Hard Day's Night, A (Original Soundtrack) - Beatles (The)

...their first motion picture ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, one thing was obvious: Lennon and McCartney would be working overtime in the recording studio compiling tracks for an album release! And indeed they were as the soundtrack to their first movie contained 13 songs, some of which were used in the movie and some which were just thrown onto the CD for the hell of it. Well, perhaps there were some other reasons for the six non-film tracks being included ...
...armchair proclaiming ‘that’s been a hard day’s night’ and that’s how the title for the movie and indeed the title song were born. It’s a cute little story but whether it’s true or not is questionable as there are reports that Lennon used to say that upon coming off stage in the bands early days in Hamburg and way before Richard Starkey joined the soon to be Fab Four.

However, it doesn’t matter where the name came from as this doesn’t ... more

When The Beatles first signed up to star in their first motion picture ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, one thing was obvious: Lennon and McCartney would be working overtime in the recording studio compiling tracks for an album release! And indeed they were as the soundtrack to their first movie contained 13 songs, some of which were used in the movie and some which were just thrown onto the CD for the hell of it. Well, perhaps there were some other reasons for the six non-film tracks being included – perhaps just for the band to have a complete record – but the only person who was truly allowed to be cynical about The Beatles was John himself...

Moving on and one of the most iconic things about the album itself is its title: as explained on The Beatles Anthology DVD set, by Sir Paul, Ringo Starr was one of those fellows who constantly got mixed up with his words. One night, after a busy day of filming, the drummer apparently slumped into an armchair proclaiming ‘that’s been a hard day’s night’ and that’s how the title for the movie and indeed the title song were born. It’s a cute little story but whether it’s true or not is questionable as there are reports that Lennon used to say that upon coming off stage in the bands early days in Hamburg and way before Richard Starkey joined the soon to be Fab Four.

However, it doesn’t matter where the name came from as this doesn’t stop the soundtrack from being a fairly good collection of songs; ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ was released in 1964, a time in the bands career when their lyrics were limited to slushy ballads, broken heart outpours and ideas of how to make women fall for them. As if they ever needed to question their appeal – they were in the biggest pop band of all time, for cripes sakes! Any woman would have fallen head over heels in love with them, especially after one or two listens of this soundtrack.

To be fair, in many ways, the album ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ isn’t the best album the band ever made; still green and limited in terms of their song writing (freedom and experimentation of weed wouldn’t really play a part in their music until it came to write songs for their second film, ‘Help!’) so it’s unfair to expect this release to be as colourful and spectacular as something like ‘The Magical Mystery Tour’ soundtrack which was certainly an extension of the psychedelic vibes sought in ‘Sgt. Peppers’. Being the third album ever released by The Beatles, it followed a similar formula that had previously been explored, mainly the use of guitars, drums and harmonies in order to create its trademark sound. It’s apparently the only album in the bands history where all of the songs are credited to Lennon/McCartney which considering in the beginning the group would cover a lot of their favourite artists tracks, such as Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Smokey Robinson, marks a real milestone in the bands career.

Also, this soundtrack was a bit before Harrison had enough confidence in his own song writing abilities for them to be thrown onto any of the bands album releases. However, George isn’t just included on the album as the bands lead guitarist but he also makes credible vocal contributions on many of the tracks, even taking the lead on one of Lennon’s compositions.

Oh and what about Ringo? He didn’t get a chance to grace us with his wonderful singing...thankfully!

‘WHEN I’M HOME, EVERYTHING SEEMS TO BE RIGHT...’ (Lyric from ‘A Hard Day’s Night’)
With the title track opening the album, it’s practically impossible not to think of the opening scenes of the film – who can forget the lads running away from trillions of screaming fan-girls? Seeking a powerful way to begin the album was tricky business; an up-tempo number was undeniably on the cards and to really break into the urgency of the bands dash from cars to a train, the impressive opening chord – provided on a 12 stringed guitar by Harrison – began both the soundtrack and the film. ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ is mainly a Lennon composition who, after hearing Ringo’s ‘malapropism’ (if that story is indeed true), raced home to start work on the song - there was said to be a little bit of competition between him and McCartney as to who could come up with the movie’s title track. One of the best things about ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ is its catchy, energetic tune which is elevated by the story of a guy who can’t wait to see his girlfriend after a hectic day away from her. It’s a great opening song as it really throws the listener into the soundtrack with its unyielding euphoria and as a song it’s massively important in terms of attracting an American audience; after a string of hits with upbeat tracks such as ‘She Loves You’ and most famously ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, the band needed to stay on top of their game across the pond, even if some might argue it was at a cost of their creativity by releasing another rocky love jingle instead of a slower, less attention grabbing ballad.

