Beatles for Sale was the Fab Four's fourth LP, released at the beginning of December 1964. The band had been touring extensively at home and abroad leaving little time for writing or recording. This is evident in this collection. After the superb A Hard Day's Night LP and film the record company were keen for more product from the Beatles and the songwriting partnership of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. However, only eight of the fourteen tracks were Lennon-McCartney originals, the remainder being covers. Most of these dated back to the band's Hamburg set. Indeed, the group was so familiar with these tracks that many were recorded in one take. John and Paul were clearly not able to produce quality new songs on the scale the record company had hoped for. This is not surprising considering the band's schedule and the fact that they had just completed a raft of excellent new songs for A Hard Day's Night. George Harrison had not yet produced a worthy successor to With the Beatles' Don't Bother Me but that would change.

However, while the LP may be viewed as slightly disappointing from a Beatles perspective, most other bands would have loved to have released an LP of this quality. There are no singles on this album, at least not released in the UK. Eight Days a Week was issued in some countries and was a number one in the US. In addition, the LP was not released in this form in the US. At this point, UK and US Beatles albums were different. A single was released at the same time but not included on the LP, nor was its b-side. I Feel Fine is one of those tracks that brought something radically new to the music scene, i.e. controlled feedback. The feedback drone followed by Lennon's opening riff still sounds amazing 60 years later. EMI would not normally have allowed this as the "incursion" of feedback was seen as a faulty recording!

The band's feeling of comfort in the studio allowed them to experiment more by bringing in different instruments and techniques such as the feedback in I Feel Fine and fade-in on Eight Days a Week. As such, this was more than just a quick rehash of the live set with a few new songs but an important bridge towards the epoch-changing trilogy of Rubber Soul, Revolver and Sergeant Pepper. Lyrically, the original songs indicate a major move on from the boy meets girl love songs of earlier albums. The three opening Lennon tracks are certainly more dark and thoughtful and show the influence of Bob Dylan.

While the Lennon-McCartney partnership was flourishing, they tended to write separately and then contribute bits to the other's songs. This album has more of a Lennon feel with tracks such as No Reply, I'm a Loser, Baby's in Back and I Don't Want to Spoil the Party while McCartney is more evident on I'll Follow the Sun and What You're Doing. George and Ringo each contributed a vocal track, as usual. Ringo's voice was well-suited to Honey Don't while George sang Everybody's Trying to me my Baby. Both of these Carl Perkins tracks dated from the Hamburg set and can be heard on the Live at the Star-Club albums. Mr Moonlight and Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey are also on these live albums.

While the rushed nature of this album is clear, it does stand proud amongst the Beatles' work. It exhibits a clear progression in the songwriting and use of the studio. The band signed off 1964 with number ones in the single and album chart and 1965 would be another year of classics.

Parlophone PMC 1240

Original release: 4 December 1964

Highest UK chart position: 1

Essential Tracks