1964 albums - a selection of the best
Today we will remember the best albums of 1964, but first of all we should say that 1964 is the year of changes and innovations in music! It was during this period that such (future world) names as The Moody Blues, The Byrds, The Who, Sonny & Cher appeared on the music scene. And performers like Bob Dylan are basking in the prosperity of their fame. And yes: It was in 1964 that Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" was voted best song of the year! But today it's not about the songs, it's about the albums.
From the list below we can conclude that closer to the mid-1960's the commercial success and influence remained with Dylan, The Beach Boys and The Beatles! Actually, let's take a closer look at the sales figures and the albums themselves...
The Beach Boys ("Shut Down Volume 2" / "All Summer Long" / "The Beach Boys' Christmas Album")
The Beach Boys reached their peak of popularity in the mid-1960s, but three albums contributed to it... Let's start with Shut Down Volume 2: it was the first studio work for the band, recorded without guitarist David Marks. Marks was forced to leave the line-up because of a disagreement with the manager Marry Wilson... However, it didn't stop the record from being a great success! "Shut Down Volume 2" quickly reached number 13 on the American Billboard! It would later be certified gold by the RIAA... Despite a relatively sluggish commercial success in early 1964, by the middle of the year the Beach Boys' career had already begun to gain considerable momentum...
https://youtu.be/DBet5VM_KNg
The subsequent "All Summer Long" marked the end of the much-loved era when The Beach Boys sang about California beaches (the only mention in the track "Don't Back Down")... This time the studio work reached number 4 on Billboard, and the single "I Get Around" was a huge breakthrough for Beach Boys in America... In "All Summer Long" more complicated arrangements are remarkable: there are "exotic" piccolo and xylophone motifs...
https://youtu.be/D-mOafdp86o
"The Beach Boys' Christmas Album" was the band's seventh studio album and quickly became a hit (largely due to its Christmas theme)! The album reached the Billboard top 10 the year it was released, and was later certified gold... Historians and critics called The Beach Boys' Christmas Album "one of the best holiday albums of the rock era"!
https://youtu.be/_Xk2lm9re6s
The Beatles ("A Hard Day's Night" / "Beatles For Sale")
Formed in the early 1960s, already in 1963 the band began its steady ascent to the Olympus of fame, giving birth to the so-called "Beatlemania"... "A Hard Day's Night" can rightly be called one of the best early Beatles albums: it is a beautiful pop-rock record that has become much more than just an old album over the years... "A Hard Day's Night" includes some great, bright songs. Two of them, "A Hard Day's Night" and "Can't Buy Me Love," brought the band to number one in the UK as singles!
Notably, A Hard Day's Night was the first Beatles album that did not feature a single borrowed song! All the material was written by Lennon and McCartney especially for the movie of the same name, in which the band members played themselves. The cover of the album also serves as a reference to this...
"Beatles For Sale" marked a departure from the optimistic tone that was characteristic for the previous works of the band... Such mood was connected with the fact that after numerous tours the Beatles felt a strong creative exhaustion... However these tours were the very ones that made the Beatles legends of the 1960s music world! Because of the tight and rather stressful schedule, only 8 tracks out of 14 are original. The rest are covers of Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and others. And in the tracks "I'm a Loser" and "No Reply" John Lennon took an autobiographical perspective...
After its release in December 1964 the album was a huge success among music critics and listeners alike! In the homeland of The Beatles it took the top spot... Later "Beatles For Sale" was included in the list of "1000 best albums of all time" by musicologist Colin Larkin.
"Any one of these songs could have been a single. They're all expressive, powerful and mesmerizing..." - narrates the description.
Bob Dylan: ("The Times They Are A-Changin'"/"Another Side of Bob Dylan")
The first half of the 1960s was very fruitful for Dylan... First, 1964 saw the release of "The Times They Are A-Changin'", Dylan's third studio and first solo album, all the material on which belonged to the performer himself... "The Times They Are A-Changin'" includes story songs, audio footage of his time... These are songs of protest and civil rights, songs that touch on themes of poverty and racism... They would make great food for thought! Masterfully performed by an amazingly young artist of the time - they have been an inspiration to many Dylan followers! The title song is one of the most famous songs in the great artist's collection...
"The Times They Are A-Changin'" is an album that is sure to resonate with those who appreciate thought-provoking, intellectual compositions!
The abundance of arrangements, Dylan's voice and the material itself make this album worth listening to... "Another Side of Bob Dylan" marked a departure from folk music, which did not please many... One critic accused Dylan of "losing touch with the people" and "striving for fame". But, of course, there were those who appreciated the innovations in their own right... Despite the public disagreement, the album eventually went gold in America.
Feel the enthusiasm with which Dylan sings "All I Really Want To Do", the passion in "Chimes of Freedom" or the scorn in "It Ain't Me Babe", and you will easily see that "Another Side of Bob Dylan" was the peak of the early part of his multidimensional career... Certainly, with the release of this album fans of the "old Dylan" were confused. However... this changing form confused only those listeners who could not or would not recognize: behind the form, the artist was always consistent in his essence...
