The 3 Undisputed Best Songs From the Beatles’ 1968 Self-Titled LP

When considering The Beatles, it’s always hard to nail down which songs or albums are the cream of the crop. Though the group was only around for about a decade, The Beatles were prolific and most of their catalog remains timeless today, some 60 or 70 years since the release.

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Here below, we wanted to dive into one of the group’s most celebrated albums, their self-titled LP often referred to as The White Album. Indeed, just for fun, these are the three undisputed best songs from The Beatles’ 1968 LP, The White Album.

“While My Guitar Gently Weeps” (Track 7, 4:45)

One of the most famous songs of the 1960s—then and now—this track, which was written by George Harrison, is centered on the six-string. Harrison, who was The Beatles’ lead guitar player, turned his instrument into a metaphor for the tune the guitar cries at the state of the world. And as Harrison sings about it, his friend Eric Clapton plays lead, wailing like a banshee on the thing. As a result, “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” has come to sum up a genre rooted itself in the guitar.

“Blackbird” (Track 11, 2:18)

The Beatles’ Paul McCartney wrote perhaps the two most famous acoustic guitar songs of all time, “Yesterday” and this tune from The White Album, “Blackbird”. On this one, McCartney sings about the animal suffering from broken wings. Like the song above, though, the star of the track is also something of a metaphor. In various interviews, McCartney has said the iconic track was inspired both by a literal blackbird, which he heard sing in Rishikesh, India, and by the American Civil Rights movement.

“Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?” (Track 15, 1:41)

We’ll stick with McCartney for the last song on this list. When considering The White Album, there are of course so many tracks to think of. But we wanted to end with a silly one here. Spanning just one-minute and 41 seconds, the tune seems to imply a love connection in the middle of a thoroughfare. What a silly song topic! Of course, the lyrics are so simple, you can read whatever you want into them—that’s often the foundation of a great track.

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