Recorded: 29 January - 2 June 1964
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 10 July 1964 (UK), 26 June 1964 (US)
John Lennon: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, harmonica, tambourine
Paul McCartney: vocals, bass guitar, piano, cowbell
George Harrison: vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, claves
Ringo Starr: drums, conga, bongos, tambourine
George Martin: piano
Tracklisting:
A Hard Day's Night
I Should Have Known Better
If I Fell
I'm Happy Just To Dance With You
And I Love Her
Tell Me Why
Can't Buy Me Love
Any Time At All
I'll Cry Instead
Things We Said Today
When I Get Home
You Can't Do That
I'll Be Back
Having conquered hearts in the United Kingdom throughout 1963, The Beatles set their sights on the world in 1964. They started it with concerts in London and Paris, before making history by conquering America in February, appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show before an estimated 73 million viewers.
They followed up their Stateside triumph with a world tour, numerous interviews, television appearances and new recordings, and starred in their debut feature film. And despite their whirlwind schedule of touring and studio sessions, the soundtrack to A Hard Day's Night turned out to be one of The Beatles' strongest long-players.
We were different. We were older. We knew each other on all kinds of levels that we didn't when we were teenagers. The early stuff - the Hard Day's Night period, I call it - was the sexual equivalent of the beginning hysteria of a relationship. And the Sgt Pepper-Abbey Road period was the mature part of the relationship.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
The album was recorded over nine non-consecutive days, between January and June 1964. In between the sporadic sessions The Beatles fulfilled their touring and filming commitments, with John Lennon and Paul McCartney writing some of their strongest songs to date.
What's more, The Beatles refused to take the easy option and delve into their Cavern Club-era songbook, selecting some of the numerous cover versions in their repertoire to pad out the original compositions. A Hard Day's Night became their first album to consist solely of original material, and was The Beatles only release to consist solely of songs written by Lennon-McCartney.
Related articles:
- US LP release: A Hard Day's Night
- Mixing: A Hard Day's Night, Things We Said Today
- Mixing: A Hard Day's Night
- Mixing: I Should Have Known Better, If I Fell, Tell Me Why, And I Love Her, I'm Happy Just To Dance With You, I Call Your Name
- UK single and LP release: A Hard Day's Night
This was the first of the remasters that I purchased as I had yet to hear most of the songs in stereo.
The remaster did not disappoint. This is clearly the best of their pre-Rubber Soul albums. And not just because it's all originals and no covers, but in spite of that fact. The Beatles weren't exactly going through the motions when they did covers but most of the material on this album was as good or better than any cover version they had recorded to date...
Quite a thrill finally hearing that opening chord in stereo for the first time!
haha john keeps on hogging the writing, being credited for all songs except two
Interesting that their only (pre-Pepper) album without a Ringo spotlight is also their only LP with 13 songs instead of 14. Maybe they eventually decided against including Ringo's "Matchbox" cover for the sake of preserving the all-original Lennon-McCartney purity?
They probably dropped matchbox to keep it all original
However the day Ringo got tonsillitis they were going to record a fourteeth track
Wow, I didn't know that! Too bad they hadn't recorded "Matchbox" a year earlier: If so, then they could've used it on WTB in place of "I Wanna Be Your Man"; and reserved THAT one for AHDN. Result = 14 MacLen originals, including one each for George & Ringo. Or, hmmm, maybe they could've taken "I Call Your Name" from the 4-song "Long Tall Sally" EP and added the two German songs in its place, thereby turning a 4-song EP and 13-song album into a 5-song EP and 14-song album - albeit one without a Ringo vocal...
UNLESS...John relinquished "I'll Cry Instead" for Ringo to sing, which I'm sure he would've done quite nicely! It's got that C&W/rockabilly feel, and of course that was Ringo's specialty.
Yeah, I'd say you're right.
John really wanted this to be totally original.
This album proved that they didn't need the covers that filled in the first two efforts. Also, it shows the competitive nature of Lennon & McCartney with each other to top the other's effort, with "A Hard Day's Night" being put out to no doubt match what Paul had did just before it with "Cant Buy Me Love".
However, the album as a whole is John at his best across an entire Beatle album. "If I Fell" is one of his strongest efforts & "You Can't Do That" could have easily been another #1 if released as a single. Add in "Ill Be Back" and you have John's voice & songwriting flow at it's very best in his pure rock singer phase of the early Beatle work.
This is John's album. Sgt pepper is Paul's
I'm going to have to respectfully disagree with you on that one, Liam. On AHDN, Lennon sang lead vocals on 9 of the 13 tracks. On Pepper, Lennon sings lead or has a major vocal contribution to 7 of the 13 songs, Paul 8. The two best songs on the album (arguably, of course) are Lennon's: "Lucy..." and "A Day in the life." Hence, Lennon is all over Pepper, even on Paul's songs: superb vocals on "Sgt. Pepper," co-writer of "With a Little Help," middle-eight of Getting Better, co-writer and beautiful vocals on "She's leaving home." Given that, it might be somewhat accurate to call AHDN
John's but Pepper is definitely not `Paul's.' AHDH is a great album.