Video: '04-The Beatles - beatles for sale (full album)' (14 clips)

(Friday, December 4, 1964) — Beatles for Sale, the fourth studio album by British rock group the Beatles, was released today in the UK.

The American version of the album, Beatles ’65, was released 11 days later by Capitol Records, with a somewhat different track listing.

The album marked a departure from the upbeat tone that had characterized the Beatles’ previous work, partly due to the band’s exhaustion after a series of tours that had established them as a worldwide phenomenon in 1964.

Partly as a result of the group’s hectic schedule, only eight of the tracks are original compositions, with cover versions of songs by artists such as Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Little Richard being used to complete the album.

The original songs introduced darker musical moods and more introspective lyrics, with John Lennon adopting an autobiographical perspective in “I’m a Loser” and “No Reply.”

Furthermore, the majority of the songs did not feature themes of love, with only three out of the fourteen tracks mentioning love in a positive light.