Recorded: 16 April 1964
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 10 July 1964 (UK), 26 June 1964 (US)
George Harrison: Rickenbacker 360/12 guitar
John Lennon: Gibson J-160 6-string acoustic guitar
Paul McCartney: Hofner violin bass
Ringo Starr: snare drum, cymbal
George Martin: Steinway grand piano
The distinctive chord which opens A Hard Day's Night became one of the most iconic sounds in The Beatles' output. Instantly recognisable, it was the perfect beginning to the group's debut feature film.
We knew it would open both the film and the soundtrack LP, so we wanted a particularly strong and effective beginning. The strident guitar chord was the perfect launch.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
There have been a number of theories as to the identity of the chord. Over the years, suggestions have included the following:
- A dominant 9th of F in the key of C
- G-C-F-Bb-D-G
- C-Bb-D-F-G-C in the key of C
- A polytriad ii7/V in Ab major
- G7sus4 (open position)
- D7sus4 (open position)
- G7 with added 9th and suspended 4th
- A superimposition of Dm, F, and G
- Gsus4/D
- G11sus4
- G7sus7/A
- Dm11 with no 9th
- Gm7add11
- G9sus4/D
The chord was confirmed by George Harrison as an Fadd9 during an online chat on 15 February 2001:
Q: Mr Harrison, what is the opening chord you used for A Hard Day's Night?
A: It is F with a G on top (on the 12-string), but you'll have to ask Paul about the bass note to get the proper story.
In the studio
A Hard Day's Night was recorded at EMI Studios in a session taking place from 7-10pm on 16 April 1964. It took The Beatles nine takes to record, just five of which were complete performances.
The backing track - 12-string electric rhythm guitar, acoustic rhythm guitar, bass guitar and drums - was recorded onto track one of the four-track tape, and Lennon and McCartney's lead vocal were recorded live on track two. They added more vocals on three, along with percussion, more drums and acoustic guitar; and George Martin's piano and the jangling guitar that ended the song were on track four.
Track three of the four-track tape was filled with acoustic guitar, bongos played by Norman Smith, more vocals by Lennon and McCartney, and cowbell. The recording was finished with a solo, played by George Martin on piano and George Harrison on guitar, on track four, plus an extra bass guitar part after the solo, underneath the line "so why on earth should I moan".
Instrumentation
Using audio spectrum analysis and close listening of the Love surround sound mix, the notes of the various instruments have been isolated to a high degree of probability.
The Fadd9 chord, as played by Harrison on his 12-string Rickenbacker 360/12 guitar, was as follows:
E ----3----
B ----1----
G ----2----
D ----3----
A ----o----
E ----1----
The Fadd9 on the electric 12-string guitar was crucial to the power of the chord, giving it a richness which would otherwise have been absent. The notes fretted on the top four strings were also used for the arpeggio at the end of the song, although this was recorded as an overdub on a different track of the tape.
As Harrison pointed out, his 12-string wasn't the only instrument to be heard during the chord. John Lennon also performed an Fadd9, using a Gibson J-160 6-string acoustic guitar.
E ----3----
B ----1----
G ----2----
D ----3----
A ----o----
E ----1----
Close listening reveals a cymbal and snare drum buried in the mix, and notes performed on the bass and piano.
Paul McCartney added a D note, played on the fifth fret of the A string on his Hofner violin bass. This note is an octave lower than an open D string on a six-string guitar, and had a crucial effect on the overall sound of the chord.
George Martin played a Steinway grand piano on A Hard Day's Night, and contributed to the opening chord. Computer analysis has suggested that Martin played five notes: D2, G2, D3, G3 and C4 (middle C is C4). Furthermore, the sustain pedal was held down, allowing further harmonics to emerge.
(Sincere thanks to Wayne Harrison)
Reproducing the chord
In 2011 Randy Bachman, formerly of Bachman Turner Overdrive, revealed that Giles Martin had played him the song's individual multitracks at Abbey Road Studios, and was able to demonstrate the guitar and bass parts.
Since the song's guitars had originally been grouped together on one track of the 1964 four-track tape, and Giles Martin was using Pro Tools at the time, it seems likely that the instruments had been separated by Martin during the creation of the 2006 Love album, to create the surround sound mix for the Cirque du Soleil production.
