Today (December 4 2014) marks exactly 50 years to the day since The Beatles released their fourth studio album 'Beatles For Sale'. Released in 1964, the somewhat under-par quality of the album was apparently down to it being "banged out in a hurry for the 1964 Christmas market", and the fact that it was "loaded with ill-conceived covers" hardly made the most of the writing talents of Lennon and McCartney, who were by this point tired and overworked from constant touring. Strangely, the album produced no singles, not in the UK anyway. But the wonderful 'Eight Days A Week' was issued as a single in the USA, which became their seventh number one. Half a century later, this still sounds like absolute pop perfection.
