Beatles album of the week: Beatles For Sale

[AKA]

On December 4, 1964, the Beatles released their fourth album, Beatles For Sale.

Back to formula, it included fourteen songs:

Side One:
No Reply (Lennon/McCartney)
I'm A Loser (Lennon/McCartney)
Baby's In Black (Lennon/McCartney)
Rock And Roll Music (Berry)
I'll Follow The Sun (Lennon/McCartney)
Mr. Moonlight (Johnson)
Kansas City/Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey! (Penniman/Lieber/Stoller)

Side Two:
Eight Days A Week (Lennon/McCartney)
Words Of Love (Holly)
Honey Don't (Perkins)
Every Little Thing (Lennon/McCartney)
I Don't Want To Spoil The Party (Lennon/McCartney)
What You're Doing (Lennon/McCartney)
Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby (Perkins)

Many Beatles fans consider this to be one of their worst albums, but I disagree. The songs are certainly a 180 from the mostly upbeat numbers they were most famous for up until that point, but the album gives us a glimpse of the metamorphosis The Beatles would undergo, beginning with their next album, Help!.

Here's Stephen Thomas Erlewine's review from the All Music Guide:

It was inevitable that the constant grind of touring, writing, promoting, and recording would grate on the Beatles, but the weariness of Beatles For Sale comes as something of a shock. Only five months before, the group released the joyous A Hard Day's Night. Now, they sound beaten, worn, and, in Lennon's case, bitter and self-loathing. His opening trilogy ("No Reply," "I'm a Loser," "Baby's in Black") is the darkest sequence on any Beatles record, setting the tone for the album. Moments of joy pop up now and again, mainly in the forms of covers and the dynamic "Eight Days a Week," but the very presence of six covers after the triumphant all-original A Hard Day's Night feels like an admission of defeat or at least a regression. (It doesn't help that Lennon's cover of his beloved obscurity "Mr. Moonlight" winds up as arguably the worst thing the group ever recorded.) Beneath those surface suspicions, however, there are some important changes on Beatles For Sale, most notably Lennon's discovery of Bob Dylan and folk-rock. The opening three songs, along with "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party," are implicitly confessional and all quite bleak, which is a new development. This spirit winds up overshadowing McCartney's cheery "I'll Follow the Sun" or the thundering covers of "Rock & Roll Music," "Honey Don't," and "Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey Hey," and the weariness creeps up in unexpected places — "Every Little Thing," "What You're Doing," even George's cover of Carl Perkins' "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" — leaving the impression that Beatlemania may have been fun but now the group is exhausted. That exhaustion results in the group's most uneven album, but its best moments find them moving from Merseybeat to the sophisticated pop/rock they developed in mid-career.

Previous albums:
Please Please Me (1963)
With The Beatles (1963)
A Hard Day's Night (1964)

See also:
Help! (1965)
Past Masters Volume One (1988)
Rubber Soul (1965)
Revolver (1966)
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Magical Mystery Tour (1967)
Yellow Submarine (1969)
The Beatles (1968)
Let It Be (1970)
Past Masters Volume Two (1988)
Abbey Road (1969)

Beatle Facts

[Brian]

I voted Rock and Roll Music. Great singing by John Lennon.

[dlemond]

"What You're Doing" is my favorite.

[Steve M.]

I went with "I'm a Loser," because it shows that they were slowly getting more serious about the lyrics.

Beatles For Sale is not really a bad album. In fact, the weary vibe is kind of relaxing, and it allows you to focus more on the music, and on little innovations like the use of a faded-up in "Egiht Days a Week" (which, as an obvious joke, is the eighth song on the album). If you think of the Beatles's music as one long journey from "Love Me Do" to Abbey Road, Beatles For Sale makes for a comfortable rest stop along the highway.

[Jrnygrl]

I love the whole album/CD, can't pick just one.

[Kristina]

i'm a lozer.

[Steve M.]

I can't think of any covers of Lennon/McCartney tunes from Beatles For Sale. Anyone here know of any?

[AKA]

Originally posted by Steve M.
I can't think of any covers of Lennon/McCartney tunes from Beatles For Sale. Anyone here know of any?

"I'm A Loser" - Marianne Faithfull
"Baby's In Black" - Elvis Costello (not sure if this counts, as it's only available on a boot)
"Eight Days A Week" - Joan Jett
"Every Little Thing" - Yes
"I Don't Want To Spoil The Party" - Rosanne Cash

[crystals]

Eight Days a Week

[Penny Lane]

1. Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby
2. Honey Don't
3. I Don't Want To Spoil The Party
4. Baby's In Black
5. No Reply

I really like Ringo's Country songs! I read that he really liked Country music and covered some of them. And he also wrote a few like "What Goes On".

[Steve M.]

Originally posted by crystals
Eight Days a Week

This is the first song on side two of a fourteen-song album; hence, it's the eighth song on the album! It was considered a possibility for the Beatles's Christmas 1964 single in the U.K. before the Beatles chose "I Feel Fine." Had they chosen "Eight Days a Week," it, not "I Feel Fine," would have been their eighth British single!

("Eight Days a Week" was released as a single in the U.S. in February 1965. It topped the charts, of course.)

[musicradio77]

"I'll Follow the Sun" was a good song, but it was featured in a US album from Capitol called "Beatles '65". I have that record and it features 2 singles are not for the British version "She's a Woman" and "I Feel Fine".

[AKA]

Alternate versions of songs from Beatles For Sale:

Beatles:
"No Reply"
-Studio demo, 1964 - The Beatles Anthology 1
-Take 2, 1964 - The Beatles Anthology 1

"Baby's In Black"
-Live; The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, 1965 - Real Love (maxi-single)

"Rock And Roll Music"
-Live; The Playhouse Theatre in London, 1964 - Live At The BBC
-Live; Nippon Budokan Hall in Tokyo, 1966 - The Beatles Anthology 2

"I'll Follow The Sun"
-Live; The Playhouse Theatre in London, 1964 - Baby It's You (maxi-single)

"Kansas City/Hey! Hey! Hey! Hey!"
-Live; The BBC Paris Theatre in London, 1963 - Live At The BBC
-Take 2, 1964 - The Beatles Anthology 1

"Eight Days A Week"
-"False Starts" version (edit of takes 1, 2, and 4), 1964 - The Beatles Anthology 1
-Take 5, 1964 - The Beatles Anthology 1

"Honey Don't"
-Live; The Playhouse Theatre in London, 1963 (John on lead vocals) - Live At The BBC

"Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby"
-Live; The Playhouse Theatre in London, 1964 - Live At The BBC
-Live; Shea Stadium in New York, 1965 - The Beatles Anthology 2

Solo:
"Honey Don't"
-Live; Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, 1989 - Ringo Starr And His All-Starr Band
-Live; The Royal Albert Hall in London, 2002 - Ringo Starr - The Concert For George

[jamier42]

1. I'll Follow the Sun
2. Eight Days A Week

[laceyinthesky]

I chose "No Reply."