THE BEATLES’ WHITE ALBUM AT 50: WHEN THEY WAS FAB.

In 1963, recording their first album in a day, the Beatles had nailed “Twist and Shout” in one take. Six years later, they recorded 102 takes of George Harrison’s “Not Guilty,” only to leave it off The White Album. Meanwhile, as the embellishment and overdubbing grew more complicated, the band spread out into two studios, with George Martin’s aides Geoff Emerick and Chris Thomas at the controls. The result was the polarization of the Lennon-McCartney collaboration into parallel tracks. Instead of complementing each other by refining each other’s compositions, they now wrote antagonistically. The harsher Lennon became, the more sweetly McCartney responded. The result was the kaleidoscopic disorder and variable quality of The White Album.

Apparently, “Not Guilty” didn’t make the cut because of its jibes at the family business, which is too bad, as it might just be the best song ever left off a major pop/rock album.