I actually do prefer the white album to Revolver, it just has such variety, from Revolution and Dear Prudence to Rocky Raccoon and Back in the USSR.
If you ask me what the best collection of Beatles songs is I'll say white album, absolutely. As far a albums go, ones that are to be listened to all the way through, its not even top 3 for me. I put it behind revolver, rubber soul and abbey road. Each of those is a masterpiece. White album gets interrupted by shit, as thenewgreen points out below. That said, happiness is a warm gun and helter skelter are probably my favorite songs of theirs.
My favourite song has to be either Paperback Writer or Julia
Julia is the only Beatles song ever released that features only John playing. Written for his mother, as I'm sure you know. Wonderful, wonderful song. Paperback Writer has such a kick ass guitar riff. Reminds me of this old post: Ask Hubski -Best Beatles Guitar Riff
you know what else has great guitar, Helter Skelter. I just love the energy behind it.
Hell yeah. Also Revolution. -Was the first song that introduced what "distortion" is to me.
I have a question about Revolution. Was the original the slow or the fast one? I love both but they each have a different feel.
I had the reverse, I used to spell the bug Beatle when I was a kid. I was kidding about Yoko.
The White Album was the first Beatles album I owned and therefore has a special place for me. Glass Onion, Mother Natures Son, I'm So Tired, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Helter Skelter.... WOW. But still, there's some bullshit there too: Revolution 9, Honeypie, Piggies etc. Revolver on the other hand is perfect. If they shaved off a few tunes from the White Album, it would be too. But from a nostalgia perspective, it is perfect to me. "looking through the bent back tulips, to see how the other half lives"
Almost_A_Robot and b_b, I'm pretty sure the slower (acoustic) version Revolution 1 was the originally recorded version but they actually released Revolution (bad ass version) first as a single. I'm not sure what the thinking behind this was? Why not have both on the album? It's not as if they were overly picky about what made the album and what didn't, right? John at this point is a pretty hard dude to deal with from a managerial standpoint (not that he was ever easy) and I'm guessing it was by his design. Not sure really though. If you've got more, I'd be glad to learn about it. I blame Yoko.
Yoko was good for John but bad for the Beatles. Also on a side note I always thought beetle was spelled like the Beatles I realized this about a month ago and it hit me like a truck.
Yeah they took a risk with a lot of the songs on the White Album, some are not hits but I can still appreciate Revolution as a sound collage. My favourite thing about the beatles is the stories behind the songs.
As a ridiculous Beatles fan I highly suggest reading Here, There and Everywhere by Geoff Emerick. By far the best account of the Beatles recording process and cool anecdotal stuff that I've ever come across. If you are interested in how the songs came to be, sonically, then check it out. Been trying to get b_b to read it for almost a year ;-)