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List Price: $15.98 | | Label: Capitol
Salesrank: 91615
Released: December 5, 1995 |
| Our Price: $21.85 |
| Used Price: $22.22 |
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| Media: Vinyl |
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Beatles for Sale Track Listing:
1. No Reply
2. I'm a Loser
3. Baby's in Black
4. Rock and Roll Music
5. I'll Follow the Sun
6. Mr. Moonlight
7. Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey! [Medley]
8. Eight Days a Week
9. Words of Love
10. Honey Don't
11. Every Little Thing
12. I Don't Want to Spoil the Party
13. What You're Doing
14. Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby
15. Beatles for Sale Mini-Documentary [Multimedia]
Editorial Review:
A testament to the abundance of perseverance and talent within the Beatles' ranks, their fourth album was recorded in and around a busy North American and British tour schedule. Beatles For Sale also marked their last full-length release loaded with cover songs, as the Fab Four moved towards writing more of their own material. Interspersed between Beatles classics such as "Eight Days a Week" and the Dylan-inspired "I'm a Loser" are faithful renditions of songs by Buddy Holly and Carl Perkins (featuring the only lead vocals by Ringo Starr and George Harrison on this album). The frenetic, inspired take on Chuck Berry's "Rock And Roll Music" is only superseded by a tremendous medley of "Kansas City" and "Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey," that finds Paul McCartney's exuberant vocals comparing admirably to his hero Little Richard, providing a vibrant centerpiece on Beatles For Sale. EMI. 2005.
Description of Beatles for Sale:
Banged out in a hurry for the 1964 Christmas market, Beatles for Sale sometimes sounds it, loaded with ill-conceived covers and some of John Lennon's most self-loathing lyrics. On the other hand, the people doing the banging-out were the Beatles, whose instincts for what worked musically were so strong that they could basically do no wrong--any record that has "Baby's in Black," "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" and the delectable "Eight Days a Week" on it is only "minor" in the most relative sense. And, though their voices had been frazzled a bit by constant touring, they revved them up for some joyous shouting, and indulged their fondness for American country in subtle, playful ways. --Douglas Wolk
Beatles for Sale Reviews:
Five Stars - No Doubt 
2009-12-28 - It has often been said that The Beatles on this album appear tired, and somewhat uninspirered. If this was so it would not be unnatural, after within two years having recorded four albums and several singles, almost constant touring and with all the buzz around their enormous popularity.
The album title and the bandmembers' own slightly weary attitudes seem to support this theory. However, I will choose to focus on the music which in no way seems tired to me.
The group has in this album perfected their well-known expression, and their own songs are stronger than ever. You could object and say that several of the six cover songs might not be among the most interesting Beatles recordings; and I would not completely disagree.
Like on the later "Rubber Soul" several numbers are characterized by the acoustic guitar, which gives them a crisp but also a soft sound, on a few songs almost folkish.
The great sound and production are also help to demonstrate the group's lush harmonies and their individual vocally strengths.
John Lennon was at this point the group's undisputed vocal center - with Paul and George predominantly as harmonies.
A quick review shows that Lennon's takes the lead vocals on "No Reply," "I'm a Loser," "Rock and Roll Music", "Mr Moonlight", "Eight Days a Week," "Every Little Thing" and "I Don't Want to spoil the Party ". On the duets "Baby's in Black" and "Words of Love" it is Lennon you hear most clearly, and even on McCartney's "I'll Follow the Sun" he sings the first verse lines.
There was certainly good reason to leave Lennon lead-vocals. His voice was incredibly powerful these years, and his interpretations of rock and roll songs like "Rock and Roll Music" is nothing less than overwhelming.
McCartney sings "Kansas City", and actually does it almost equally; that track as such does not work as well as the aforementioned is another matter. On the Beatles originals McCartney actually only has lead-vocals on "I'll Follow the Sun" and "What You're Doing".
Ringo and George each sing a Carl Perkins number, a thing of which George clearly comes out best.
For me, the album's highlights are many, but especially the two delicate acoustics "No Reply" and "Every Little Thing", are tracks you never grow tired of. McCartney's "I'll Follow the Sun" and "What You're Doing" are almost as good. "Eight Days Week" is a classic that could have been a chart topper, but which was hidden on the back of the stunning "Rock and Roll Music". "I'm a Loser" can almost be regarded as a precursor to the "Help" and "Baby's Black" and "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" are just good numbers. Among the cover versions, besides "Rock and Roll Music," "Words of Love" comes out the best (it actually sounds like a Beatles' song). "Mr Moonlight", "Kansas City", "Honey Don't" and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" are solid recordings but numbers you could have done without if necessary.
A transitional moment 
2009-12-27 - Rushed out at the tail end of what had to have been a hellishly busy year for the band--becoming a worldwide phenomenon does leave you with little free time--"Beatles for Sale" has a whiff of a contractual obligation about it. But just a whiff: in the album's eight, mostly downbeat originals, you hear a group making their way toward the second phase of their evolution. Call this a stepping stone to "Rubber Soul," which would follow a year later. It's up to the six cover versions to leaven the mix with some high spirits. Which they do. And of course, even a transitional LP by this band is going to run circles around the best efforts by many another group. Sonically, it benefits considerably from the 2009 remastering; those 45-year-old productions had more kick to them than you'd think.
