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5.25pm
26 January 2017
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I agree with Special Cup. The lead vocal Paul delivers so so powerful, the harmonies bring it down a bit. I still love that take. All of the BFS outtakes are phenomenal.
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5.04am
Reviewers
14 April 2010
Offline While this album may not be a “go to” for me, I enjoy almost* every song on the album very much when one pops up at random. Overall Beatles For Sale is comparatively subdued, but has a few toe-tappers that even things out. A fine album.
*Sorry, ‘Mr Moonlight ‘. You are not a terrible song, but oh that cheesy organ…
I’ll have to give it another proper listen today – already looking forward to it.
To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.
8.00am
14 June 2016
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Zig said
While this album may not be a “go to” for me, I enjoy almost* every song on the album very much when one pops up at random. Overall Beatles For Sale is comparatively subdued, but has a few toe-tappers that even things out. A fine album.*Sorry, ‘Mr Moonlight ‘. You are not a terrible song, but oh that cheesy organ…
I’ll have to give it another proper listen today – already looking forward to it.
It’s the album I’ve been listening to quite a lot recently. I usually focus on an album for some time (something I feel is being neglected somewhat) before moving onto another. Beatles For Sale is interesting because it’s still the early days of their career with a number of covers, but it’s also right on the cusp of their evolution into something more.
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9.A Hard Day’s Night 10.Please Please Me 11.Beatles For Sale 12.With The Beatles 13.Yellow Submarine
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3.43am
26 January 2017
Offline I disagree that this album is underrated, it’s probably their worst IMO. There’s a few tracks which are pretty damn great but the rest are either average or just a bit uninteresting
I've been up on the mountain, and I've seen his wondrous grace,
I've sat there on the barstool and I've looked him in the face.
He seemed a little haggard, but it did not slow him down,
he was humming to the neon of the universal sound.
4.44am
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline I think barring tracks 6, 7 & 8 (cd/streaming listing) it’s a fabulous album.
The only thing is ‘Honey Don’t ‘ is better with John.
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9.15am
Reviewers
14 April 2010
Offline Timothy said
It’s the album I’ve been listening to quite a lot recently. I usually focus on an album for some time (something I feel is being neglected somewhat) before moving onto another. Beatles For Sale is interesting because it’s still the early days of their career with a number of covers, but it’s also right on the cusp of their evolution into something more.
I used to do that a lot when I was a youngster. There was nothing like that new vinyl smell as the album slid out of its sleeve and was placed upon the turntable. Once the needle was dropped, I’d read the cover over and over. Then flip over to side two and read the cover again, or just stare at it. Lather, rinse, repeat.
That’s one of the many things I love about the 2009 remasters – the original (or as close as possible) artwork, photos and liner notes. This album has some of the best. Derek Taylor’s notes are entertaining, dripping with hyperbole and at times prophetic. This album appeals to most of the senses – I’ve never tasted it – and offers more than meets the ears. DT’s liner notes, for those who have not seen them, are under the spoiler. This is one of those times I wish we had a Derek Taylor smiley – @Joe ??
This is the fourth by the four, Please Please Me , With The Beatles , Hard Day’s Night. That’s three. Now… Beatles For Sale .
The young men themselves aren’t for sale. Money, noisy though it is, doesn’t talk that loud. But you can buy this album – you probably have, unless you’re just browsing, in which case don’t leave any dirty thumbprints on the sleeve!
It isn’t all currency or current though. There’s a priceless history between these covers. None of us is getting any younger. When, in a generation or so, a radio-active, cigar-smoking child, picnicking on Saturn, asks you what the Beatle affair was all about – ‘Did you actually know them?’ – don’t try to explain all about the long hair and the screams! Just play the child a few tracks from this album and he’ll probably understand what it was all about. The kids of AD2000 will draw from the music much the same sense of well-being and warmth as we do today.
For the magic of the Beatles is, I suspect, timeless and ageless. It has broken all frontiers and barriers. It has cut through differences of race, age and class. It is adored by the world.