With harmonicas gracing the sound waves, the second track on this album, ‘I Should Have Known Better’ is a cheery little number about the rush of falling in love all too quickly, although the boy in question should have possibly known better than to fall head over heels too soon and with that particular girl. It’s all lovely and idealistic; the boy is certain that the girl will be infatuated with him too and it ties in well with the idea expressed by Paul that in the early days, the Beatles wrote songs as subliminal messages to their lady fans to buy their records – how sneaky of them! ‘I Should Have Known Better’ is primarily a Lennon creation so he sings the lead vocals and he makes a wonderful job of this; his voice has a astonishing, raspy quality to it and makes the track seem to epitomize the haste of falling in love very well. Like many of the bands earlier tracks, the lyrics aren’t overly complicated, and ‘I Should Have Known Better’ is a little repetitive, it has to be said, but it’s certainly a fantastic addition to the album because it’s so uplifting and I never tire of listening to it.

‘If I Fell’ is one of the few ballads where Lennon really steps out of McCartney’s shadow in terms of writing incredibly touching love songs. Said to be a favourite of Kurt Cobain’s (Nirvana apparently used to play this song if the electric failed in their venues as it’s an acoustic song) ‘If I Fell’ is about a person’s uncertainty and unease of falling in love after some pretty bad experiences beforehand. I like the fact that it was just a Lennon/McCartney vocal effort – if Harrison (or heaven forbid Ringo) had joined in, I think the track would have lost a lot of its effortless affection and would have sounded a bit too overcrowded, overpowering the slow acoustic guitar melody, which in itself is lovely. ‘If I Fell’ is a real highlight of the soundtrack because it’s just so pleasant to listen to and unfussy, although – if you wanted to be mega picky – some may claim it to be a little bit too similar to a widely recognised Beatles track later on...

‘I DISCOVERED I’M IN LOVE WITH YOU’ (Lyric from ‘I’m Happy Just To Dance With You’)
However, ‘I’m Happy Just to Dance with You’ really highlights just how limited the bands storytelling was during the early days. Another pleading love song, written by Lennon but sung by Harrison, is cutesy but the backing harmonies seem to be added in an effort to make it sound a lot different to track number two, ‘I Should Have Known Better’. Instead, the backing vocals clash terribly with the lead vocals and detract away from the questioning of the lyrics greatly. It’s another upbeat number which contrasts with ‘If I Fell’ greatly but after such a pretty ballad, it’s weakness in terms of being a bit of a half-arsed love song is even more apparent. If ‘I’m Happy Just To Dance With You’ had appeared a little later on, it may have been saved a little although I do like the change of lyric from ‘I’m happy just to dance with you’ to ‘I’ve discovered I’m in love with you’ at the end which is a quirky little touch that many of the Beatles earlier love songs didn’t tamper with as the lyrics were normally repeated in terms of chorus’ and middle-eights without their being a massive change.

Why didn’t Lennon take the lead vocal on ‘I’m Happy Just to Dance with You’, I hear you cry? Apparently, he claimed that he could never sing it himself. Perhaps it wasn’t quite sarcastic enough for him...

Giving McCartney a chance to express his loving tendencies, ‘And I Love Her’ is the fifth track on the soundtrack and one of the most well known ballads by The Beatles. Like ‘If I Fell’, its simplicity is the key here and I particularly like the guitar bit in the middle where the singing stops and it allows for George to show off his skills; Harrison is a bit of an uncelebrated icon as far as guitarists go and on tracks like ‘And I Love Her’, although it’s not a raging guitar riff, it would still have taken a lot of skill and timing to make the tune match the singing in such a way. Unlike ‘If I Fell’, ‘And I Love Her’ is a solo vocal effort from McCartney and it suits the mood of the song so much better as it seems to be more of a personal address to a lover. Paul’s vocals on here definitely deserve a round of applause; clear and not too falsetto-like, they sound beautiful against the straightforward use of instruments, making ‘And I Love Her’ one of McCartney’s best outings on the ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ soundtrack.

