For many fabficionados, Hard Day’s Night is The One; their only truly flawless album. No submarines, 64 year-olds, honey pies or silver hammers. And for the first time, no outside material, just 13 prime products from a by now firmly established Lennon & McCartney song-mill operating at peak efficiency.
Among those queuing to sample their wares this time, we find modern jazzers, avant opera divas, the first ladies of Motown, an early iteration of Brinsley Schwartz (Limelight) and the Skatalites who, for reasons known only to themselves, decided the best way to celebrate the third anniversary of Jamaican independence was to cut a tune called I Should Have Known Better…
1 Stavely Makepeace – A Hard Day’s Night
2 The Skatalites – Independant Anniversary Ska (I Should Have Known Better)
3 Peter & Gordon – If I Fell
4 The Circle – I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
5 King Curtis – And I Love Her
6 Limelight – Tell Me Why
7 Cathy Berberian – Can’t Buy Me Love
8 Blue Ash – Anytime At All
9 Joe Cocker – I’ll Cry Instead
10 London Jazz Four – Things We Said Today
11The Back Alley – When I Get Home
12 The Supremes – You Can’t Do That
13 Roger Nichols & The Small Circle Of Friends – I’ll Be Back