This album has some lovely samples of Beatle music. It has, for instance, eight new titles wrought by the incomparable John Lennon and Paul McCartney , and, mingling with the new, there are six numbers culled from the rhythmic wealth of the past extraordinary decade; pieces like Kansas City , and Rock And Roll Music . Marvellous.
Many hours and hard day’s nights of devoted industry went into the production of this album, it isn’t a potboiling quick-sale any-old-thing-will-do-for-Christmas mixture.
At least three of the Lennon-McCartney songs were seriously considered as single releases until John popped with I Feel Fine . These three were Eight Days A Week , No Reply and I’m A Loser. Each would have topped the charts, but as it is they are an adornment to this LP, and a lesson to other artists. As on other albums, the Beatles have tossed in far more value than the market usually demands.
These are few gimmicks or recording tricks, though for effect, the Beatles and their recording manager George Martin, have slipped in some novelties. Like Paul on Hammond organ to introduce drama into Mr. Moonlight, which also, and for the first time, has George Harrison applying a thump to an elderly African drum because Ringo was busy elsewhere in the studio, playing bongos. George’s thump remains on the track. The bongos were later dropped. Ringo plays timpani in Every Little Thing , and on the Rock And Roll Music track George Martin joins John and Paul on one piano. On Words Of Love , Ringo plays a packing case.
Beyond this, it is straightforward 1964 disc-making. Quite the best of its kind in the world. There is little or nothing on the album which cannot be reproduced on stage, which is, as students and critics of pop-music know, not always the case.
Here it is then. The best album yet – quite definitely, says John, Paul, George and Ringo – full of everything which made the four the biggest attraction the world has ever known. Full of raw John and melodic Paul; a number from George, and a bonus from Ringo. For those who like to know who does precisely what, there are details alongside each title.
Derek Taylor
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9.32am
14 June 2016
Offline QuarryMan said
I disagree that this album is underrated, it’s probably their worst IMO. There’s a few tracks which are pretty damn great but the rest are either average or just a bit uninteresting
If BFS is their worst then the Beatles were pretty damn good!
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9.A Hard Day’s Night 10.Please Please Me 11.Beatles For Sale 12.With The Beatles 13.Yellow Submarine
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2.50am
5 February 2014
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Personally, it’s not possible for the Beatles to have a “worst” album. Maybe “not the best” album or “this one would be last” album, but definitely not the “worst” album.
In fact, it may be physically dangerous to create such a label, as I’m sure it would cause a gravitational wobble in the space-time continuum that would distort the planet’s collective notion of reality and hurl us all into a void where the only music comes from The Bay City Rollers.
No, wait… Hell already exists (supposedly).
Never the less, I contend there is no such thing as a “worst” Beatles album and you’ll simply have to come up with a more logical description.
So… carry on, then.
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Reviewers
14 April 2010
Offline Hello @C.R.A. ! Nice to see you again. 
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6.59pm
14 November 2017
Offline QuarryMan said
I disagree that this album is underrated, it’s probably their worst IMO. There’s a few tracks which are pretty damn great but the rest are either average or just a bit uninteresting
Worse than Yellow Submarine ? I respectfully disagree. BFS is an under rated gem in my opinion. I listened to it again the other day,and apart from a few fillers (Mr Moonlight , and the God awful Honey Don’t ) I think it’s an enjoyable listen.
My favourites are Rock N Roll Music,Eight Days A Week , Baby’s In Black and Every Little Thing . Oh,and Words Of Love ,which is just brilliant.
@Zig: thumbs up for a Derek Taylor smiley mate 
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9.34pm
25 December 2017
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I agree. Beatles For Sale is so underrated. I’d say that this is my 2nd favorite Early Beatles album (Second only to A Hard Day’s Night ). This album kinda showed the precursor of mature songwriting that would appear on albums like Help and Rubber Soul
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3.34pm
26 January 2017
Offline Father McKenzie said
Worse than Yellow Submarine ? I respectfully disagree. BFS is an under rated gem in my opinion. I listened to it again the other day,and apart from a few fillers (Mr Moonlight , and the God awful Honey Don’t ) I think it’s an enjoyable listen.
