The Beatles’ ‘White Album’ is a global hit, again

It’s not exactly Beatlemania, but the Fab Four are making their presence felt on album charts all over the globe right now.

The Beatles’ self-titled album, often referred to as The White Album, fires into the top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic and in Australia after its 50th anniversary reissue, which carries new mixes and previously unheard demos and session cuts.

The classic album re-enters the Billboard 200 at No. 6 with 63,000 units shifted (up 1,499 percent) in the week ending Nov. 15, according to Nielsen Music, with the lion’s share made up of physical album sales. According to Billboard, 52,000 of those first-week sales were CD and vinyl, up 5,596 percent from the previous week.

The White Album, the band’s ninth studio set, spent nine non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the main U.S. chart between Dec. 1968 and March 1969 and was last seen in the top 10 that year.

It’s a similar story in the Beatles’ homeland as the double album, which includes “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” “Blackbird,” “Back in the U.S.S.R.” and “Helter Skelter,” blasts to No. 4. The White Album previously logged eight weeks at the U.K. chart summit.

Though they official disbanded in 1970, the Beatles catalogue is a platinum mine. And as each of their major albums reaches the half-century milestone, Apple Corps is sending reissued versions back into the world and up the charts. A 50th anniversary reissue of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band also broke into the Billboard 200 last year at No. 3. Next year will see the 50th anniversary of Abbey Road, and their final album, Let It Be, will hit the big 5-0 the following year.

The White Album’s 30 reissued tracks are freshly mixed by producer Giles Martin, son of the late, great producer George Martin, and engineer Sam Okell in stereo and 5.1 surround audio, along with 27 early acoustic demos and 50 session takes, many of which have been locked in the vault until now.

The White Album also enjoys a burst in Australia, where it’s No. 10 on the latest ARIA Albums Chart and is double-platinum certified in nearly a year on the survey (49 weeks and counting).

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.