The Beatles…A Hard Day’s Night 60th Anniversary Vinyl

It’s not one of the big anniversary box sets, but A Hard Day’s Night  is getting a 60th Anniversary release on white vinyl.

The release is set for October 19th, 2024…National Album Day.  This was the first album that had all Lennon-McCartney compositions.  Here’s the tracklist.

If you were in England in 1964, that is the album you got.  Unfortunately, those of us in America got the below movie soundtrack that only had the seven songs from side one of the British version, along with some instrumental music from the film..

The full lineup of songs was finally made available to everyone when the CD’s came out in 1987, and we heard what a great album it is.  The album has two #1 singles “Can’t Buy Me Love” & “A Hard Day’s Night”, two great ballads “And I Love Her” & “If I Fell”, and a couple more classics…Lennon’s “You Can’t Do That” & McCartney’s “Things We Said Today”.

The cover of the album says it’s stereo, but the press release did not mention whether it’s the new remixed stereo (like the songs from this record that are on the Red album from 2023), or the original 1964 stereo.  You’d think if it was completely remixed, they’d announce it and there would also be a CD version.  This is just a guess, but since Apple was recently working with the original mixes for the monophonic set of American versions of The Beatles’ albums, they might have also used the original mixes for this stereo album.

The new vinyl release is for anyone who doesn’t already have the album, or for those who want the novelty of white vinyl.  The rest of us are waiting (impatiently) for the Rubber Soul box set which was originally expected a year ago.  Rubber Soul may turn out to be the last Beatles album to get the full box set treatment.  Remix producer Giles Martin said Rubber Soul has enough alternate takes to justify a box set.  That may not be the case for the earlier albums.

And…

The Beatles first #1 hit in the U.S. is being re-released.  If you missed Capitol Records’ big single the first time (released December 26th, 1963), you can buy it on Record Store Day, November 22nd, 2024.  It’s just like the original…analog & monophonic…and with the iconic cover.

Here are two copies of the singles I have.  You can see that I wore out the original 1964 record on the left, and haven’t played the one on the right.  That cover, which I believe is from the 80s or 90s has Paul McCartney’s cigarette air-brushed out.  Thank goodness Paul (and Ringo) stopped smoking decades ago.