The Beatles - "While my guitar gently weeps"

George Harrison was reading the 'I Ching', the Chinese book of changes, and decided to apply its principles of chance to his songwriting. At his parents' Lancashire home, he picked a novel off the shelf with the intention of writing a song based on the first words that he came across. The words were 'gently weeps' and so George began to write.

Eric Clapton played lead guitar. He and George Harrison were good friends, but George had to convince him to come to the studio because Clapton was worried the other Beatles wouldn't want him there.
Clapton's presence actually eased the mood in the studio at a tense time for The Beatles. They were at each other's throats during recording of The White Album, but they all relaxed when Clapton showed up.
The song was the first song Ringo played on after leaving the band in frustration a few weeks earlier. He returned to find flowers on his drums to welcome him back.

The strange guitar sound on the album is a guitar being played backwards. They recorded a guitar separately from the rest of the song, and reversed the track to create the music for the song.

According to legend, it's supposed to sound like George is saying, "Paul, Paul..." at the end (because Paul had supposedly died.)