Editing The Beatles (album) (section)

===Packaging===
''The Beatles'' was issued on 22 November 1968 in Britain{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=163}} and three days later in the US.{{sfn|Castleman|Podrazik|1976|p=70}} It was the third album to be released by Apple Records, following Harrison's ''[[Wonderwall Music]]'' and Lennon and Ono's ''[[Two Virgins]]''.{{sfn|Castleman|Podrazik|1976|p=291}} The record was referred to as "the White Album" immediately upon release.{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=113}}

[[Conceptual art]]ist [[Richard Hamilton (artist)|Richard Hamilton]] designed the record sleeve{{sfn|Lewisohn|1988|p=163}} in collaboration with McCartney.{{sfn|Miles|Scott|Morgan|2008|p=50}} Hamilton's design was in stark contrast to [[Pop art]]ists [[Peter Blake (artist)|Peter Blake's]] and [[Jann Haworth|Jann Haworth's]]<ref>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/3TZbNn59V1tMCx3dXXlf2BK/jann-haworth-the-forgotten-creator-of-the-sgt-pepper-cover] Jann Haworth: The forgotten creator of the Sgt. Pepper cover, 17 May 2017, BBC</ref> elaborate and vivid cover art for ''Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band'', and consisted of a plain white sleeve. The band's name, in [[Helvetica]],<ref>{{cite book |title=Just My Type: A Book About Fonts |last=Garfield |first=Simon |page=275 |publisher=[[Penguin Books]] |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-101-57781-3}}</ref> was crookedly [[paper embossing#Blind emboss|blind embossed]] slightly below the middle of the album's right side.<ref>{{cite book |title=Britain Since 1945: Aspects of Identity |first=Peter |last=Leese |page=94 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-230-20836-0}}</ref> Later [[Gramophone record|vinyl record]] releases in the US showed the title in grey printed (rather than embossed) letters.{{sfn|Miles|1997|p=504}} Each copy of the record featured a unique stamped [[serial number]], "to create", in Hamilton's words, "the [[irony|ironic]] situation of a numbered edition of something like five million copies".{{sfn|Miles|Scott|Morgan|2008|p=52}} The first four numbered copies were given to the members of the band, making number 0000005 the first copy sold publicly; in 2008, it was purchased for £19,201 on [[eBay]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.musicradar.com/news/guitars/rare-beatles-white-album-sells-for-30k-184157 |title=Rare Beatles 'White Album' sells for $30k |first=Tom |last=Porter |journal=[[MusicRadar]] |date=24 November 2008 |access-date=24 June 2014}}</ref> In 2015, Ringo Starr's copy, number 0000001, sold for a world record $790,000 at auction.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/ringo-starrs-personal-white-album-sells-for-world-record-910-000-20151205|title=Ringo Starr's Personal 'White Album' Sells for World Record $790,000|first=Daniel|last=Kreps|magazine=[[Rolling Stone]]|date=5 December 2015|access-date=6 December 2015}}</ref> In an interview on the Impossible Way of Life podcast, it was first revealed by members of [[Hotline TNT]] that the winner of the auction was [[Jack White]] and that the album is currently held in the vault at the headquarters of [[Third Man Records]] in [[Nashville, Tennessee|Nashville, TN]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Impossible Way of Life - Episode 356 "Life At Third Man (Ft. Hotline TNT)" |url=https://www.patreon.com/posts/episode-356-life-111387762}}</ref>

The sleeve included a poster comprising a montage of photographs, with the lyrics of the songs on the back, and a set of four photographic portraits taken by John Kelly.{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=207}} The photographs for the poster were assembled by Hamilton and McCartney, who sorted them in a variety of ways over several days before arriving at the final result.{{sfn|Miles|1997|p=504}}

During production, the album had the working title of ''A Doll's House''. This was changed when the English [[progressive rock]] band [[Family (band)|Family]] released the similarly titled ''[[Music in a Doll's House]]'' earlier that year.{{sfn|MacDonald|1997|p=286}}