There’s nothing more exciting in Beatledom than the blaring of the opening chord from the song “A Hard Day’s Night”.
That chord signaled all the excitement and energy of early Beatlemania and I never get tired of hearing it.
Today I’m going to take a look at two fairly rare albums in my collection that feature songs from “A Hard Day’s Night” – “4 Garcons Dans Le Vent – Chansons Du Film” (Odeon LSO 101 S) from France and “The Beatles Vol. 4” (Musart D-945) from Mexico.
Both of these albums are in mono and both highlight the music from “A Hard Day’s Night”.
The French Lp is a clone of the UK mono Lp while the Mexican Lp is sort of a cross between the US “Something New” Lp (same front over artwork) and “A Hard Day’s Night” featuring a shortened version of the UK Lp with “Long Tall Sally” thrown in for good measure.
I actually stumbled upon both albums in the last year or so and luckily both albums were pretty inexpensive and both are in excellent shape!
The French Lp plays super quiet and is a superb pressing! It sounds pretty much equal to a first pressing UK mono “A Hard Day’s Night” with a nice warm and punchy sound and not a pop or scratch in sight.
I looked online and it seems this pressing may come from around 1966 but I’m not positive.
I have a couple of other French pressings from the 1970’s which also sound nice so it’s definitely worth tracking down pressings made in France as they sound wonderful. Love the cover art too with the nice flipback style sleeve and nice pictures from the film on the rear cover.
The Musart “Beatles Vol. 4” album I guess is fairly rare. I found it at an antique store a couple of hours from where I live and couldn’t pass picking it up as I’ve never seen any Musart Lp’s in person and it was in such great shape I simply had to buy it! (I do love to rationale all record purchases!)
The Lp plays really nice with just a few pops and crackles occasionally but nothing that would distract from enjoying it.
I would say its a tad bit more muted sounding than the French Lp, maybe a generation removed from the tape source used for the France pressing, but still extremely nice sounding and a fun listen.
I love the artwork on the Mexican cover and especially love the Musart yellow sticker attached to the back of the jacket. I also have to say that the cover for this Lp is also one of the sturdiest covers I’ve seen on any Beatles Lp – very thick cardboard and very durable.
Both albums have that nice analog warmth and are probably cut from tube equipment which some folks may find duller sounding but I think sounds just great. For some reason some pressings of “A Hard Day’s Night” sound very thin with a bit too much treble but I found both of these to sound just right.
As usual I’ve put up a gallery of photos of both albums (above) as you rarely see these albums posted online and usually never with the labels and inner sleeves which are fun to peruse.
Enjoy this trip around the world with “A Hard Day’s Night” and future posts will highlight other Beatles albums I own from around the globe.
TTFN until the next time!
Records, CDs and Music: 