A Hard Day’s Night (Album): Introduction
Here we highlight The Beatles’ 1964 album, “A Hard Day’s Night”, in brief. This was the Fab Four’s third LP but it has some amazing songs. In fact, click the button further down to hear clips from all the tracks and see for yourself. Of course, there is also a film by the same name and we review that here.
In Detail
- Release Date: July 10, 1964
- Recorded: January 29–June 2, 1964
- Record Label: Parlophone
- Studio: EMI Studios, London, also Pathé Marconi Studios, Paris
- Genre: Merseybeat, Pop, rock & pop rock
- Album Duration: 30:10
- Producer: George Martin
- Engineer: Norman Smith
Performers And Instruments
- John Lennon: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, harmonica, and tambourine
- Paul McCartney: vocals, bass guitar, piano, as well as the cowbell
- George Harrison: vocals (six and twelve-string guitars) electric guitar, acoustic guitar, and the claves
- Ringo Starr: drums, cowbell, conga, as well as the tambourine
- George Martin: piano
A Hard Day’s Night: Album Tracks
Side One
Tracks
Lead Vocals
01) A Hard Day’s Night
02) I Should Have Known Better
03) If I Fell
04) I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
05) And I Love Her
06) Tell Me Why
07) Can’t Buy Me Love
01) Lennon with McCartney
02) Lennon
03) Lennon with McCartney
04) Harrison
05) McCartney
06) Lennon
07) McCartney
Side Two
Tracks
Lead Vocals
01) Any Time At All
02) I’ll Cry Instead
03) Things We Said Today
04) When I Get Home
05) You Can’t Do That
06) I’ll Be Back
01) Lennon
02) Lennon
03) McCartney
04) Lennon
05) Lennon
06) Lennon with McCartney
A Hard Day’s Night: Album Recording
The Beatles started recording this album on January 29, 1964, and continued until June 2, 1964. During this time, there were 9 studio sessions. One side of the “A Hard Day’s Night” album has the songs from the soundtrack of the film with the same name, of course. Furthermore, the difference with this album is that all tracks are Lennon and McCartney compositions.
According to John Lennon, they got the title of the album from an off-the-cuff remark that Ringo Starr once made. In other words, it is an accidental “Ringoism”. Indeed, we have a list of Ringoisms here.
They recorded the “A Hard Day’s Night” album on four-track tape for the first time. This allowed for higher-quality recording of rhythm tracks so they could mix the sound with the vocal recordings far easier.
Album Cover
Due to the nature of the album, the cover art shows the Fab Four with five different facial expressions across the entire cover. Of course, this makes it look like a film strip and is very effective. Indeed, The Beatles have become film stars now. So it’s onwards and upwards for the lads with a mop-top hairstyle.
On the top filmstrip is John Lennon, with George Harrison below him, and then we have Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr at the bottom. As on the “With The Beatles” album, half of their faces are in shade, but it is not as dramatic as their last release.
All the images are random with no significant meaning, but it was another of Rob Freeman’s masterpieces. Of course, it is very collectable and easily identifiable.
US Version
Two weeks before its release in the UK, the Americans released their version of the album. The United States had its own version of the LP, which also had different cover art (see image).
In addition to the soundtrack songs, the American version of “A Hard Days Night” had 4 instrumentals: “I Should Have Known Better”, “And I Love Her”, “Ringo’s Theme”, and “A Hard Day’s Night” itself.
Some considered the UK version to be “too British”, being predominantly blue, so the album cover in the USA became red with only four images.
The writing on the cover takes up quite a bit of space and is nowhere close to what it should look like!
A Hard Day’s Night (Album): The Sounds
We are all familiar with the musical comedy film “A Hard Day’s Night”, of course. Due to their increasing popularity, their previous rock and roll sound was now emerging into their own style of pop music. Furthermore, it was a style of music unique to the lads from Liverpool which took the world by storm. Hence, Beatlemania!
All the tracks on the “A Hard Day’s Night” album are easy to associate with and, over the decades, are still palatable. Moreover, new generations of music lovers just can’t believe the quality of The Beatles’ songs compared to what they hear today.
To have an instant impact for both the film and LP, the opening chord had to be special, and it was. In fact, it is one of the most iconic openings of any piece of music and well thought out, such was their talent. We are referring to George Harrison’s Rickenbacker 360/12 12-string guitar’s “mighty opening chord”.
A Hard Day’s Night (Album): Chart Success
In the UK, the “A Hard Days Night” album was at the top of the charts for 21 weeks, from July 25, 1964. Furthermore, it stayed in the charts for 38 weeks. Of course, various songs from the LP got into the charts too. These included two in the UK, “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “A Hard Day’s Night”.
Apart from the successful album, there is also a film by the same name, “A Hard Day’s Night” (1964). This was The Fab Four’s first feature film and possibly their best, as it captures the bands in their Beatlemania glory years.
Have Your Say
You can discuss this album here in-depth, of course. However, you may also like to comment about it in the massive Beatles Forum, too.
Take A Listen
Listen to the song snippets, then give us your thoughts below.
