The Beatles – The Beatles

I purchased this double jewel case in 1992/1993 so I have to guess this version was released in the early 90s.

I know it's a well-worn cliche, but this truly would have made a killer single lp, with all of the throwaways missing.
Both Paul and John offer some great compositions on this lp, but in my mind Lennon edges out McCartney. Lennon is nothing short of brilliant with "Sexy Sadie", "Happiness Is A Warm Gun", "I'm So Tired", "Revolution 1" (so much better than the electric version) and "Yer Blues". "Julia" is a lovely song about his mother, and "Cry Baby Cry" is an underrated gem. "Everybody's Got Something To Hide" is classic Lennon nonsense.
McCartney is no slouch, either with "Back In The USSR", "Blackbird", "I Will" (the song may be a 'trifle', but it's such an engaging little trifle). "Martha My Dear" (written for his sheep dog) is an interesting piece of pop music. "Honey Pie" is cloyingly nostalgic, but one of McCartney's more successful efforts of this ilk. (Beats the hell out of the annoying "When I'm 64" from "Sgt. Pepper's".) And I find something marvelous in his "Why Don't We Do It In The Road".
Harrison offers his classic "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (which in a strange way bores me to tears now). His "Piggies" only conjures up the whole ugly Manson affair. "Long, Long, Long" is a rather minor composition. But I get a kick out of the horns on "Savoy Truffle".
This album demonstrates the excesses that John and Paul would take in their solo careers. "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" suffers from terminal cuteness. "Birthday" and "Helter Skelter" are both examples of dumb rock and roll. (It's amazing how well "Yer Blues" by Lennon works and McCartney's "Helter Skelter" is just plain silly.)
In the "Nice Songs But No Great Shakes" category we have "Rocky Raccoon", "Bungalow Bill", "Glass Onion", "Dear Prudence", "Mother Nature's Son".
Ringo's sole contribution is the abysmal "Don't Me By". The arrangement of violin and organ sounds like a nightmare at the Ice Follies! Really terrible.
Speaking of really terrible, the audio experiment "Revolution 9" was silly at the time and is still a big embarrassment to this day. Keep Yoko Ono out of the studio, for God's sake!
This album also provided a lot of steam for the "Paul is Dead" myth. "He hit a lightpole, we better get him to see a surgeon", "Paul is dead, miss him miss him" (backwards at the end of "Blackbird")...."You were in a car crash and you lost your hair..." It's my theory that John Lennon was behind this. Certainly not to sell any albums. Just Lennon's wonderfully sick sense of humor. It's ridiculous to deny the clues contained in many of their recordings.
In a strange osmosis, Lennon pens the McCartney tune "Good Night" which closes the album. Yes, it's schmaltzy, but in a strange way, it works quite well as a finale to this exsessive and at times brilliant work.
So at the end of the day, the Beatles; hype, warts and all, turn out a very fine album. I think it's just as good, if not better, than "Sgt. Pepper's".