For Sale! In Mono and Stereo!

Original released on LP EMI PARLOPHONE

PMC 1240 (mono) / PCS 3062 (stereo)

(UK 1964, December 4)

Next December will be 55 years since my parents offered me my first Beatles album. This one! I was then an 11 year kid and until that Christmas I'd have only listened the Beatles through 45 rpm, singles and Eps. And I remember how important I've felt to be the lucky owner of an entire album, full with 14 tracks! And of course I've played it counteless times through all that Christmas and the following months. Always with the gatefold cover between my hands - hearing and looking, looking and hearing (it was like that the guys of my time used to hear music). My favourite tracks? "No Reply", "Baby's In Black", "I'll Follow The Sun", "Eight Days A Week" and "Words Of Love". The Top 5! And 55 years later it haven't changed. But of course all the album is great! Do you know any Beatles album that isn't great? But this was my first one and because of that I have a special tenderness for it.

On August 11, 1964, just two months after the recording of their previous album, the Beatles went back into the studio to make "Beatles For Sale". Brian Epstein wanted to release two albums a year. This new recording needed to be out for the holiday season. Even Though John and Paul were productive, they lacked time to be creative. In six months, they had written thirteen songs, recorded six covers (including two in German), conquered America, and filmed their first movie. On June 4, they began their world tour: Denmark, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand... When they were isolated in the Abbey Road Studios on August 11, they were war-weary, utterly exhausted, with their backs to the wall. In three months they recorded sixteen new songs, including ten originals and the new single "I Feel Fine", which immediately catapulted to the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic. So 1964 was a year of madness and folly.

For this album Lennon and McCartney added eight new songs, and a further six from the vast repertoire of other material which they had been performing for some time. Three of the new songs, "Eight Days A Week", "No Reply" and "I'm A Loser", were all considered as possible singles; the Beatles once again did not want to issue a single from the album. Instead, John came up with "I Feel Fine" and Paul with "She's A Woman", which were issued as a single on 27 November 1964, one week prior to the release of this album. The Beatles had just completed their second major tour of the USA when they began work on this album during mid to late September 1964 and their obvious exhaustion can be heard in some of the tracks. On "Every Little Thing" and "I Don't Want To Spoil The Party", for example, the vocals sound rather weary and slightly strained. But, as they had issued an album in time for the Christmas market of 1963 they had planned to do the same for Christmas 1964 and so recording continued. (Each year they were to repeat this, and issued Christmas albums until 1969.)

In spite of the strain which shows through on a couple of tracks, this album contains some of the Beatles' classic early recordings, such as John's powerful rendition of the old Chuck Berry standard "Rock And Roll Music", and the Roy Lee Johnson classic "Mr. Moonlight", along with Paul's new song "I'll Follow The Sun". As with the previous three albums, both George and Ringo feature on one track each, Ringo sings the old Carl Perkins standard "Honey Don't" and George takes lead vocal on another Carl Perkins track, "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby". The sleeve photograph for this album (by Robert Freeman) also reveal the strain in the form of four unsmiling Beatles (the shooting occured in Hyde Park, near the Albert Memorial). The inner photograph shows the Beatles standing against a background of photographs of various music hall and film stars, pieced together to form a collage. This is an obvious forerunner to the sleeve of the 1967 Sgt. Pepper album.