With America already surrendering to every single issued, Beatlemania reaching its peak and a schedule even hard to believe, and definitely not human, The Beatles faced the necessity of capitalize their success with, yet another, christmas release. Their American tour had been like hell, with tremendous success but great strain, leaving venues in armoured cars and having their hotels literally taken by screaming teenagers. The Beatles were tired, and that's the way they appear on the album cover. Beatles For Sale has to be seen as a forced release. The Beatles recorded 6 songs by other artists and only 8 by Lennon/McCartney, which proves that they didn't even had the time to compose the entire album themselves. Songs from The Cavern days were recovered for the release. Either old Rock&Roll numbers from those early stage days or even a McCartney song from the late fifties I'll Follow The Sun But as geniuses are exactly that, geniuses, sparks of The Beatles tremendous talent can be found all over the album. Their songs start to drift apart from the conventional lyrics to somehow more refined ones. Dylan's influence, and their fast but steady evolution towards a new style of music can already be noticed in this transition LP. Beatles For Sale Recording Dates: August 11th - October 26th, 1964 Release Date: December 4th, 1964 No Reply Lennon John:Acoustic Guitar and Lead Vocal Paul:Bass Guitar and Backing Vocal George:Lead Guitar and Backing Vocal Ringo:Drums George Martin:Piano John once commented having written this song of jealousy not based on his own experience, but inspired on a hit by the Rays called Silhouettes. There is a certain parallelism between both songs. The song is a sample of John getting better at songwriting... as publisher Dick James, partner in Northern Songs Ltd. pointed out to John "That's the first complete song you've written, the first song which resolves itself. It's a complete story" I'm a Loser Lennon John:Acoustic Guitar, Harmonica and Lead Vocal Paul:Bass Guitar and Backing Vocal George:Lead Guitar Ringo:Drums and Tambourine I'm a Loser has always been considered the first song to show Dylan's influence on John's songwriting. The lyrics show a person having lost a girl (like in many other Beatles songs) However the frown bweneath the mask, and maybe crying more for himself than for her, show that John is getting to deeper thoughts for his songs. Baby is In Black Lennon John:Acoustic Guitar and Lead Vocal Paul:Bass Guitar and Lead vocal George:Lead Guitar Ringo:Drums and Tambourine The first song to be recorded for this LP was Baby is in Black. At this stage of their career, John and Paul no longer used to write songs together from beginning to end as they had done earlier. They usually started a song and in case they couldn't finish it the other would add a middle eight. However Baby's in Black was written in the old way. When they had finished recording John said "Can we hear that rubbish back?" Of course he didn't mean it... and if he did we don't agree... Do we? Rock And Roll Music Berry John:Rythm Guitar and Lead Vocal Paul:Bass Guitar George:Lead Guitar Ringo:Drums George Martin:Piano A magnificent 'live' rendition of Chuck Berry's song. Performed by the four Beatles plus Martin on piano, the track shows how much they loved to play live, and how sad it probably was for them to have to perform singing out of key or without hearing themselves on stage. I'll Follow The Sun McCartney John:Acoustic Guitar and Backing Vocal Paul:Acoustic Guitar and Lead vocal George:Lead Guitar Ringo:Bongos I'll Follow The Sun was originally written in 1959 by Paul McCartney. Although it wasn't arranged as we know it, the song recorded for the album was a quite faithful rendition of such an early number. In fact the song evolved through the 8 takes that were necessary to record it, featuring in the early ones an acoustic guitar solo, instead of the final lead guitar one. The song was probably inspired by Buddy Holly's style in after his death in 1959. Paul commented to Merseybeat while recording Beatles For Sale "There are still one or two of our very early numbers which are worth recording (...)I'll Follow The Sun is on the LP" Mr. Moonlight Johnson John:Acoustic Guitar and Lead Vocal Paul:Bass Guitar, Hammond Organ and Backing vocal George:Lead Guitar and African Drum Ringo:Bongos Mr. Moonlight is definitely not the best ever recorded song by The Beatles. The number is