In part one of our Beatles 1968 retrospective, the group began the year already atop the charts and back in the studio to produce both another #1 single ― "Lady Madonna" ― and lay the foundation for the ambitious double White Album. They studied with the Maharishi in India, then hobnobbed with the Manhattan press as they launched their own Apple Corps company and record label. It would’ve been a remarkably productive year had they quit then, but the best ― and most controversial ― was yet to come.
JULY
John’s art exhibit, "You Are Here (To Yoko Ono, From John Lennon)" opens at London’s Robert Fraser Gallery. John and Yoko release 365 white helium-filled balloons to launch the event.
On weekdays the band continues a busy slate of sessions for the White Album at Abbey Road studios, recording "Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except For Me and My Monkey," "Good Night," "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da," the single version of "Revolution," "Don’t Pass Me By," "Cry Baby Cry," "Helter Skelter, " "Sexy Sadie" and a studio demo version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."
Inspired by concerns about the effects John Lennon’s estrangement from wife Cynthia is having on their young son Julian, Paul McCartney composes "Hey Jude" and the band works it up at Abbey Road, with the cameras of the British National Music Council capturing rehearsal takes for a documentary.
The next day the band formally records "Hey Jude" at Trident Studios, one of the few Beatles recordings made outside the legendary EMI Abbey Road facilities.
1968 has been such a busy year for the Beatles that they have yet to pose for any official press photos, a situation they remedy at the end of the month with what’s dubbed the "Mad Day Out." Accompanied by a handful of trusted photographers, the band poses at a variety of London locations.
The Yellow Submarine animated feature premieres at London’s Pavilion theater, with all four Beatles in attendance.
Ending a five-year romance, actress Jane Asher announces she’s broken off her engagement to Paul McCartney. Brother Peter Asher – half of British pop duo Peter and Gordon – goes on to become the wildly successful producer of Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and many others.
AUGUST
Sessions for the White Album continue at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios, with the band making more progress on previous tracks and beginning recording of George Harrison’s "Not Guilty" (an outtake that eventually ends up on the Anthology 3 collection three decades later), "Mother Nature’s Son," "Yer Blues," John’s "experimental" goof "What’s the New Mary Jane" (yet another Anthology 3 outtake), "Rocky Racoon," the final version of George’s "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," "Wild Honey Pie," "Back in the USSR," and "Dear Prudence."
Ringo and John finishing up "Don’t Pass Me By"
The Apple label debuts in the UK with the release of Welsh folksinger Mary Hopkins’ "Those Were the Days" single. The rewritten Russian cabaret song eventually follows "Hey Jude" to the top of the U.K. charts, where it stays for six weeks. Producer Paul McCartney shrewdly had the singer also record versions of the song in French, Spanish, Italian and
German, yielding a culture-spanning, perpetually-covered mainstream pop hit that eventually morphed into everything from English football club anthem to Brazilian game show theme.
"Hey Jude" enters the U.S. charts at No. 10, then the highest position for a single’s debut in the history of Billboard magazine, selling a million copies in its first 72 hours.
Cynthia Lennon files for divorce from John, citing grounds of adultery.
A sign of the mounting personal and professional tensions within the group, the first Beatle briefly quits the band. Surprisingly, it’s Ringo, who flies to the Mediterranean to spend a week aboard Peter Sellers’ yacht pondering his future ― and writing "Octopus’ Garden," his eventual contribution to the Abbey Road album. In Starr’s absence Paul plays drums on the Beach Boys-parodying rocker "Back in the USSR."
SEPTEMBER
Having decided to remain a Beatle, Ringo returns to the studio on September 3 to find his drums heaped with garlands of flowers from his grateful band mates. Eric Clapton records his signature solo for "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" at Abbey Road on the sixth. Sessions for previous tracks continue, with the band also beginning work on "Glass Onion," "I Will," "Birthday," "Piggies" and "Happiness is a Warm Gun."
Apple releases the George Harrison-written "Sour Milk Sea" by Jackie Lomax and the Lennon & McCartney-penned instrumental "Thingumybob" by the Black Dyke Mills Band, one of the oldest traditional brass bands in the world.
