is like a wait you have to go through to enjoy the happy sunrise at the end that actually sounds kind of depressing for the way it was recorded so is really up to your interpretation and thats facinating too imo. One can't exist without the other in my ears, it reminds me of the chemistry between "Sweet Moonchild" and "The Court of the Crimson King" from In The Court of the Crimson King it has the same wait and payoff efect that I really love and appreciate in my music.

Author — Toa44

Any album with "Yer Blues", "Sexy Sadie", "Birthday" and "Savoy Truffle" on it is going to be a great album. Funny how tastes differ.

I think you have to keep the Revolution #9 and Good Night closing sequence from the original album, just as you kept USSR and Prudence together on your first album.

Author — Andrew James

the chaos and variety across the 30 tracks is what makes it so brilliant

Author — MostlyLoveOfMusic

I like the double album as it is. I like the break that comes with the short song or funny song or odd song here and there. It makes it interesting and it reflects the differences in the personalities of the group. Why do people always want to fix something that’s not broke. ??? Each Beatle might have had second thoughts about it but I would say that is because they were strong personalities and each one was a leader in their own right. There was so much buzz when that album came out. Everyone was talking about it. Every superlative you can think of was thrown at it. Genius, masterpiece, innovative, groundbreaking, mind blowing, unique, etc. Come on.

Author — Charlena Sutherland

I’ve considered this question so many times. The single album version of the White Album I’d prefer would probably be:
- Back In The USSR
- Dear Prudence
- Wild Honey Pie
- While My Guitar Gently Weeps
- Happiness Is A Warm Gun
- I’m So Tired
- Blackbird
- Rocky Raccoon
- Julia
- Yer Blues
- Mother Nature’s Son
- Everybody’s Got Something To Hide
- Helter Skelter
- Revolution 1
- Long, Long, Long

Author — Alex Rogers

my take on any band's attempt at a double album, is not that every single song needs to be a hit or a classic, but rather that the album should explore the full range & diversity of the artist. fast slow, long short, experimental commercial, simple complex, heavy light, loud soft and so on. in that regard i think the beatles white album is a magnificent masterpiece. it's the diverse range & variety that makes it so great.

Author — drooky123

As a thought experiment, it is interesting. As an after-the-fact exercise in choosing one's favourite tracks, it isn't, in my view because the songs chosen for such an 'ideal version' would have been different from what people would now choose. "Helter Skelter", for instance, would definitely not have made it onto the album as no one in 1968 could have known about its significance (or reference point) for heavy metal (and they saw it as a big, elongated form of noise) while "Birthday" would have been included as they thought it might have become the rock version of "Congratulations".

The attempt to reduce the album to a single LP also backgrounds the fact that the importance of the White Album does not lie in it being a collection of 14 perfect pop songs, but in the sheer exuberance of ideas of what pop music could be. So even though I don't like "Revolution 9" or "Wild Honeypie" as songs proper (even though I do enjoy the latter because it creates all kinds of imagery in my head), listening to the White Album would not be the same if there, for instance, wasn't this moment of confusion at the beginning of "Goodnight" about whether the string orchestra was still part of the collage.

Author — Bracket Paradox

I like your choices, David. Martha My Dear is a great example of Paul's magic. It's a sophisticated song with inventive orchestration, but it sounds simple and natural.

Author — AlmostEthical

The White Album is a masterpiece!! I'm with Paul! Leave it alone!

Author — Doug Byron

Expressing their sense of humor in fun quirky songs is one of the things that made them standout. I fell in love with the fact that they could joke around and write serious stuff at the same time, it’s the perfect blend of moods. We all have weird things about our personalities, it takes a lot of bullocks to be the most popular band on earth and put out something that makes you happy, when you know the critics will complain. It was a woke moment for them and as you could see in the let it be documentary, they dicked around a lot. So why not be honest about what you’re doing behind closed doors and put it out there for everyone else to enjoy. Makes me feel more in the room and connected to the artist when I hear songs like that.

Author — Bengal Fett