not specially brilliant in any aspect although it does make a decent song. The Beatles themselves didn't have a very defined idea of how to play the song, and changed it quite a lot before releasing it. An alternative take can be heard in Anthology I. Kansas City - Hey Hey Hey Hey Leiber-Stoller/Penniman John:Rythm Guitar and Backing Vocal Paul:Bass Guitar and Lead vocal George:Lead Guitar Ringo:Drums It was Little Richard the first to do a medley of these two songs (Hey Hey Hey Hey being his own). Paul was a great Little Richard fan and introduced the number in The Beatles stage act of the early days. The song recorded is performed in quite the same way as it was back then. The original album cover listed the song as "Kansas City", but this error was corrected in later prints. Eight Days a Week McCartney John:Rythm Guitar, Acoustic Guitar and Lead Vocal Paul:Bass Guitar and Backing Vocal George:Lead Guitar Ringo:Drums This song, which in USA was released as a single and reached the No. 1 spot, was the first one in which The Beatles got to the studio with an unfinished idea to complete the track within the walls of Abbey Road Studio Two. The song has often been thoought of being written to accomodate the title of the forthcoming movie Eight Arms to Hold You (later HELP!). However the song was really a product of (yet another) Ringo expression, illustrating their work load those days. The famous fade in intro wasn't decided until the Re-mix staghe was reached. In fact in the Anthology I alternatives intros can be heard (one of them specially beautiful) Words Of Love Holly John:Rythm Guitar and Lead Vocal Paul:Bass Guitar and Lead vocal George:Lead Guitar Ringo:Drums and Packing Case The only song by Holly that The Beatles ever recorded, although they were all big fans (Paul later bought the publishing rights to all his songs). The song features a delightful, echoful, close harmony between John and Paul. The clapping sound heard in the track is Ringo's performing with a packing case. Honey Don't Perkins John:Acoustic Guitar and Tambourine Paul:Bass Guitar George:Lead Guitar Ringo:Drums and Lead Vocal Although John had already sung this song, it was Ringo's turn this time. He just takes it easy through the entire song, and delivers the Ringo touch to the number, specially with his requests to George to "rock one time..." Every Little Thing McCartney John:Acoustic Guitar and Lead Vocal Paul:Bass Guitar Piano and Lead vocal George:Lead Guitar Ringo:Drums and Timpani Paul worte this song for Jane Asher. Maybe it was not a very flattering song, since "she" does everything for "him", but he doesn't seem to get much bothered about her anyway, except being happy and in love. With respect to the song John remembered as well having thrown "something in". Ringo had his little fun playing Timpani for the first time in a Beatles recording. I Don't Want to Spoil The Party Lennon John:Acoustic Guitar and Lead Vocal Paul:Bass Guitar and Lead vocal George:Lead Guitar Ringo:Drums and Tambourine Written by John during their '64 American Tour, he said the song was deeply-personal. He just had to be a happy Beatle no matter what happened around him. It has been commented that the vocals in this song sound as if being tired. They do, but given the general atmosphere of the song, The Beatles probably tried to accomplish this effect. Once again another song quite in country stile. What You're Doing McCartney John:Acoustic Guitar and Backing Vocal Paul:Bass Guitar and Lead Vocal George:Lead Guitar Ringo:Drums George Martin: Piano This quite peculiar recording was to prove quite problematical to finish, needing three studio sessions, and almost a month before it was recorded. The Beatles begin the song almost in the same way as Phil Spector did on Be My Baby by The Ronettes. The piano added by George Martin is curiously only added for the short guitar solo, showing that The Beatles were starting to discover great studio possibilities. Everybody's Trying to be My Baby Perkins John:Acoustic Guitar and Tambourine Paul:Bass Guitar and Lead Vocal George:Lead Guitar and Lead Vocal Ringo:Drums Another Carl Perkins song gave George the opportunity to sing in Beatles For Sale. The most characteristic feature of the song is the effect applied to Harrison's vocals. The STEED (Single tape echo and echo delay) over George's voice and the rythm track which leaked onto the microphone, made him sound as if he was in a cave.