Bachman claimed that the chord was G7sus4, although he mistakenly identified Lennon's chord as a Dsus4. Crucially, he also failed to take into account the piano, which altered the nature of the chord. Adding a G on the bottom string is the easiest way to reproduce the sound without a piano, although it is not what The Beatles actually played.
Although all the instruments would be required for an accurate replication of the chord, the most commonly used version for a solo guitar is a G7sus4: a chord barred at the 3rd fret.
E ----3----
B ----3----
G ----5----
D ----3----
A ----5----
E ----3----
This lacks the crucial A note from Harrison's and Lennon's chords. This can be approximated by playing a G7sus4/A, again barred at the 3rd fret:
E ----3----
B ----3----
G ----5----
D ----3----
A ----5----
E ----5----
Related articles:
- Recording: A Hard Day's Night
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- A Hard Day's Night
- Recording, mixing, editing: A Day In The Life, Lovely Rita
- Recording, mixing: Back In The USSR
Wow. Who would have thought it was so complicated? Just goes to show that the early albums have some great innovation and musicianship. My vote goes to George Martin for 5th Beatle honors.
I had always thought that the piano notes played by Martin underscored the chorus line of Hard,Days and Nights. Lets listen again!
Randy Bachman (BTO & The Guess Who) was just on Breakfast w/ The Beatles (NY radio show) speaking of private tour of Abbey Rd given to him by Giles Martin. He asked to hear the individual tracks of the chord and said it was:
George's 12 string- F w/ hi AND LOW G notes (thumb over low E string)
John- Dsus4!!!???
Paul Bass- C!!!?
Giles dad piano- G & C
Fourier got nothin vs access to tracks. Someone should try to confirm.
Interesting. Presumably these were the demixed files which were used for the surround sound mixes for the Love soundtrack.
The original multitracks wouldn't have enabled him to isolate more than the piano, acoustic guitar and possibly the drums, which were overdubbed later. All the rest were recorded onto the same track. I'm not sure what software they used to demix the songs for Love - I believe it was a variety. Fourier transform may well have figured somewhere down the line.
If we take a good look at this problem, we see the following have not been discussed:
1.) The chord played before and the chord played after the mystery chord in question will assist us in a proper analysis.
2.) Since this is the first chord of the song, we need only look to the second chord of the song, which might be any of the diatonic chords in the key.
Let's look at what Giles revealed to Randy:
1.) George's 12 string- F w/ hi AND LOW G notes (thumb over low E string)
This just gives us two "g" notes an octave apart
2.) John- Dsus4
A Dsus4 chord in root position is (1-4-5) or the noted DGA
3.) Paul Bass- C
We have to be careful here! If Paul's note sounds below the chord, it will be the bass note and will change the entire relationship of the other notes. More on this in a moment
4.) Giles dad piano- G & C
Again, where are they placed in the over all register of the chord?
First of all, let's see what a general analysis would reveal by looking at all the notes at once, with out the repeats:
GDAC
Occam's Razor dictates we choose the simplest answer. If we simply take these notes and analyze according to what we use as the "1" or bass note of the chord, we should get somewhere fast!
Take the first version and move the bottom note to the top; repeat until you have the first chord one octave higher. These are called inversions and a 4-note chord will have:
Root
1st inv
2nd inv
3rd inv
GDAC - Root
DACG - 1st
ACGD - 2nd
CGDA - 3rd
GDAC - Root (one octave higher)
While these good be inversions of the same chord, because we are dealing in 4th, the inversion could actually CHANGE the chord structure.
Let's do a sidebar example before we continue:
The notes DFAC are a D-7 chord; or 1-b3-5-b7
The notes FACD are a completely different chord; an F6 chord; or 1-3-5-6
And depending how the F6 is played and what chord comes before and after, we might just analyze is as a minor 7th!!!
Ok, back to the Beatles.
We will call the bottom note the "1" of the chord and go from there.
GDAC Some kind of G chord? In that case we have 1-5-9-4 which we could name a Gsus4 (9)
DACG Some kind of D chord? In that case we have 1-5-b 7-4 which we could call a D7sus4
ACGD Some kind of A chord? In that case we have 1-b3-b7-11(or 4) which we would call a A-7(11)
CGDA Some kind of C chord? In that case we have 1-5-9-6 which we might call a C6/9 chord
The answer? The chord in question is D7sus4, and here's why.
The three other chords have complicated harmonic analyses. The Gsus(9) is ok, but the chord is missing it's b7 and has the tension of a 9 in it. Typical usage would dictate we have all four notes of a 7th chord (in this case GCDF) before we add a tension. This chord has the tension of the 9 with no b7. Off with it's head!!!