My favourites are Rock N Roll Music,Eight Days A Week , Baby’s In Black and Every Little Thing . Oh,and Words Of Love ,which is just brilliant.
@Zig: thumbs up for a Derek Taylor smiley mate
Yellow Submarine ain’t a proper album IMO. Don’t get me wrong, I really like this album and there are plenty of songs I really like (No Reply , I’m A Loser , Baby’s In Black , I’ll Follow The Sun , Words Of Love , Eight Days A Week , What You’re Doing ) the track listing is really unimpressive as a whole with far more duds than any other of their LPs. To me this album is a rare step backwards in their discography – after the creative explosion that was A Hard Day’s Night , it doesn’t really advance in any way other than a slight maturing of their lyricism. Then again, even that is limited because of the amount of covers on the thing.
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Father McKenzieI've been up on the mountain, and I've seen his wondrous grace,
I've sat there on the barstool and I've looked him in the face.
He seemed a little haggard, but it did not slow him down,
he was humming to the neon of the universal sound.
2.01pm
5 November 2011
Offline It’s probably because when compared to their other albums it’s kind of draggy. People mostly like The Beatles for the innocence and joy of their early stuff (mostly older generations), the psychedelic stuff, or their perfectly produced Abbey Road . Beatles For Sale is kind of an awkward phase where they weren’t the teeny boppers singing things like “I Want To Hold Your Hand ” anymore and weren’t yet being as adventurous with their music as they were in their later years. I have never heard a young person say their favorite album was something other than Revolver , Sgt. Pepper ‘s, The White Album , or Abbey Road . The only times I’ve heard somebody recall a different album as their favorite, it has been a person who was alive when the albums were released.
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3.26pm
Moderators
27 November 2016
Offline Just to derail you slightly, @Little Piggy Dragonguy, but my favourite album is A Hard Day’s Night – and I’m not old.
But there are exceptions to every rule, and an opinion like mine is very uncommon.
Likewise, some of the older folk may choose a later album – though this is also uncommon.
Part of why it’s neither an early album or a psychedelic album is because of how it was recorded. That, I feel, is the biggest factor of why it’s rarely held up as a favourite album.
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3.38pm
Moderators
15 February 2015
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It’s rather Dylanish, but without the fire of, say, Rubber Soul . Even Help ! has more energy.
That having been said — though it’s not my #1, I do like Beatles For Sale . 
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4.40pm
Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline Maybe it’s more about the context of the album; the four were knackered: the songs were recorded in the most insane period of their career, fitted in whenever a spare few days could be found. On that basis, there was never going to be a lot of energy as they themselves had little, and the titles and mood of many of the originals prove that whilst the covers aren’t up there with those on the earlier albums. The nearest you get is ‘Rock And Roll Music ‘ but it’s not close to ‘Twist And Shout ‘, ‘Roll Over Beethoven ‘ or ‘Long Tall Sally ‘.
Whereas ‘A Hard Day’s Night ‘ highlights how exciting and mad Beatlemania was, ‘Beatles For Sale ‘, from the title via the cover to the music within, shows the effect Beatlemania had on the four. It’s very easy to get blown away by all the footage and caught up to the point where it all looks so much fun, however, this album reminds us of the effect it had on them. That they managed to even put together an album that demonstrates progress, and there is plently on offer, and is a very good album is a testament to them, most bands would have shoved together at the very best a placeholder.
Having said that, I adore the album, always have. The first five songs are the best opening sequence on any Beatles album for me and I also love the album from ‘Words Of Love ‘ onwards.
