From the Archive: The White Album, when it was actually white & and a real album

This is one of my favorite stories from the earliest video tapes we still have.

It's a look at a new trend in vinyl records... picture disks.

Now (on the 10th anniversary), the Beatles White Album is actually all white.

You'll see a few other choice discs also (Sgt. Pepper, and is that Heart's Magazine?).

But the charm of this Dale Pandelis story isn't just the records.

We get a peak inside the old Record Bar store at Northgate, where I left a lot of money & memories.

Check out the record racks and those wall posters... can you identify them?

Wouldn't you like to have a pristine copy of one of those albums now!

But what's so special about The White Album that we celebrate it 40 years later?

Though it wasn't loaded with hits, this is actually the Beatles best selling record, going platinum 19 times over.

It is the tenth best selling album of all time in the U.S.

And over the last few years, it regularly lands on lists of the best albums of all time (for example, Number 10 on Rolling Stone's best 500 albums)

But despite all this praise, many call the double album a mess.

It came at a chaotic time for the Beatles.

They began writing the songs while studying in India.

It followed the death of their manager & the arrival of Yoko Ono.

They weren't getting along in the studio (which is why we have two versions of the song Revolution).

Still, this "mess" has stood the test of time.

Take a listen to WNYC's take on the anniversary.

PS... those posters look like ARS's Champagne Jam and the soundtrack to the Sgt. Pepper movie.