A Hard Day's Night

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Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Strummmmm! That dramatic guitar chord that kicks of A Hard Day's Night (album, song, movie) still jumps right out at you, slaps you in the face, and jump-starts your heart. And you know what? Both the music and the film are still as crisp and lively as they were in 1964. Of course, only the first seven songs are actually in the movie (and they are the strongest of the bunch, from the rousing rock & roll of title track and the hit single "Can't Buy Me Love", to the beautiful ballads "If I Fell" and "And I Love Her"). But nobody's going to complain about having songs like "I'll Cry Instead" and "Things We Said Today" in the second half of the record; they certainly don't feel like leftovers. Yet another high-point for John, Paul, George, and Ringo--four fab fellows who hit the highest heights imaginable. --Jim Emerson

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Description
A HARD DAY'S NIGHT was the first Beatles album of all-original material, and the first to feature George Harrison playing his Rickenbacker electric 12-string guitar (on the opening chord of "A Hard Day's Night", for instance). The distinctive sound of the 12-string inspired countless guitarists including Roger McGuinn and David Crosby of the Byrds.
The film from which these songs hail remains a classic combination of happy 1960s naivete and nascent hipster wit. Many of the most important rock bands to emerge in the latter half of the '60s came into being because of A HARD DAY'S NIGHT's irresistible vibrancy. The tunes flow like the finest red wine,as the title track leads to the glorious harmonica of "I Should Have Known Better" and the powerfully poignant "If I Fell".

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Customer reviews

review by: Walrus date: 2008-07-04 rating:
Another great album from the Fab Four
I love every single song on this CD and I am sure others would too especially the songs "Things we said today" and "you can't do that". A great album from the best band in the world

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review by: COBRABRAVA date: 2008-02-22 rating:
PURE BEATLES'SOUND!!!!!!
This is the biggest example of the "beatlemania" fever; this album was so original (the only one album composed entirely of Lennon-McCartney songs) this was also their third album recorded and all the material are excellent and fresh, the fab four doing one of their best efforts; very rock'n'roll songs like A HARD DAY'S NIGHT, I'M HAPPY JUST TO DANCE WITH YOU and TELL ME WHY, great acoustic ballads like AND I LOVE HER, IF I FELL and I'LL BE BACK, excellent pop songs like THINGS WE SAID TODAY and I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN BETTER, including the country song I'LL CRY INSTEAD, and the greatest No. 1 hit song CAN'T BUY ME LOVE! this album is essential in every beatles and rock and roll collection!!

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review by: date: 2007-08-29 rating:
Unbelievable
This album is absolutely one of their best. It really hits the peak of Beatlemania in 1964 and does the boys justice as THE band in the world back then (and possibly now).

'And I Love Her' is a much overlooked, beautiful love song.
'Can't Buy Me Love' and 'Hard Day's Night' are two of the best rock songs ever made. The blindingly upbeat 'Can't Buy Me Love' which speeds along to its conclusion, superbly sung and tightly played until that final hung chord is simply brilliant. And as for HDN: that first suspensive chord gives you warning you're going to have your senses assaulted by something special, which is what you get, the film giving it even more 'oomph.' John's voice on this is magnificent, as of course is Paul's more rounded, tonal delivery on 'Can't Buy Me Love'.

Buy this!

Things We Said Today

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review by: dynamitekid156 date: 2007-07-30 rating:
The second masterpiece.
After the promising debut of Please Please Me and the excellent R'n'B of With The Beatles, the band returned with their third album in the space of a year; the soundtrack to a film (that was far better than it should've been) and without doubt their finest work up to that point, or even up to Rubber Soul. With the group having discovered the work of Bob Dylan early that year, a whole new layer of acoustic music was added to their work, resulting in a textured, rich sound for this record; add to this the fact that it's the first entirely Lennon/McCartney-penned album and you have several new beginnings on this LP.

The album is really a Lennon LP more than a Beatles LP, seeing as 10 of the 13 songs are mostly Lennon pieces. This means that since Lennon wrote many of them in a short period while on the road - and many of them were written for, as he puts it, 'the meat market' - there is not as great a degree of quality control as the more group-oriented LPs. For example, 'When I Get Home' is excellent melodically, but lyrically is garbage and worryingly close to the title track.

However, aside from a couple of minor dips, this is the band's most accomplished LP up to this point. The layered, deep sound on this album is surmised by the title track, most importantly it's massive, famous opening chord and the guitar solo - played on twelve string and doubled by a piano. The Dylan influence is also obvious in excellent acoustic-based tracks like Paul's 'Things We Said Today' or the slightly eerie 'I'll Be Back,' and in the harmonica used on the bawling 'Tell Me Why.'

George Harrison gets a look in on a vocalist on 'I'm Happy Just To Dance With You,' a song with surprisingly dissonant chords, Lennon shows his more vulnerable side on the beautiful harmonies of 'If I Fell,' and Paul created one of his most enduring standbys in 'Can't Buy Me Love.' Perhaps best of all is 'You Can't Do That,' a hint of the future written by Lennon, led by a nasty, sneering piano and guitar line with a snake-hipped groove, boosted by John's bitter, suspicious lyrics. It's one of their best early songs and is sorely overlooked.

A Hard Day's Night is just one of the many early Beatles records that is all but ignored in the face of say, Sgt. Pepper. But it deserves accolades almost as high as that record, and if you're not into the psychedelic era then you may even prefer it. I know I do.


review by: date: 2007-04-08 rating:
It's pop - but it's pop of the highest quality
Baahmmmmmmmmmm! Never before, and never since, has a single chord had such a lasting impact as that opening power chord produced by a combination of Lennon and Harrison bashing the strings of their Rickenbackers. This is the album that gave The Byrds their sound.

This album was the most self-assured offering to date by The Beatles, a confident statement, a declaration that they had truely made it. They could so easily have rested on their laurels and produced a third album of standard fare backed up with popular covers of the day. But The Beatles would never have been satisfied with that (even if the fans of the day might have been) and with 'A Hard Day's Night' began a trend of barrier-breaking creativity that would be continued (with the possible exception of 'Beatles For Sale') throughout the rest of the band's career.

People always rightly say that The Beatles' early albums in particular should be judged in the context of the pap that was around at the time. But the fact is that this, as with the great majority of the rest of the catalogue, just sounds awesome in any context, period.

Every song is a sing-along joy, and although not a great mix (the famous McCartney bass sound was yet to be invented, and the recording engineers had yet to discover the gains to be made through miking up the bass drum), the power of the music and the guitars and vocals shines through. There are also some fine acoustic guitar sounds, the guys favouring the warmth of nylon strings over steel ones.

For the complete Hard Day's Night experience listen to an old original vinyl pressing (the discs really were produced to a very high standard back then) and follow it up with a spinning of the 'Long Tall Sally' EP, which came out of the same early-1964 period, sounds sonically even better, and features 'I Call your Name' with the same trademark Rickenbacker sound. The EP's title track also features one of McCartney's best ever screaming vocals - this was the heavy metal of 1964!

Although the next album, 'Beatles For Sale', due to pressures from EMI to get another album out, would see a temporary return to the old formula (albeit with some fine original songs), for now 'A Hard Day's Night' would signal to the pop world that the bar had been raised again, by The Beatles.

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Beatles for Sale
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