‘And I Love Her’ is quite similar to ‘If I Fell’ but the difference lies in the fact that it’s already an open admission that someone is madly in love with another, rather than the questioning of falling in love, in spite of the facts that the gentle acoustic guitar is the framework for both songs. Although ‘And I Love Her’ really is the epitome of a McCartney love song, with there being a complete focus upon the lady of his affections, some of the imagery before the chorus is quite different. Although Sir Paul maintains that he wrote the song entirely on his own, some of the imagery seems to be a little less fitting with the rest of the song: ‘bright are the stars that shine/dark is the sky/I know this love of mine/will never die’ stands out a little and regardless of who wrote it, I like this section the most out of all of the song because it breaks up the rest of the song and stops it being as straight forward as a repetition of ‘I love you’.

‘Tell Me Why’ is another Lennon track, written about a suspicious lover who is trying to get back into his girls good books. McCartney later saw ‘Tell Me Why’ as a song based upon arguments between John and his first wife, Cynthia; if you listen and interpret songs like ‘Norwegian Wood’, it appears as if Lennon was anything but faithful to his first wife, and this was before he’d even set eyes on Yoko Ono! It’s a nice little number but that’s as far as it goes; the music, which seems to be a lot bluesier than anything else thus far on the soundtrack, seems to overwhelm the lyrics too much and makes the song seem a little bit insincere. If you look at the lyrics separately, it’s really apparent that the song is about the desperations of a lover who is learning as he goes along in his relationship but this is lost against the build up of vocals and the crammed guitars, which is a real shame as it could have been one of the soundtracks best tracks.

‘I DON’T CARE TOO MUCH FOR MONEY, MONEY CAN’T BUY ME LOVE’ (lyric from ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’)
Although ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ is a well known and perhaps well liked Beatles track, it’s one that I’ve never really cared for. It has a fun beat to it, being another up-tempo track and all, but it just doesn’t impress me all that much as I find the lyrics a bit corny. Mainly a McCartney song, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ is rather ironic considering the legends recent divorce from Heather Mills as the song talks about how money is a great thing but it can’t always buy happiness. The little scream from Paul in the middle is rather sweet and takes the song back to the groups rock ‘n’ rolls days but it’s hardly one of my favourites on here as to me it’s missing something of star quality that many of The Beatles’ songs normally have. It all seems a bit disjointed somehow – the guitar solo in the middle almost seems like an accident and, to me anyway, it just doesn’t ‘fit in’ well with the rest of the song. Having said that, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ is a fun little number and perhaps a welcomed break from the ballads of the album...well, that would be the case if you don’t like ballads!

‘Any Time at All’ seems to be a bit of a cross between ‘Tell Me Why’ and ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ because it’s a track that is heavily instrumented. Although in contrast to ‘Tell Me Why’ it’s a song about making a lover happy when they are down instead of begging for forgiveness, it seems to have a better vibe to it, allowing John to really show off his sometimes gravelly vocal performance. ‘Any Time at All’ is the first of the tracks on this album not to have been included in the film ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ but this one may have been a more appropriate choice for such scenes in the film when Ringo gets Police-knapped (it’s a long story, kids) and is in need of someone to help him out, which would have perhaps suited the mood of the scene better than the title track did. ‘Any Time At All’ is catchy and quite bubbly but overall, a bit over the top and hardly innovative.

‘I’ll Cry Instead’ seems to be quite similar in nature to ‘Tell Me Why’ as it seems to be a direct response to Lennon’s deteriorating relationship with his wife Cynthia; although adored by millions of women, John could seemingly never make his lover happy, something which he was said to find extremely hurtful and frustrating. As the shortest song on the album at 1.44 minutes, ‘I’ll Cry Instead’ never really delved deep within the relationship that was said to be strained but it’s easy to get the impression by John’s defiant vocals that the affiliation would be staying on that same level for some time. It’s odd that the song wasn’t sung in a more delicate way as the topic of the song and its title indicates a certain weakness from the male in the relationship, something which is certainly lacking from Lennon’s vocals. Not as emotional as you would expect or indeed hope.

