55th Anniversary Album Spotlights
A Hard Day's Night
The Beatles
Released June 26, 1964 (US version); July 10, 1964 (UK version)
US chart debut: July 18, 1964
US chart peak: #1, July 25 through October 24, 1964
#388 on
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time (UK version)
Wiki said:
A Hard Day's Night is the third studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 10 July 1964, with side one containing songs from the soundtrack to their film of the same name. The American version of the album was released two weeks earlier, on 26 June 1964 by United Artists Records, with a different track listing.
The American version of the album was released on 26 June 1964 by United Artists Records in both mono and stereo, the fourth Beatles album in the United States. The album went to number one on the Billboard album chart, spending 14 weeks there, the longest run of any album that year.
All seven songs from the film, the first side of the UK album, were featured along with "I'll Cry Instead", which, although written for the film, was cut at the last minute. The American version also included four easy listening-styled instrumental versions of Lennon and McCartney songs arranged by George Martin conducting an orchestra of studio musicians: "I Should Have Known Better", "And I Love Her", "Ringo's Theme", and "A Hard Day's Night".
The UK version is my easy favorite among the Fabs' pre-
Rubber Soul albums, containing as it does all Lennon-McCartney originals. But the American version (which I don't own, so I'm going by the track listing on Wiki) dispenses with five non-soundtrack songs from side two of the UK version in favor of four George Martin instrumentals...and what was kept was resequenced, of course.
It begins, as do the UK album and the film, with the title song,
"A Hard Day's Night" (charted July 18, 1964; #1 US the weeks of Aug. 1 and 8, 1964; #1 UK; #153 on
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time).
This is followed by "Tell Me Why," which is noteworthy for being the only song from the film that wasn't released as a single or B-side in the States, and I can understand why. While it's a perfectly enjoyable, energetic, poppy number, it always seemed relatively undistinguished to me compared to the surrounding material in the film and on the album. That being the case, it seemed better placed to me on the UK version as the penultimate song on side one.
Next is the one non-film song on the album,
"I'll Cry Instead" (charted Aug. 1, 1964; #25 US), which was the second song on side two in the UK.
The US album then gives us our first George Martin instrumental, a rendition of "I Should Have Known Better". The last actual Beatles song on side one is George's
"I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" (B-side of "I'll Cry Instead"; charted Aug. 1, 1964; #95 US). Side one closes with another Martin instrumental of "And I Love Her".
Side two opens with the very enjoyable
"I Should Have Known Better" (B-side of "A Hard Day's Night"; charted July 25, 1964; #53 US), which I'm used to being the second song on side one.
I find it odd that United Artists put the two soft ballads from the film,
"If I Fell" (B-side of "And I Love Her"; charted Aug. 1, 1964; #53 US) and
"And I Love Her" (charted July 25, 1964; #12 US), back to back, and that Capitol followed suit on 45. On the UK version of the album, they were sensibly separated by the more upbeat "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You".
As with side one, songs four and six are instrumentals: "Ringo's Theme (This Boy)" (charted July 25, 1964; #53 US) and "A Hard Day's Night". The track in-between and last Beatles song on the album is the one that closed the first side of the UK version...the hit single that preceded both the film and the album,
"Can't Buy Me Love" (charted Mar. 28, 1964; #1 US the weeks of Apr. 4 through May 2, 1964; #1 UK; #289 on
Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time), which is particularly noteworthy for having been at #1 the week that The Beatles held the top five spots on the Hot 100.
While I much prefer the UK version of the album, the American record buyer of 1964 had little reason to complain about the collection of eight Beatles tracks that they got on its US counterpart.
Something New
The Beatles
Released July 20, 1964
Chart debut: August 8, 1964
Chart peak (#2): August 22, 1964
Wiki said:
The album is the third Capitol LP release and fifth American album release overall by the band, following the United Artists release of A Hard Day's Night. Originally scheduled for 1 August 1964, the album was rush-released on 20 July 1964, ten days after the British release of A Hard Day's Night. The album includes eight songs from the original British release of A Hard Day's Night, as well as the tracks "Slow Down" and "Matchbox" from the Long Tall Sally EP and the German-language version of "I Want to Hold Your Hand".
The album spent nine weeks at No. 2 on the Billboard Top LPs chart in 1964, behind the United Artists A Hard Day's Night album.
This competing American album, released by Capitol, shares five songs with the United Artists
A Hard Day's Night album covered above, and gives us three of the non-soundtrack songs from the UK version of AHDN that were left off its American counterpart, along with a few other odds and ends.
Side one consists of non-soundtrack songs, opening with the familiar "I'll Cry Instead". Following that are three more of the songs from side two of the UK AHDN album.
Paul's "Things We Said Today" is a strong, distinctive number, and probably my favorite on side two of the UK album. Had it been released as a single, it easily could have been a hit.
John's "Any Time at All," which opened side two of the UK album, is a personal favorite going way back.
I've always had a love/hate relationship with "When I Get Home"...it's a generally enjoyable John number, but the line "I'm gonna love her 'til the cows come home" always made me cringe. OTOH, it has the distinction of using the first five-syllable word in a Beatles song, "trivialities" (in a line that was later called out in the
Yellow Submarine film).
Side one is rounded out by two covers released on the
Long Tall Sally EP in the UK,
"Slow Down" (B-side to "Matchbox"; charted Sept. 5, 1964; #25 US) and
"Matchbox" (charted Sept. 5, 1964; #17 US)...appearing first here before sharing a 45 in the States.
Side two consists mostly of songs from the
A Hard Day's Night soundtrack: "Tell Me Why," "And I Love Her," "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You," and "If I Fell". The album closes with the
other German-language recording that the Beatles did, "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand," which translates as "Come, give me your hand".
The American record buyer of 1964 did have
some reason to complain here, as they were being sold so many of the same songs on contemporaneous albums...but they still got a very enjoyable collection consisting entirely of Beatles songs, including several new goodies.
With "You Can't Do That" having already been released in the US both as the B-side of "Can't Buy Me Love" and on
The Beatles' Second Album, that leaves only one song from the British version of
A Hard Day's Night that hasn't been released in the States, UK album-closer "I'll Be Back"...which will be included on the Fabs' next Capitol album,
Beatles '65.
Next up: 50th Anniversary Album Spotlight--
The Soft Parade, The Doors
_______
Now you're getting it! Its like that other band..what was their name?
McCartney and the Sidekicks Three? That's the one!
Admiral James T. Kirk said:
I'll give him this, he's consistent.
If I'd gotten the first reaction when I posted the series intro for the news item, I might have considered it.
But does it sound like the '50s? This one always had a bit of a '50s vibe for me. That, and when I was a much newer Beatles fan, I thought it was a John song.
).
It's like whoever was putting the albums together for Americans, thought they knew better than Brits about what people liked. I think they thought that American fans were somehow different from Brits. Plus, there was the greed factor. 
