The White Album was the first collection of the Beatles music that I remember, as an album, from the early 1970s, even though I didn’t hear it in full until (a decade or so) later. Nor did I know how it was called. My cousin had an incomplete recording of it on the A-side of a magnetic tape reel. On the box it was simply written “Double album”. The other side contained some unrelated material which was apparently not worth mentioning. For this reason, the “real” White Album for me finishes with Sexy Sadie, while the rest of it still sounds superfluous.
I was long wondering who was playing the guitar intro of The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill which, back in the 1970s, appeared to be a pinnacle of guitar virtuosity and a masterpiece in its own right. To my disappointment, I learned from Wikipedia that it
opens with a flamenco guitar phrase, played from a standard Mellotron bank of pre-recorded rhythms and phrases by studio engineer Chris Thomas. It is unknown how the sample was chosen.
To be honest, I am not ready to pay £125 for the seven-disc 50th anniversary box set. I am quite happy with my not-exactly-remastered edition, thank you very much.
As far as I know, there were no Melodiya singles with the original White Album material (quite unlike the case of Abbey Road). However, I vividly remember the single with the cover of Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da sung in English by Весёлые ребята (the A-side had «Старенький автомобиль», a Russian-language rendition of Drive My Car).
Perhaps my favourite cover version of a White Album song is Dear Prudence by Morgan James and Haley Reinhart.
Happy Birthday, White Album.
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