CoronaVinyl Day 401 (B): Beatles '65 by The Beatles

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "B," and it's been a while since I've featured a Beatles album -- 391 albums ago, on March 26, 2020, to be exact, when I featured The White Album.  I have 13 more Beatles albums to go.  Fingers crossed I'm not still doing CoronaVinyl long enough to make it through the rest of them, but for now, let's talk about Beatles '65, which was the band's fifth album released in the U.S. by Capitol Records.

As you may or may not know, until 1967's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles' records were different releases in the UK and the U.S.  Some albums had the same name and album cover, but a different track listing.  Some just had entirely different names and took tracks from several of the Beatles' UK albums and/or songs that were released as singles.  That's what Beatles '65 is.

Released in December 1964 as the alternative to Beatles For Sale in the UK, Beatles '65 has eight of the fourteen tracks from Beatles For Sale -- "No Reply," "I'm a Loser," "Baby's in Black," "Rock and Roll Music," "I'll Follow the Sun," "Mr. Moonlight," "Honey Don't," and "Everybody's Trying to Be My Baby" -- "I'll Be Back" from A Hard Day's Night, and both sides of the "I Feel Fine/She's a Woman" single.

The album topped the Billboard album chart for nine weeks and eventually went triple platinum in the U.S.

Favorite Song on Side 1:  "I'm a Loser"
This was primarily a John song, and it was arguably his most introspective song to date, influenced by Bob Dylan lyrically and by Dylan and country music musically.  To hear one of the world's biggest rock stars sing "I'm a loser" had to have been jarring for many listeners.  I consider it one of those watershed songs for the band and their songwriting, as they continued their meteoric maturation from pop band to making music an art form.

Favorite Song on Side 2:  "She's a Woman"
It was a toss-up between this, "I'll Be Back," and "I Feel Fine," but I went with "She's a Woman."  Though it was released as the B-side to "I Feel Fine," it was still a #4 hit on the Billboard Hot 100.  Written and recorded in one day -- because that's the kind of shit The Beatles could do -- the song is primarily a Paul song, and he shows his Little Richard influence on this one.  It's also the first song by the band to contain a drug reference, as the line "turns me on" refers to marijuana.