The “Lost Harrison” White Album Story

First, a little background…

The Beatles, better known as the White Album, was their tenth studio album (based on their UK sequence order) and was released in 1968. It very quickly became the #1 global best-selling album and was by far the band’s top dollar seller.

It retailed in the US for $11.98 vs. $5.98 for a typical one-record album and spent 186 weeks on the Billboard 200. In 2022 dollars, it would be selling for $102! Music is much more affordable today. Case in point, the minimum hourly wage in 1968 was $1.60, which implies it would take 7.5 hours of work at that wage to buy the album. Today, you can purchase a new The Beatles album on Amazon for roughly $25, which requires the owner to work 3.5 hours at the $7.25 federal 2022 minimum wage. A $15 minimum hourly wage, which is reality in many areas of America in 2022 would require 50 minutes to acquire it.

It contained 30 new original songs and became the record industry’s fastest selling double album. The “Hey Jude”/”Revolution” single, which was recorded during the same sessions and was released a few months in advance of the White Album.

The album is the band’s:

§ Most-certified album, at 24x’s platinum in the US.

§ First album release from their new company, Apple Records.