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A Hard Day's Night was written by John Lennon on the night of 13 April 1964, the day the title was selected for The Beatles' first film.
At the time Lennon was in the midst of a prolific songwriting phase, and was responsible for writing the majority of The Beatles' third album. The lyrics to the title track, scrawled on the back of a birthday card, can be seen in the British Museum in London.
John said, 'I'll write it.' And he did, he came back the next day with it. I think he might not have had all the words. I might have been in on that middle eight. Something like that would only have taken twenty minutes. That would have been plenty of time to run through it.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
The song was played to the film's producer, Walter Shenson, on 14 April. Lennon and McCartney performed it in their dressing room, on acoustic guitars, with Lennon's handwritten lyrics propped up on a table.
There were John and Paul with guitars at the ready and all the lyrics scribbled on matchbook covers. They played it and the next night recorded it. It had the right beat and the arrangement was brilliant. These guys were geniuses.
In the studio
A Hard Day's Night was recorded on 16 April 1964 in Abbey Road's Studio Two. It took The Beatles nine takes to complete, just five of which were complete, and was finished in under than three hours.
The backing track - two rhythm guitars, bass guitar and drums - was recorded onto track one of the four-track tape, and Lennon and McCartney's lead vocals were recorded live on track two.
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".
The only reason he [Paul] sang on Hard Day's Night was because I couldn't reach the notes. 'When I'm home, everything seems to be right. When I'm home...' - which is what we'd do sometimes. One of us couldn't reach a note but he wanted a different sound, so he'd get the other to do the harmony.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
The Beatles also recorded George Harrison's 12-string guitar solo and arpeggio outro, doubled up by piano from George Martin. This was taped at half speed so they sounded speedier when played back.
With the great advantage of four-track we were able to overdub and put on secondary voices and guitar solos afterwards. By the time we did A Hard Day's Night we would certainly put the basic track down and do the vocals afterwards. Invariably, I was putting all the rhythm instruments onto either one or two tracks, generally one track, so you would have bass lumped with guitar..
Anthology
Chart success
A Hard Day's Night was first released in the USA. It appeared on the soundtrack to the film of the same name on 13 June 1964, which sold more than two million copies.
In the UK it was released on 10 July. The single, with the b-side Things We Said Today, was issued on the same day as the A Hard Day's Night album.
The single first charted in the UK on 18 July. The following week it reached the number one spot, where it remained for three weeks. The same day, 25 July, saw the A Hard Day's Night album also top the charts in the UK and US.
The American single was released on 13 July, with I Should Have Known Better on the b-side. On 1 August it hit the number one spot, where it stayed for a fortnight. The Beatles thus set a record by simultaneously holding the number one positions on both the single and album charts in the UK and US.
The Beatles were awarded a Grammy award in 1965 for A Hard Day's Night, which won the Best Performance by a Vocal Group category.
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Related articles:
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- US LP release: A Hard Day's Night
what guitar is making the bright chord for the intro of the song, a hard days night-and what mic(s) and what amp?-and who played the chord/guitar?
Hi John. I don't have any info on mics and amps (I suspect they were Vox amps). A couple of books which are on my to-buy list are The Beatles' Gear by Andy Babiuk and Recording The Beatles(.com) by Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew. Those should have the information you need.
There's some info on the song's opening chord here: http://www.beatlesbible.com/features/hard-days-night-chord/
I hope it's useful - it has information on the instruments used and the notes played.
The guitar used for the opening is a Rickenbacker 360/12 twelve string, played by George and the amp is a Vox AC-50. I think that they used Neumann or AKG Mics.
That article on the chord is great.
At the time, 12 string electrics were virtually non-existent. Harrison was given his by Rickenbacker when the Beatles first came to New York in February 1964. It was only the second ever produced by the company, and the first to use the (now) distinctive Rickenbacker string arrangement of having the low string first (higher on the guitar and first to be hit by the pick) then the high string below it. This is part of what makes the sound distinctive. It's amazing that after 45 years, that sound still sounds new, distinctive and just cool.
There should be credits for the cowbell, but I´m not sure who played it. Emerick says Ringo at the same time with the bongos, but it seems impossible to play both at the same time.
Lennon sings both lead and harmony vocals, or at least his main vocal is double-tracked.
It´s not a piano. Actually it´s a Hammond organ played in a piano register. This sound was also used in songs like "Misery", "Things we said today", "I wanna be your man" & "Any time at all"
I like the solo in 'a hard days night' it is supposed to be played fast, but George couldn't do it so the slowed the tape down to half speed, and then George played his solo at halfspeed an octave lower. And George Martin added the same line on the piano.
Later when they were supposed to play this song live, there was a problem. George couldn't play the solo as fast as needed.
Later when they were playing on the BBC Top of the Pops, as found on the CD Beatles at the Beeb. The song was recorded live but the solo didn't go well. So what to do..?
They cut the solo from the LP-album and inserted it inte the live version from TotP. Listen very close to the song 'a hard days night' from the Beeb, you'll hear it, especially in the earphones. These are thing that I do like about the beatles.
I read somewhere that Norman Smith played the congas(bongos on 'a hard days night' He showed Ringo at first, but in the end it was Norman who played it on the record.
I don´t agree with Urban..., please hear the live recording of the song in Live at the Hollwood Bowl (EMI 1977), George plays the solo very well, without any overdubs. And with no piano even.
I'm with Carlos. That solo is really easy. I'm sure George could play that.
First & last ricky chord, solo and bongoes are overdubbed. John and paul's voices are both double tracked. About the solo speed, it's true George wasn't able to play it on the recording session because it was made in a rush and he didn't had time to practice enough. But he did it well on live as the song was played on almost every concert they did in 64. Hard Day's Night was the first album recorded on a 4 tracks tape machine.
Did anybody pick up on the lyrical similarity with Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business"? The Beatles had performed this song frequently on their BBC shows during 1963, and given the increasingly hectic nature of their work schedule it's possible that they adapted the storyline to fit the proposed title "A Hard Day's Night"...
What was the German title for 'A Hard Days Night?
I have a card that stars Wilfred Bramwell, and has the title, 'Vier Sind Im Bild' which translates, according to Google, as 'Four are in the picture.'
The album was called Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! A Hard Day's Night. There's a picture in the Germany discography. I suspect the film was called the same, though I may be wrong.