What makes the Beatles' White Album so great?

It seemed like we waited for it for so long..and then..a double!. I thought it wasn't their best..but then..it was an avalanche..Back in the USSR..Glass Onion..While My Guitar Gently Weeps..Revolution..Blackbird..I'm So Tired..Julia..Piggies..Happiness is a Warm Gun..Why Don't We Do it in the Road..etc etc..I am with you on Magical Mystery Tour though..no smack..no erasing of tapes due to Paul's meglomania.no musical comtempt for George and Ringo's contributions..I've got it and will continue to keep it..What's a 13 year old poor boy to do when not throwing bottles and rocks at 'Nam demos?

I've heard that too and I've never liked the White Album that much. Granted it has some great songs like "I Will" and "While My Gutair Gently Weeps" but is also has some real turkeys on it. I love the Beatles but "Why Don't We Do It In the Road" or "Rocky Raccoon" will never be songs I really want to hear over and over again. I've heard George Martin say that he thinks it would have made a really good single album instead of the double LP. I agree with that.

Personally, my favorite Beatles' album by far is Revolver. I'd actually list the White Album as probably my least favorite. (Even at that, it's still better than most albums by other artists.)

I'll be interested to see what other answers you get to this question.

I love the Beatles backwards, forwards, and inside out but I would have to agree with you as The White Album being at about 5 or 6. I love Rubber Soul, Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band, The Magical Mystery Tour. Those are some WONDERFUL albums. Man, talk about a legend. What a time.

Been a Beatle fan all my life. My favorite albums are Abbey Road and Sargeant Pepper. If I only had those two to choose from they'd be it. But I love Magical Mystery Tour and the White Album as well as all there older stuff.

There's alot of good stuff on the White Album don't ya think?

You don't have to regard it as great, it's all up to you!

I could write reams about individual songs - there are good, bad and so-so - but the thread that unites the White Album is that ultimately it is a huge, and quite intentional, musical joke. One reviewer called it "high satire" and that is what it is. Right from "Back In The USSR", which a parody of Chuck Berry and the Beach Boys, to "Yer Blues", which is a send-up of the blues, to "Rocky Raccoon" with its mock honky-tonk piano, the whole thing is a "concept album" as much as "Sgt Pepper".

That's why "Helter Skelter", "Rocky" and "Revolution No 9" can co-exist on one record. And that's why "Wild Honey Pie" and "Do It In The Road" work, though they are trivial out of context.

For some people, the diversity and parody aspect is important as a subtext; for others, they will just pick out songs based on sheer merit - and there are plenty of those. Just make up a CD of the ones you like : )

I am a hardcore Beatles fan, and I do love the white album, however it is not my favourite. It would probably be me fourth favourite after Rubber Soul, Revolver and Magical Mystery Tour. Everyone has different opinions.

There are many important things, probably more understandable to radio DJ's, one of whom I'm not. *A "bootleg": An oltherwise unavailable audio or video recording distributed without the artist's consent.

*1. Go to: "Research your answer" on your question page. 2. Type in: Music/bootleg/Details? 3. Go to: #2. 4. Go to: Music. There's the definition.

The 2nd portion of your question regarding the album explanation:

1. Go to: "Research your answer" on your question page. 2. Type in: Beatles/White Album/ Details? 3. As you read, you'll see why it's so important to so may people. Respectfully, if I had found the info. and only listed it nothing would make sense. I felt you might not know what bootlegging, musically, was. I THOUGHT I did. I'm glad I looked it up.

My favorite is Abbey Road and, like You The "White" Album is about My 4th or 5th Fave Beatles Album

I would say what makes it popular is the amount of incredible songs it has on it and, saying this might not make Me popular. But i think the Charles Manson connection fascinates a lot of the more casual fans.

i think of each thing that the beatles touched is incredibly magnificent, yet i did no longer truly like the white album over any of their different albums. i think of it is merely because of the fact their enormous 'hits' and maximum mainstream songs of that element have been off the white album, yet i need to be incorrect.

I think people like that album because of the creative and eclectic aspects of the music.

For me, their White Album is second to Sgt. Pepper.

By the way, people refer to that record as the "White Album", but that is not its name. The real name of that album is "The Beatles".