John Lennon repeatedly named The Beatles' 1968 self-titled double LP, commonly known as The White Album, as his favourite of the band's records, rating it above the more celebrated Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. He argued that while Pepper carries the bigger reputation, The White Album's music was stronger and more honest, reflecting the group's fracturing dynamic rather than the tighter, more unified approach Paul McCartney favoured.

The album spanned everything from tender ballads such as "Julia" to the unsettling "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" and the experimental sound collage "Revolution 9", making it, in Lennon's view, a rawer and more authentic showcase of the band's range than any conceptually polished predecessor. Its sessions also proved unusually productive, yielding extra material such as "Across the Universe" and early sketches of songs Lennon later completed during his solo career, including "Look at Me".