George and Ringo chat over a meal in the Abbey Road control room
Mixing live vocals with backing tracks, the band and eventual Let It Be director Michael Lindsay-Hogg film multiple takes of promotional film clips for "Hey Jude" and "Revolution," which debut on David Frost’s show and the BBC, respectively, in Britain and later air on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in America.
The band appears on the cover of Life magazine via one of their more formal "Mad Day Out" poses, heralding the publication of Hunter Davies’ "authorized" Beatles biography.
OCTOBER
Taking another break from their Abbey Road studio home, the band records for a week at Trident, working on "Honey Pie," "Savoy Truffle," and "Martha My Dear," then returns to the EMI facility to record "Long, Long, Long" and various overdubs for previous tracks, also beginning the arduous task of mixing and sequencing the double-album’s multitude of tracks. The last track recorded for the collection is John Lennon’s touching solo performance of "Julia."
John Lennon celebrates his 28th birthday by finishing up "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill" at Abbey Road. George Harrison flies to Los Angeles to record Jackie Lomax’s album for Apple.
John and Yoko are arrested at their Montague Square flat and charged with possession of narcotics, then remanded on bail. Cynthia Lennon’s divorce trial is decided in her favor.
John and Yoko announce their first child is due in February. New York photographer Linda Eastman and daughter Heather move to England to live with Paul McCartney.
George Harrison’s Wonderwall soundtrack is released in the U.K.
NOVEMBER
"Hey Jude" remains at No. 1 on the Billboard charts for most of the month ― and nine weeks in total. The song becomes the magazine’s top release of the year and goes on to be nominated for three Grammy awards, including Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Performance by a Duo or Group. It eventually loses to, respectively, Simon and Garfunkel’s "Mrs. Robinson," "Little Green Apples" and "Mrs. Robinson" again.
Paul McCartney gives an exclusive interview to Radio Luxembourg, discussing production of the White Album.
Yoko Ono suffers a miscarriage of John Ono Lennon II. She and John appear at Marylebone Magistrates' Court a week later, where he pleads guilty to possession of cannabis resin and is fined 150 pounds, plus court costs.
The Beatles, aka the White Album, is released in the U.K. on the 22nd and sells a record two million copies in its first week. Its minimalist, all-white cover, embossed with the band’s name and sequentially numbered in its original editions, is a stark contrast to the colorful psychedelia of Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour. The cover also 
echoes the album’s more organic approach to music. "We’ve tried to play more like a band this time," Paul McCartney notes, "only using instruments when we had to, instead of just using them for the fun of it."The packaging also contains a collage poster of the band, as well as four individual color portraits.
John Lennon speaks his mind in a revealing interview with Rolling Stone.
A week after the White Album debuts, John and Yoko release their experimental first album collaboration. Dubbed Unfinished Music No.1: Two Virgins, its cover – which depicts the couple in full frontal and rear nudity ― immediately becomes the most controversial in rock music history, with EMI and Capitol refusing to distribute it. Enclosed in a brown paper covering, only 5000 copies were originally released in Britain via alternate means, while in America the record variously charted at No. 124, was confiscated in some communities as obscene, and inspired a teenaged Cissy Spacek ― performing as ‘Rainbo’ ― to record a protest song about it, "John You Went Too Far This Time."
DECEMBER
Working again with director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Lennon and Yoko Ono film performances for the Rolling Stones’ ill-fated TV special, Rock and Roll Circus, which will remain unreleased for three decades. John performs his riveting White Album standout "Yer Blues" with a one-off super-group he dubs The Dirty Mac: Lennon on rhythm guitar and vocals, Eric Clapton on lead guitar, Keith Richards on bass and Hendrix drummer Mitch Mitchell. Here’s a rare alternate take:
At a Christmas charity art festival in London, John and Yoko make an appearance in matching white cloth sacks, and later distribute gifts to the children of Apple’s staff dressed in Santa Claus costumes.
In America, Wonderwall is released, the White Album is certified Gold, "Hey Jude" spends its final week in the Billboard Top 30 and the band closes out its busiest 12 months by appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone.
