The one and only George Harrison tune in my Beatles series, ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ is also one of my all-time favorite songs by the band. It’s very different in style and feel than most Beatles songs, which is part of its charm.

The Beatles (or The White Album, as it’s popularly known) is ironically titled… the first album named after the band itself showcases the group at its most splintered. While past Beatles efforts were very much a collaborative effort, much of this album wasn’t even recorded with the full band present.

And on this track, George invited the most famous Beatles session player ever, his friend Eric Clapton, to play lead guitar. Clapton felt weird about playing on a Beatles song and asked that his solo be re-worked in production to sound more like the band’s other work.

Whatever the state of the band during this album’s recording, the result was a very strong record. It does contain a lot of dead weight, and there’s likely a masterpiece of a single album among its 30 tracks, but it remains a fascinating document of the world’s greatest band in personal and creative turmoil.