What a shock. The music is great but the CD is a Japanese Import and is in Mono. There is no separation, and it is flat. Do not, repeat do not, buy this CD. Amazon has another Capitol label CD that I believe is Stereo.

Released in the UK in Dec '64 BFS is at first a puzzling album. After the Beatles excellent previous release, AHDN, why go back to recording some cover versions of old songs, and a couple of pretty ropey ones at that? 1964 was a hectic year for the Beatles. Their first world tour, including their groundbreaking first US visit, the promotion of AHDN, probably left them feeling shattered, and with the, by now, obligatory Xmas album to release, the Beatles had to come up with an album in a hurry. That seems to be one likely explanation. However, fortunately the 8 Lennon/McCartney tracks (of 14) on BFS are mainly well up to the standard expected of them. Of the remaining 6 covers, 4 of them could be regarded as fillers and little else.

Running through the tracks, it kicks off with 3 cracking Lennon songs. There is the brilliant opener 'No reply', with powerful acoustic guitar chords and an indignant Lennon vocal. Then follows 'I'm a loser' - more up tempo with a slight C&W tinge and a bit of Lennon harmonica thrown in between the chorus. Good strong song. 'Baby's in black' is much slower and has full Beatle vocal harmonies throughout. Three dark songs indeed, but in the A+ category. Then we come to the first cover, 'Rock & Roll music'. This is a very ordinary rock'n'roll track with Lennon trying to sound enthusiastic, but failing to make the song interesting. Then comes a McCartney tune, 'I'll follow the sun'. This is a short and pleasant wistful ballad written 2 years earlier, but not sounding dated despite this. We then arrive at the worst song on the album, 'Mr. Moonlight'. Why the Beatles chose to do a cover of such a mediocre tune suggests what a rushed job BFS must have been. There is an awful little organ solo in the middle of it too. Another cover follows; 'Kansas city (here I come)'. An improvement on 'Mr. Moonlight', but just about anything would be. Still a weak track by the Beatles standards.

The second half begins with '8 days a week', a decent Lennon/McCartney number, but not a great one. Back to the cover versions again, but easily the best one here with 'Words of love'. This time the Beatles do an excellent job, and manage to make it sound better than the Buddy Holly original. We then come to 'Every little thing', a strong mid-tempo Lennon song, but rather short. Then another cover song by Carl Perkins, 'Honey don't', with Ringo doing lead vocals. Again just a boring song and filler. Then Lennon takes over vocals again with 'I don't want to spoil the party', another of his melancholy songs. It's a pleasant enough melodic tune, but nothing special. We come to the last of the Beatles tracks 'What you're doing' with McCartney on vocals. This is the weakest of the Lennon/McCartney tunes included here, and one of their least memorable. Only interesting feature is George Harrison's electric 12 string guitar, which he had begun to use on the last album, AHDN. The final cut on the British version of BFS is 'Everybody's trying to be my baby', the second Carl Perkins tune, but a much better track than the first one. George Harrison takes over vocals, and this track also has some tasty guitar playing by him as well. A good uplifting end to an album which I have to say is rather disappointing overall.

It's interesting the way this album starts with "No Reply", thematically and harmonically a continuation of the final track ("I'll Be Back") from their previous album (the magnificent "A Hard Day's Night"). BFS often gets knocked as being a subpar Beatles album. BFS is, in fact, a worthy successor to AHDN. Almost all their original songs are equal or better to the standard set in AHDN ("Eight Days a Week", "No Reply", "I'm a Loser", "What You're Doing" and "Every Little Thing" in particular). Overall, the performances on BFS are tight, with a definite improvement in sound, particularly George's guitar. As always there are stellar vocal performances from John and Paul. Perhaps the biggest reason the Beatles were so great is the fact that this one group had two of the best (if not THE two best) rock vocalists ever. They go a long way toward substantiating that claim right here on this album. Lennon just tears his throat out on several tracks and Paul proves he had one of the most musical screams in recorded history. On the down side, this album does lag a bit in the choice of some of the cover tunes, particularly the horrendous "Mr. Moonlight" (Although Lennon's vocal on the track is great and the song IS amusing. Maybe they meant it as a joke?) We now know that two far, far superior songs, "One After 909" and "Leave My Kitten Alone" (both later released on Anthology 1) were recorded and available for this album. ("Kitten", in particular, has a classic, magnificent tonsil-shredding vocal from Lennon and it's a shame that it was left off the album). Further, "I Feel Fine" and "She's a Woman" were also recorded during the BFS sessions but were issued as a single instead. How much more magnificent would BFS have been had "909", "Kitten", IFF and SAW been included instead of "Honey Don't", "Moonlight", "Everybody's Trying ..." and "Words of Love"? In any event, there are passionate and exhilarating performances here, even in some of the "weaker" songs, and inventive original material. Even if in hindsight the song selection could have been better, it's still a marvelous and entertaining album. Highly recommended. Make no mistake folks, this album ROCKS.