A-7(11) is ok, but there is no 5th in the chord (E). The 5th is often dropped because unless you are dealing with a diminished or min7th(b5) chord, the 5th doesn't DO much.
However, if we listen to the chord, it's pretty clear that there is no A in the bass. In fact, Giles shows Paul playing a C in the bass, so this chord is not the answer. Off with it's head.
The C6/9 chord is a chord that we all have seen before and of course it's standard fair in jazz. But this particular version has no third degree (E) in it. The 3rd of the chord cannot be left out (unless you WANT vagueness) because the 3rd tells us whether the chord is major or minor. And even though Paul is playing a C, it does not force the chord into becoming some type of C chord. Off with its head.
No, the answer is clearly D7sus4.
Why? Two very strong reasons...
1.) The analysis of 1-5-b 7-4 is absolutely typical and normal. If we did it in exact order, it would be written like this: 1-4-5-b7. Root, 4, 5, flat 7 with the 4 replacing the 3rd (G replaces F#).
In other words, this analysis has no missing notes, no chords without 5ths and all the other aspects that make the other chords suspect.
2.) Now, here is the killer reason. The second chord of the song is G, which makes the D7sus4 the V7sus4 chord in the key of G.
V to I is called a dominant cadence and is the most common cadence in western music.
Now, for the cool stuff.
If Paul played the b7 (C) in the bass, then the analysis would actually be D7sus4/C, or a V7sus4/C. What this does is to TRICK OUR EAR into hearing the chord as some kind of IV chord; IV to I is called a plagal cadence (the amen cadence).
Plus the use of 12-strings and a great voicing using different instruments in different ranges makes the chord seem even more exotic.
You hear Plagal movement in the bass. You hear Dominant movement elsewhere. You land on the I chord in G major and the song takes off from there.
Man! What a great song!
Nice musical discussion given those particular notes but Bachman is clearly mistaken.
A reasoned discussion considering the wealth of empirical evidence and verifying assumptions with Fourier Transform analysis appears here:
http://sites.google.com/site/ahdnchord/
According to Randy, Paul plays a D on bass.
Here: http://web.me.com/mlutthans/Site_68/Welcome.html
What did The Beatles Scores come up with for it?
Shouldn't this chord have been placed in the sheet music? It doesn't really matter what chords I play as it's only a northern song. Think!
One important factor was that George had a slightly unconventional tuning on his 12-string Rickenbacker. Instead of the two third strings being unison (which is the convention these days), he tuned them an octave apart, like the 4th, 5th and 6th strings. This meant that when he played that Fadd9, the second high-tuned g string sounded as an additional high 'a' note ringing out at the top above even the 'g' notes from the pair of top e strings, and this gave the chord the very bell-like shimmering sound that has been so hard to reproduce.
Whose 12-string would that be? The G course in octaves is still convention with the folks who build my instruments and strings.
As far as the analysis goes, you can stack thirds to get all kinds of answers, but what does the ear say? Does this chord really sound like "functional" harmony, or just a "color" based on I? To me, it's always seemed the latter, so I'll vote G9add4/D (counting Paul's bass note as the bottom for fun). Overcomplicated on paper, maybe, but that's where me ear leans. Why "add4"? Well, there's no previous chord from which to carry a suspension--how's that for theory wonkism?
Ric 360/12's were set up and and shipped from the factory with a wound third, as the convention for unwound thirds on ANY guitar happened later in the instrument's development.
Ric 12 string sets are still packaged this way.
http://boutique.rickenbacker.com/STRING-SET-GTR-12-STR-10-46_p_680.html
Their arrangement of courses is also different than most conventional 12 strings, with the higher course of each side placed on top. These two things are what gave the Ric 360/12 its distinctive tone from the very beginning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rickenbacker_360/12
Unless he had a very unusual 3rd finger, I think the "opening chord" is fretted like this:
E ----4---- <------ not 3
B ----1----
G ----2----
D ----3----
A ----x----
E ----x----
...if only the Beatles had written this out before hand instead of just playing, then maybe I would give all of this "Musical CSI" some respect.
If Harrison was playing the fourth fret on the top E string, that would give a G sharp. It's not what he mentioned in the 2001 interview quoted above, nor does it sound right.
