"While My Guitar Gently Weeps"  is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 double album The Beatles (also known as "the White Album").  It was written by George Harrison, the band's lead guitarist.  The song serves as a comment on the disharmony within the Beatles following their return from studying Transcendental Meditation in India in early 1968.  This lack of camaraderie was reflected in the band's initial apathy towards the composition, which Harrison countered by inviting his friend and occasional collaborator, Eric Clapton, to contribute to the recording.  Clapton overdubbed a lead guitar part, although he was not formally credited for his contribution.  The song conveys his dismay at the world's unrealised potential for universal love, which he refers to as "the love there that's sleeping".  Harrison first recorded it with a sparse backing of acoustic guitar and harmonium – a version that appeared on the 1996 Anthology 3 outtakes compilation and, with the addition of a string arrangement by George Martin, on the Love soundtrack album in 2006.  (More from Wikipedia)

 

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Wikipedia lists some of the accolades that have come to "While My Guitar Gently Weeps":  "'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' is ranked at number 136 on Rolling Stone's 'The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time', number 7 on the magazine's list of 'The 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time', and number 10 on its list of 'The Beatles' 100 Greatest Songs'.  In an online poll held by Guitar World magazine in February 2012, 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' was voted the best of Harrison's Beatle-era songs.  In October 2008, Guitar World ranked [Eric Clapton]'s playing at number 42 in its list of the '100 Greatest Guitar Solos'."