Curated playlist
1968 songs
- Don't Pass Me By"Don't Pass Me By" took six years to get from Ringo Starr's piano to a recording studio. Starr first played the song for the other Beatles not long after he joined the group in August 1962, but it would sit unrecorded for the better part…
- Helter Skelter (song)'I got blisters on my fingers!' That shout, at the close of 'Helter Skelter,' is one of the most famous unscripted moments in rock history. It arrived during a September 1968 recording session, after Ringo Starr threw his drumsticks across…
- Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" is a song the Beatles nearly tore themselves apart making. Paul McCartney wrote it in Rishikesh, India, in early 1968, while he and his bandmates were studying Transcendental Meditation. Prudence Farrow, a fellow…
- Revolution (Beatles song)"Revolution" arrived in the summer of 1968 as one of the most argued-over pop songs ever released. John Lennon wrote it while the Beatles were studying Transcendental Meditation in Rishikesh, India, inspired by a wave of student uprisings,…
- Hey Jude"Hey Jude" began as a car journey and a father's absence. In June 1968, Paul McCartney drove out to Weybridge to visit a five-year-old boy named Julian Lennon, whose parents had just separated. By the time McCartney arrived at Kenwood, the…
- Back in the U.S.S.R."Back in the U.S.S.R." opens The Beatles' 1968 double album with the sound of a turboprop aircraft landing on a runway. Before a single lyric is sung, the listener is placed inside a scene. Then Paul McCartney's voice arrives, and it is…
- Dear Prudence"Dear Prudence" was written in early 1968 in the foothills of the Himalayas, far from any recording studio. John Lennon was sitting beneath a jacaranda tree in Rishikesh, India, learning a new guitar technique from the folk singer Donovan,…
- Sexy Sadie"Sexy Sadie" began as something far more blunt: a song called "Maharishi." John Lennon wrote it in India in 1968, bags already packed, ready to leave the ashram at Rishikesh after hearing an accusation that shook his faith in a spiritual…
- Revolution 9"Revolution 9" begins with a voice repeating the words "number nine" as it pans slowly across the stereo field. That voice belonged to an EMI engineer who had been recording a routine test series. John Lennon found the tape, cut it up, and…
- The Inner Light (song)"The Inner Light" arrived in record shops on the 15th of March 1968, tucked away as the B-side to "Lady Madonna", and most listeners probably flipped the disc over without a second thought. What they missed was something without precedent…