We continue Beatles Week with an examination of the music as presented to the collector.
I’ll Cry Instead
Album: Hard Day’s Night
Authorship: Lennon
Both Beatlesongs and Tell Me Why have little to say about the song other than it was written for the film Hard Day’s Night, but rejected by the film’s director, Richard Lester. In its place “Can’t Buy Me Love” was used instead. A single version of the song was recorded which differs from the album version.
I didn’t have a specific theme or topic in mind, so I opened up Beatlesongs to a random page and this was it. Actually, I’m glad, because it provides the opportunity to bring up an issue that most Beatles fans may not be aware of – the disparity in what was recently released in the box sets versus what was actually released in the 1960s. If you own bothh box sets, your collection is still incomplete.
The single of “I’ll Cry Instead” features an extra verse and runs about 20 seconds longer than the version included on the album. This illustrates part of the problem with collecting the Beatles catalog, there are not only disparities between the US and UK versions of the earlier albums, with singles and EPs containing non-album tracks on both sides of the Atlantic, but the soundtracks to the groups first two films stand apart for different reasons – instrumental versions of songs.
Both Hard Day’s Night and Help! elicited soundtrack albums in the United States, which differed from the catalog albums the Beatles released elsewhere. Most significantly was the inclusion of some of the instrumental scores that were arranged by George Martin, variations of Beatles songs. One of my favorites is the instrumental version of “This Boy” (which can be heard as Ringo is wandering around the river bank with his camera in Hard Day’s Night.
What I keep hoping for is a double disc release of each Beatles album, with the first disc containing the album “proper” with its integrity intact as the group intended. The second disc would be a compilation of singles, B-sides, and other studio cuts that were not included on the album. For instance, the album “Help!” would include on its second disc the b-side to the title track (“I’m Down”) as well as the instrumental bits from the soundtrack among other items.
Because I don’t have The Beatles In Stereo, I can’t compare the two versions of “I’ll Cry Instead” that are in each box set. I do know, however, that even when I do manage to pick up that wonderful box set, my Beatles collection on CD will still be incomplete. There are two versions of “Please Please Me” in mono, one from the single and one from the album. The box set only includes the version on the album, with the single version missing. And because I can’t do anything about that, I’ll cry instead.