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Four scousers who changed the world (© Cat's/Corbis KIPA)

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Sonically, Beatles For Sale is interesting because it sees the band beginning to use the studio as a canvas with which to explore and experiment rather than merely a recording environment. The new recording notes describe the process behind Eight Days A Week:

"(The song) evolved through two sessions on 6 October, 1964. During the afternoon, the group experimented with different ideas until they were finally happy with the arrangement on take six.

"The first part of the evening was spent perfecting the instrumental backing and vocals recorded on tracks one and two until they decided take thirteen was the best. Using this take as the master, overdubs of handclaps, timpani and guitar were made on track three and the remaining track was used for double-tracked vocals. The closing guitar coda was added on another day and the distinctive fade-in was created when the song was mixed."

Another song with a protracted birth was the aforementioned What You're Doing. Despite being one of the least famous songs in The Beatles catalogue, it's extremely interesting as it references the past while simultaneously blazing a trail for the folk rock movement.

After a drum intro that's pure Spector – the instrumentation even drops out again towards the end of the song in a direct lift from The Ronettes' Be My Baby – Harrison's 12-string Rickenbacker enters with a riff that's more than a little reminiscent of the one that Roger McGuinn would play on The Byrds' Mr Tambourine Man when it was recorded just weeks after Beatles For Sale's release.

Also thrown into the mix for good measure is George Martin's barroom-style piano counterpoint to the guitar solo that adds considerable harmonic interest. On the newly remastered stereo disc, What You're Doing is a real triumph. Aside from Rock And Roll Music, which is so much more muscular and raucous in mono, like A Hard Day's Night, Beatles For Sale's more ambitious and varied textures are well-served by the extra spread of stereo.

"The difference in clarity and separation between the sixties and new stereo versions is marked."

On the bounce

Just as the sessions for Money in July 1963 saw the band push the boundaries of twin-track recording, by 13 April 1965, four tracks were no longer sufficient to capture their arrangements.

Recording the title track of Help! required four full tracks to be bounced down to another tape in order for Harrison to overdub an additional guitar part. Although this was the only song on the album where a bounce was required, it would become commonplace in their recording processes until summer 1968 when eight-track machines were made available to the band.

Help! and Rubber Soul are exceptions in the new stereo box set as the new masters are derived from George Martin's digital stereo master tapes made for the albums' first CD release in 1987. As a result, the original sixties stereo mixes are packaged with the mono versions of both albums in The Beatles In Mono box set.

Using the three versions of Ticket To Ride as a direct comparison, the difference in clarity and separation between the sixties and new stereo versions is marked.

The new stereo mix has much improved separation allowing the droning single-string A notes – almost certainly played on the bridge pickup of John's new sonic blue Fender Stratocaster – underpinning George's 12-string riff in the verse the space to really ring out. In addition, the bottom end of the mix is much more powerful.

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