"Eight Days a Week" was released on "Beatles for Sale" on 4 December 1964. It was sequenced as the opening track on side two of the LP. Describing the unusual effect provided by the fade-in, particularly at the start of an LP side, author Mark Hertsgaard writes that it gave listeners "the sensation of hearing the music before the song actually arrived; it was as if the sound arose out of the distance, like a flock of migrating birds that suddenly fills the sky."