A Hard Day's Night (Parlophone PMC1230 mono)

 A HARD DAY'S NIGHT (Parlophone PMC1230 mono)

Released in the UK - 10th July 1964

Side One  - Matrix Number XEX481-3N  Mother Stamper 3  Sub-stamper 34

Side Two - Matrix Number XEX482-3N  Mother Stamper 4  Sub-stamper 252

Another one of Mum's. On the front cover you can see I have deftly vandalised the white border on the top of the cover.


Ditto on the rear sleeve. But where I've scrawled my name and address, it covered over Mum's Southport details from the 60s. If I'd have had any brains when I was ten, I'd have left this well alone.


Like most of these records, this disc didn't have an inner sleeve which I subsequently added. There were differences already to these inner sleeves. On the earlier albums, the paper used and the polythene inserts were much thicker and tougher. On this, and later releases, the paper inner sleeves were flimsier and the insert was more akin to tracing paper. Maybe it was a form of cost-cutting on EMI's part, but that's not to say they weren't effective protectors of the disc because, to be honest, they were much easier to handle.  

The record is a bit battered, but still plays okay. Massive numbers of these discs were produced, and demand was probably close to outstripping supply. For instance, EMI had a main supplier they went to for the cover sleeves, a company called Garrod and Lofthouse Ltd. 99% of the EMI group's sleeves were made by this company well into the 1970s and beyond. But to supplement demand, the firm of E.J Day Ltd was also used to produce sleeves. They were identical to the Garrod and Lofthouse versions, except for the manufacturer information printed on the bottom right-hand corner of the rear sleeve.


I got the E.J Day cover version later. Somewhere I'd heard it was worth a lot of money!!! It isn't, and it's more common than some collectors would have you believe.

This is the album were the Beatles really started to pull away from their competitors. Entirely self-written, it's easily the most cohesive set of their early career. Top track? Lennon's punchy "You Can't Do That".

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