In the end, none of the Beatles finished the course, and returned home to England. Ringo Starr did not like the spicy food served at the ashram where the Maharishi lived and taught, and it made him ill. He also missed his children. Paul McCartney became tired of the long sessions, and wanted to return home. Lennon and George Harrison heard stories that the Maharishi had flirted with Mia Farrow (an American actress who also took the course), and other women at the ashram. They did not think this was right for a "holy man" to do. They confronted the Maharishi, and later left with their wives to go home, deciding the Maharishi was a fraud.
The Beatles had formed their own company, Apple Corps, before they went to India. When they returned, they went to work full-time to make Apple Corps, and especially its record label, Apple Records, a success. To raise money, the Beatles had signed a new recording contract with EMI, the company who owned Parlophone Records, which made and sold their records. They also made an agreement with EMI for them to market Apple Records.
The Beatles needed to record seventy new songs within nine years, between 1967 and 1976, to complete their contract. They believed that once they delivered those seventy recordings, they would be free to go to another record company. Between all the songs they wrote in India, and their backlog of older songs, they knew they could finish the job. They recorded demos of many of the songs at George Harrison's house, using his four-track tape recorder, then began work on the album at Abbey Road Studios in London.
The Beatles's record producer, George Martin, thought they should take the best of the India songs, and make one especially good album. The Beatles instead decided to make a double album, with as many songs on it as possible, to help finish their contract quickly.
The lives of the individual Beatles changed greatly during 1968, and the making of the "White Album". Paul McCartney was engaged to actress Jane Asher, but she came home early one day and found him with another woman, Francine Schwartz, an American who worked for Apple Corps. She and McCartney fought, then made up, but decided to break up later. McCartney also began to use cocaine. The drug made him hard to get along with. Later in the year he met another woman, Linda Eastman, an American photographer who had a daughter, named Heather. McCartney loved children and wanted to start a family, while Jane Asher wanted to put her acting career first. Linda boasted that she would be proud to have McCartney's children. She and McCartney became very close, very quickly.
John Lennon invited Yoko Ono to his house, while Cynthia was away on a vacation with friends, one weekend in May. The two spent a night together in Lennon's attic studio, listening to his avant-garde recordings and finally making one of their own. Lennon discovered Ono was "as barmy (crazy) as I was", and that they connected personally in a way he and Cynthia never had. They finished the recording, and had intercourse as the sun rose that morning. They woke up late the next day, in love with each other, and decided to stay together from then on, even though they were both married to other people. Lennon's wife Cynthia and Ono's husband Anthony Cox both took the news very hard, with their children (Lennon's son Julian by Cynthia, and Ono's daughter Kyoko by Cox) caught in the middle.
George Harrison had grown as a musician and songwriter, and as a celebrity. He was the youngest member of the Beatles, and always felt "under the thumb" of Lennon and McCartney. They and George Martin limited how many of Harrison's songs the Beatles recorded, and turned down many of his songs that other bands would be happy to record. This frustrated Harrison. Almost nobody outside the Beatles knew about the situation. Friends like Ravi Shankar, who was Harrison's first real music teacher, and Eric Clapton, a phenomenal guitarist himself, treated him differently. Most of the public saw Harrison as an equal with Lennon and McCartney. Harrison began to think about making his own music, away from the Beatles.
Back at Abbey Road, Ringo Starr felt out of place during the recording sessions, and that he was not needed. Paul McCartney had not liked Starr's drumming on a song, and re-recorded the part himself when Starr was not there. This hurt Starr's feelings, and he decided to leave the band. He stayed home for a week, playing with his children and deciding what he should do next with his life. The other Beatles missed him, and invited him back. When Starr returned, McCartney and Harrison had covered his drums with flowers and welcome-back messages. Starr felt loved by his bandmates, and stayed.
The changes in the band's personal lives showed in their new recordings. Instead of sounding like a band working together, the songs sounded like solo artists working with a backing group. They also began to have problems getting along. Lennon brought Ono to the studio whenever he came, breaking a rule they had never to bring wives or girlfriends to sessions. Ono, who was also a musician, spoke her mind about how the music sounded, and it took everyone else by surprise. Harrison also began to speak up more for himself, when the band played together.
Outside the studio, people who worked for the Beatles, and the Beatles's fans in England, did not like Ono's influence on Lennon, and let the couple know often, and sometimes loudly. When they attended a play based on Lennon's writings, the audience harassed the pair, asking "Where's your wife, John?" Some members of the public made racist comments about Ono, or called her ugly.
Ono's new presence in Lennon's life even drove a wedge between him and McCartney. When the couple stayed at McCartney's house, McCartney left Lennon a note that insulted Ono greatly. He admitted later it had only been a joke, but Lennon felt like he no longer even knew McCartney, if he could make such an insult.
Neither Lennon nor Ono could believe the way they were treated by the public, by people who worked for the Beatles, and even by Lennon's friends. They felt hurt and hated. A friend suggested they try heroin, to relieve the pain they felt. Before long, the two were addicted to the drug. It caused problems with their health, and with how they acted in public.
Recording the "White Album" took much longer than the Beatles normally spent on an album. Their label, Apple Records, was expected to make a big debut over the summer, while the album would not be ready until at least that fall. In the meantime, they recorded songs for a single, as their part of the debut. Paul McCartney visited Cynthia and Julian, at their new home. He knew they were hurt by Lennon's leaving Cynthia for Yoko Ono, and he made up a song for Julian on the way, to cheer him up. Its words went "Hey Jules, it's not so bad. Take a sad song, and make it better." This turned into "Hey Jude", which became the Beatles's biggest hit single ever, and one of the first pop songs to last longer than three minutes.
The B-side of "Hey Jude" was "Revolution", a song by Lennon in reaction to the Soviet Union's action against student protests in Czechoslovakia, the ongoing war in Vietnam, and calls around the world for a revolution against the status quo. He hoped the band's first recording of the song would become their next single, but it was rejected as too slow and too long. He re-recorded the song, faster this time, lying on the studio floor to give the vocals more "punch". "Hey Jude" was seen as a bigger potential hit though, so "Revolution" became the B-side. The Beatles performed both songs live for an audience, and the performances appeared on "The David Frost Show" in England, and "The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour" in America.