From the MCRFB NEWS archive: 1964
Marketing Beatles’ UA Film LP Translates Sell-Outs
NEW YORK — United Artists Records’ soundtrack album of the Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night“ has become one of the fastest selling LP’s in the history of the record business. Within four days after the album’s introduction at the UA distributor meet in Miami Beach last week, 1,000,000 copies were sold and delivered.
UA released the 1,000,000 figure July I and reported that orders were continuing to pour in at the same fantastic rate.
The film, “A Hard Day’s Night,” is slated for saturation bookings and multiple city openings in early August. UA toppers are predicting that at least 3 million copies will be sold prior the opening, after which, with the movie play dates and coast-to-coast personal appearances of the Beatles building sales, it’s anticipated that five million copies will be sold by the end of the year.
The album contains eight vocal selections by the Beatles plus four instrumental themes from the film, all composed by Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney. The vocal selections are the title song, “A Hard Day’s Night,” “Tell Me Why,” “I Cry Instead,” “I’m Happy Just to Dance With You,” “I Should Have Known Better,” “If I Fell,” “And I Love Her” and “Can’t Buy Me Love.”
The instrumentals are played by George Martin, the Beatles’ musical director. UA has released a single of Martin’s instrumental treatment of “Ringo’s Theme (This Boy)” and “And I Love Her.”
The Beatles’ next album for Capitol is due sometime in August. Meantime, Capitol has released a Beatles single of the title song. END
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(Information and news source: Billboard; July 11, 1964)
