The White Album, as it is most often referred to, was the ninth album by the Beatles. A double album, it was released in 1968 at the height of the Beatles' popularity, and is often hailed as one of the major accomplishments in popular music. With this album, each of the four band members began to showcase the range and depth of their individual songwriting talents and styles that would be carried over to their eventual solo careers.

The album was recorded between 30 May 1968 and 14 October 1968, largely at Abbey Road with some sessions at Trident Studios. The sessions, although productive, were sometimes fractious and exacerbated the growing tensions within the group. A major source of this tension was the constant presence of Lennon's new girlfriend and artistic partner Yoko Ono; prior to this, The Beatles had been very insular during recording sessions. Lennon's dissatisfaction with the band and growing drug use were also evident. Often McCartney would record in one studio while Lennon would record in another at the same time, using different engineers. The studio tensions carried over into the Beatles' subsequent album and film project in early 1969, ultimately released as Let It Be. At one point in the sessions, George Martin grew disgusted and spontaneously left on vacation, leaving Chris Thomas in charge of producing the sessions.

Many of the songs here are personal and self-referencing. "Dear Prudence" was written for actress Mia Farrow's sister, Prudence, who attended a Transcendental Meditation course in Rishikesh, India, at the same time as the group and who experienced violent hallucinations while meditating. She had to be kept in her room under guard for a period and after the guard was removed she was afraid to leave her room, thus the lyrics "Won't you come out to play...". She was serenaded with this song in an attempt to reassure her and help her calm down. In fact, many songs on The White Album were conceived during the group's ill-fated visit to India in the spring of 1968. "Sexy Sadie" is about Maharishi Mahesh Yogi who led those transcendental meditation classes and who allegedly tried to seduce Mia Farrow. "Glass Onion" is Lennon's song for those fans who spent their time trying to find hidden meanings in the group's lyrics; it references several other Beatles songs. The album runs the gamut of genres from pop with tracks such as "Birthday" and "Back in the U.S.S.R.," hard guitar-based rock in "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," British blues in "Yer Blues," proto-heavy metal in "Helter Skelter," ska in "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," influential and experimental audio-montages in "Revolution 9," and acoustic ballads such as "Blackbird" and "Julia."

The only western instrument that was available to the group during their Indian visit was the acoustic guitar, and several of the songs (such as "Dear Prudence", "Julia", "Blackbird" and "Mother Nature's Son") were written and first performed during their stay. These songs were recorded either solo, or by only part of the group.

Yoko Ono made her first appearance, adding backing vocals in "Birthday" (along with Pattie Harrison and Linda Eastman); Ono also sang backing vocals and a solo line on "Bungalow Bill" and was a strong influence on Lennon's musique concrète piece, "Revolution 9".

Eric Clapton, at Harrison's invitation, provided an extra lead guitar for Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." George would later return the favour by collaborating on the song "Badge" for Cream's last album Goodbye.

Several songs recorded during The White Album sessions were not part of the final album, such as, "Hey Jude" (released as a single backed with "Revolution"). Other songs would later surface on bootlegs as well as on The Beatles Anthology, including Harrison's "Not Guilty" (which he would later re-record as a solo track and release on his 1979 self-titled album, George Harrison) and Lennon's "What's The New Mary Jane?".

The album was produced and orchestrated by George Martin, and was the first album released by Apple Records, and the only original double album released by The Beatles. Martin was personally dissatisfied with the double album and advised the group to reduce the number of songs in order to feature their stronger work on a single disc. However, the group overruled him.