Beatles For Sale (1964) is a frequently dismissed Beatles album (as overlooked as any Beatles album can be anyway.) I think that’s a bit of a shame because while it’s positively not among The Beatles most important studio albums, it does have some good qualities and I do think it is worth taking a good listen to.

In particular I think the eight original John/Paul songs on the record are quite good (even if not quite as excellent as the originals on Help! and A Hard Day’s Night) What really stands out about these eight originals is that they have a special cohesive feeling to them. I think these songs would work wonderfully as an EP.

The album really starts off with a bang with the John Lennon penned originals “No Reply,” “I’m A Loser,” & “Baby’s In Black.” These are 3 great songs and all of them have a dark mood that ties them together well.

I am not a massive fan of the covers on this album, unfortunately. Even more sadly is that the covers make up nearly half of the record (6 of the 14 songs are covers.) The only covers that I’ve got any patience for are “Rock and Roll Music and “Words of Love” But even those are not as good as original Beatles songs.

The most famous of these Lennon/McCartney originals on this album is definitely “Eight Days A Week” which is a song that both John and Paul dismissed and they never played it live, not even once. However despite that, it is a good tune. No, it’s not among their best songs, however it’s catchy and the fade-in is really cool.

All of the tracks on the album (covers and originals) sound so much better on the 2009 remastered CDs than they did on the old CDs. I definitely recommend that you buy The Beatles in Stereo Box Set and The Beatles Remastered Mono Box Set and give both the stereo and mono versions of the album a thorough listen before you go about your day.

Harold Oliver Quesenberry plans on buying The Beatles Vinyl Remasters as soon as they come out. The vinyl LPs will likely come out individually and as a part of a Vinyl LP Box Set.