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4.51pm
25 March 2018
Offline I think if I’d heard BFS without knowing it followed AHDN , I would have liked it better. I hear it as a retreat, at least because of the covers. I am not that crazy about “I’m A Loser ” and “Baby’s In Black ,” and “Mr. Moonlight” should have been the one we first got on ANTHOLOGY, with “Leave My Kitten Alone ” in its place.
Also, it is the album that suffers most from the “no singles on albums” policy. Sure, WITH THE BEATLES would have been improved with “I Want To Hold Your Hand /This Boy ,” Rubber Soul could have used “We Can Work It Out /Day Tripper ” and REVOLVER could have been even better with “Paperback Writer /Rain ” (or at least “Rain “), but those albums had enough other things going for them, the loss of two tracks from the sessions as a single didn’t hurt like pulling “I Feel Fine /She’s A Woman ” from BFS. Those that remarked that BEATLES ’65 was better are probably basing that in large part on the inclusion of the single.
That’s not to say the album is without charm. I like the trio of originals that appear on side two in consecutive order. “Rock And Roll Music ” is a good cover; someone in this thread opined it might have been a good album opener, and that had not occurred to me. The record would open with Lennon imploring “Just let me hear some of that Rock And Roll Music …”
So, of the 63-65 output, what I consider the “early” phase of their career, I’d put it 4th, ahead of PPM and WTB, but behind AHDN , HELP! and Rubber Soul . Thus, I guess I’d answer the question “Why is BFS so underrated?” by saying “that assumes a fact not in evidence–I don’t know that it IS underrated as much as it is properly assessed.”
JcS
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Reviewers
Moderators
1 May 2011
Offline The Beatles always looked to push and promote their originals, there is very little chance they would have opted for ‘Rock And Roll Music ‘ therefore.
Those who look to ‘Beatles ’65’ as being better for including ‘I Feel Fine ‘ and ‘She’s A Woman ‘ may have forgotten that Capitol used two horrendous fake mixes that are almost impossible to listen to. The songs are very good but ‘Beatles ’65’ is actually worse for including them due to how they were included.
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10.57am
7 May 2017
Offline meanmistermustard said
Those who look to ‘Beatles ’65’ as being better for including ‘I Feel Fine ‘ and ‘She’s A Woman ‘ may have forgotten that Capitol used two horrendous fake mixes that are almost impossible to listen to.
“I Feel Fine ” spent three weeks at #1 in late ’64/early ’65 in the US, while “She’s A Woman ” made it to #4. How we suffered through those weeks is the untold story the Beatles could still cover up in those early days. You probably never heard about it elsewhere. People having to turn off their radios every five minutes. Billboards springing up overnight:
I FEEL FINE? I’LL FEEL FINE when this piece of garbage is off the air – FOR GOOD!
SHE’S A WOMAN? SHE’S A PAWN to “Capitol”ism is what SHE IS!
Luckily for the Beatles, this all occurred prior to the days of hard-hitting journalism, such as found in Datebook magazine.
11.52am
26 January 2017
Offline Heath said
meanmistermustard said
Those who look to ‘Beatles ’65’ as being better for including ‘I Feel Fine ‘ and ‘She’s A Woman ‘ may have forgotten that Capitol used two horrendous fake mixes that are almost impossible to listen to.
“I Feel Fine ” spent three weeks at #1 in late ’64/early ’65 in the US, while “She’s A Woman ” made it to #4. How we suffered through those weeks is the untold story the Beatles could still cover up in those early days. You probably never heard about it elsewhere. People having to turn off their radios every five minutes. Billboards springing up overnight:
I FEEL FINE? I’LL FEEL FINE when this piece of garbage is off the air – FOR GOOD!
SHE’S A WOMAN? SHE’S A PAWN to “Capitol”ism is what SHE IS!
Luckily for the Beatles, this all occurred prior to the days of hard-hitting journalism, such as found in Datebook magazine.
I think MMM was saying that the mixes were different on the Beatles ’65 album specifically
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I've sat there on the barstool and I've looked him in the face.
He seemed a little haggard, but it did not slow him down,
he was humming to the neon of the universal sound.