Wow, am just a casual fan who plays guitar (er, major chords, mostly; just strumming); have to say am pretty impressed with all of this discussion. You guys are freaking smart.
Play the Fadd9 with a Dropped D tuning open D, with the A string damped (3rd finger).
Sounds about right.
Magical mystery chord...
Great analysis, it really is a Dm7sus4 (not D7sus4 since a plain 'F' can be clearly heard) but I'm surprised that no one talked about takes 1 to 8 of the song which can be found on various bootlegs. These help a lot as we hear the chord without George Martin's piano (overdubbed later on the master take). John and George seem to play the same chord, Paul definitely playing a D on bass.
Actually, and not less surprisingly, no one seems to have noticed that George's arpeggio at the end of the song is built on the very same notes that those of the intro chord !
E ----3----
B ----1----
G ----2----
D ----0----
A ----x----
E ----x----
then
E ----1----
B ----1----
G ----2----
D ----0----
A ----x----
E ----x----
ad lib...
All very logical in the end !
Consider the relationship between the IX chord of the G Dislexian Scale and the demented 7th implied by the sharp Cb. Or not.
Don't forget those Aeolian cadences
Ah yes, thank you Vonbontee, as I recall the quote "...harmonic interest is atypical of their quicker songs, too, and one gets the impression that they think simultaneously of harmony, melody and lunch, so firmly are the major gin and tonic sevenths and ninths built like tens into their tunes, and the flat labia minora key switches, so natural is the hairy Aeolian cadence at the end of 'Not a Second Tiny Tim' (the chord regression which ends Gleason's Song of the Girth)..."
Recently I've taken up the Sitar, a beautiful instrument which George was famously fond of. As began wrapping my head around the standard Ravi Shankhar tuning, it suddenly dawned on me that the 7 main strings, strummed openly, replicate this chord. It practically begs you to play "A Hard Day's Night". I know they began adding sitars to recordings later than this recording, but I've begun to wonder if an early interest in sitar didn't inspire this famous chord. I've never seen anything mentioned about it, but it's an odd coincidence. Hmm
It would indeed be an odd coincidence. The Beatles didn't encounter Indian instruments until filming Help! in April 1965. Interesting theory though - I didn't know that about the sitar.
And the coincidence just gets odder. I did a little search on George's "first encounter with the sitar" and conventional wisdom has it that yes, it was on the set for "Help," fooling around between takes while filming the indian restaurant scene.
The music for the scene, a reimagined, indianized medley of Beatles songs, is credited to "The George Martin Orchestra." This indicates that the OTHER George certainly knew enough of the natural lay of the instrument at the time to score music for it. And the first song of the indian medley on the HELP album is... "A HARD DAY'S NIGHT!" Though the chord wasn't in the version I heard, apparently something about it showing up naturally on sitar begged George Martin to score the melody. I'm looking for a copy of the film now to find out what was actually played on camera.
India being colonized by Great Britain, indian restaurants offering entertainment played on indian classical instruments would have been more common in early 60's London than in the states. George Martin, a widely experienced producer/arranger at the time, had all types of novelty musicians/instruments running through his studios in addition to recording the Beatles from the very beginning. So it's possible the sound at least was in the Beatle's ears at the time the song was originally being arranged for recording. With as much influence as George Martin had on arrangements, I'm wondering if he may have suggested the voicing or if it was something the Beatles overheard in the studio hallways.
It's an interesting point to ponder. Certainly a lot of serendipity swirling around it for consipiracy theorists to kick at. Not that I love conspiracy theorists. Next someone will say Paul is dead.
The incidental music for Help! was written by Ken Thorne, and as you say was performed by the George Martin Orchestra. It wasn't scored by Martin. The piece in question was called Another Hard Day's Night, and is available on the Capitol box set volume two.
If you're interested, here's more on The Beatles and India.
this is not rocket science folks...george often fretted the low G on the 3rd fret of the E6th...in fact he would often play a G chord in an open manner with his thumb on 3rd fret E6th and his first finger on 3rd fret E1st carl perkins style...but back to the point it's just an F chord combined with his open G thus the 9th...the low C in the F is covered with his thumb as well...3rd fret A string...lennon is playing Dsus4...in effect adding another 9th to george's chord....mcartney is way up high for sure...no doubt a D on the 12th fret on the D.
of course let's not fret over this...i just play an open C combined with george's open G....sort of all the same now isn't it....potato...pototo...let it ring and go right into G.