This is my first acquaintance with this album in its original British iteration, and so it's a little disorienting to someone with a stateside Beatles fan's frame of reference. As a kid in the mid-1960s, I would have known this as two separate albums--neither of which, of course, existed outside of the U.S. market. Eight of the songs here turned up on the U.S. release "Beatles '65" (which also included the single "I Feel Fine" and its B-side "She's a Woman" along with filching "I'll Be Back" from the British version of the "Hard Day's Night" soundtrack) and the rest comprised six of the 11 tracks on "Beatles VI" (which nicked "Tell Me What You See," "You Like Me Too Much" and the cover of "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" from the "Help!" soundtrack, and added the B-side "Yes It Is" and another cover, "Bad Boy").
I'm glad, then, to finally have this in one piece and hear it as it was originally put together. It's only now, 40 years after the group disbanded, that I'm experiencing their first few albums as they were conceived. Knowing now that the Beatles LPs of my youth were slice-and-dice compilations which the band had no say in, but were put together by opportunistic marketing geniuses who managed to squeeze 11 U.S. releases out of 7 LPs' worth of material, I've got no loyalty to the sequencing of "Beatles '65" or "Beatles VI" (or, for that matter, "Meet the Beatles," "Something New" or any of the other Capitol Records creations).
Great but critically underappreciated album
2009-12-14 - I didn't hear this album until I was in my 20's and started buying British Imports. As another reviewer wrote, the songs on this album were distributed in America on Beatles '65 and Beatles VI and the songlists on those albums made more musical sense than the 14 songs on this album. By the same token, I think the American Rubber Soul is a stronger album and works better than the British version. Anyway, I love the opening of "I'm A Loser" with the echo on the strummed 12-string guitar, Paul's "I'll Follow The Sun", the chorus to "Baby's In Black" with its soaring 2-part harmony, the two tributes to Carl Perkins with Ringo's "Honey Don't" and George's "Everybody's Trying To Be My Baby". John's aching opening plea to "Mr. Moonlight". The American version, Beatles '65 also contained "I Feel Fine" and "She's A Woman", which I think were better choices than some of the other songs that made it onto Beatles For Sale. I wish Capitol would release the American albums in the remastered format as well.
Yes, the Beatles look tired on the cover of the album but it's still a classic photo by Robert Freeman. I don't think this is a weak album at all, even after following A Hard Day's Night. It's well-worth making it a part of your collection.
Beatles For Sale (Remastered)
Great Beatles album
2009-11-24 - Reviewing a Beatles album is no easy task. I think only diehard fans or critics would even attempt it. Everyone else is just giving their opinion. Not quite right? I suppose those who listened to popular music in the sixties would attempt it as well. Again, everyone else is just giving their opinion or betraying their taste in music. For starters, the Beatles music changed from disc to disc. They played a variety of music and were not confined to rock 'n' roll. this disc falls into their mersey-beat era but it is transitional as well and points to the future. If you are someone who does not appreciate 50's rock, or who does not appreciate early-mid sixties British pop and rock, look elsewhere I say. To each his own. If you like trippy music, try their later stuff. This record is just really solid poprock, countryrock and plain old fashioned rock 'n' roll circa 1964. Everyone else doesn't have to like it. In 1964-65, this was really good stuff. I'm saying that and I'm not old enough to remember this disc being released. But I do like a lot of sixties music and can recognize talent and creativity when I hear it. This has always been one of my favorite Beatles albums because of the variety of music. And the thing that I see most reviewers complain about, the lack of originals, is, to me, a bonus! The Beatles were, first and foremost, a performing group. The did play their instruments, and most of their early recordings were practically cut live, just the four of them playing and singing together. Pretty amazing! So this disc is a chance to hear those great cover version they used to play in the clubs with a little added production. Pretty cool. So , no. I enjoy those covers as much as the originals. As another reviewer stated so wisely, this records "faults" are it's virtues. (I'm paraphrasing) For me (and this is my opinion), this record, along with a few others, represents the Beatles very well. And, by the way, all the years I have been listening to it, I never noticed that this album sound ragged and rushed. Isn't that how they sounded night after night playing all those club dates from way back when? And people still loved to hear them.
Digipack or Eco-Wallet?
2009-11-24 - These remasters sound much better than the previous editions.
But the discs come in Eco-wallet cases, not Digipacks.
This means that you don't keep the disc in a plastic tray,
instead, you slide it into the Eco-wallet sleeve.
The difference is that in Digipacks, the surface of the disc is NOT in contact with the plastic, preventing it from scratches, while in Eco-wallets the whole surface of the disc (both sides) comes into contact with the sleeves.
Has anyone seen signs of wear beacause of this on his discs?
