1967
The history of the album begins with the death of The Beatles' long time manager, Brian Epstein in August 1967. Right after the very successful release of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the band would now be in limbo over their next direction. What came out of the summer of love was the film and accompanying soundtrack: "Magical Mystery Tour"
Writing and Recording
In step with the exploding psychedelia of 1967, The Beatles ventured to India where they studied transcendental meditation under Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. During their few months there, they had no access to recording equipment, so they spent a large amount of time writing new material. These songs would be the core of their next album. They spent the summer of 1968 in and out of the EMI Studios, frantically experimenting and recording as much as possible. Sometimes there were Beatles sessions spread across all 3 of EMI's studios at once.
Release
The resulting album contains their most adventurous and emotional material to date alongside tried and true genres like rockabilly, showtunes, and blues. Songs like "Helter Skelter" paved the way for the genre of hard rock and punk as they would be known later while John Lennon's "Revolution 9" would become the most experimental track The Beatles ever made. Paul McCartney would compose some of his most beautiful tunes yet like "Mother Nature's Son" and "Blackbird". Just when everyone was waiting for the most psychedelic Beatles album yet, they released a blank white cover, containing an explosion of musical influences, and impacting countless people across the world.