Another McCartney song from the soundtrack ‘Things We Said Today’ seems to be another ode to his then girlfriend, Jane Asher; the majority of the early Macca ballads were said to be written about the actress who, although he was besotted with, the two of them failed to have a flawless relationship because of different ideals and working commitments. In spite of Paul’s rumoured commitment issues, the most striking thing about ‘Things We Said Today’ are the lyrics which seem to be looking back on the past and remembering times gone by, showing that McCartney’s song writing was not always stuck in the present, like on ‘And I Love Her’ and ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’. I was a little shocked to learn that the vocals had been double tracked on this song; double tracking is a device that many bands use in order to give either the instruments or vocals a more powerful sound and the application is often added in post production. McCartney’s vocals on ‘Things We Said Today’ seem to be spot on and it’s only in a couple of places within the song, particularly at the chorus, when it’s apparent that a double tracking device has been used.

‘Things We Said Today’ is one of the more adventurous tracks on the album because it seems to have a more sombre feel to it, as if looking back at the past isn’t always a forgiving experience. The harsh strumming on the guitar gives a real bluesy type feel to the track as well and emphasises McCartney’s very clear vocal effort.

Going back into Lennon territory, ‘When I Get Home’ is really in stark contrast with the un-muddled sounds of ‘Things We Said Today’. Although I normally like John’s vocals and song writing, ‘When I Get Home’ seems to be a bit clichéd, and seems to be a cornier version of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ as the topic – like the opening track – is all about a guy wanting to get home to see his girl. And I thought the John and Cynthia marriage wasn’t a blissful one? In spite of normally loving it when John, Paul and George harmonise together, on ‘When I Get Home’, it just didn’t work as it all sounded a bit out of place and messy. This one is certainly not an overtly memorable track from the disk as it’s just too over the top and boarder line insufferable. Perhaps it was the bands earliest attempt at ‘Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da’!

‘I’M GOING TO LET YOU DOWN AND LEAVE YOU FLAT’ (Lyric from ‘You Can’t Do That’)
‘You Can’t Do That’ hosts a similar kind of rocky sound like its predecessor although the twelfth track seems to be more structured and interesting to listen to. The breaks in the chorus where Ringo gets a second to really belt out the drums makes a nice change and adds a different flavour to the song...well it’s an improvement on Starr attempting to sing anyway! Not delving too deeply into Lennon’s personal affairs (pha! Like she hasn’t been doing that before now, ya’ll thinking) it seems to be another autobiographical track, threatening his happy married life because of straying thoughts and the premise that he won’t be able to satisfy his lover, instead breaking their heart and letting them down. I quite like ‘You Can’t Do That’; it’s punchy, has a good, old school rock ‘n’ roll vibe to it and really shows Lennon’s raspy vocals off to their unique best. ‘You Can’t Do That’s is rather similar to The Beatles’ cover of Barrett Strong’s 1959 song ‘Money (That’s What I Want’) with its plonking piano opener and is one that I just can’t get out of my head for days after listening to it! Definitely one of the albums best tracks in terms of letting the guitars, drums and vocals each have their moment to shine.

Concluding the album is the slightly slower and less rocky song ‘I’ll Be Back’, which has a similar tune to ‘Things We Said Today’ with its earthy but soft acoustic sound. There is an air of sadness to ‘I’ll Be Back’, as if the band are almost anticipating a lover to break their hearts prematurely, which is really emphasised by the sudden fade out of the song; it just sort of ends and quite unexpectedly. I like how the band chose to end ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ because a track like ‘I’ll Be Back’ that seems quite different in nature to many of the tracks on the album in effect leads the listener into expecting a very different album upon a group’s future release. I can’t say whether ‘Beatles For Sale’ offers a massive change for the band because I am yet to own it but the premise of a song like ‘I’ll Be Back’ does anticipate a change in direction, especially after an album full of fairly light hearted numbers.

THE CD COVER IS RATHER ICONIC...
One of the things you can always rely on The Beatles for –other than Fabulous music, of course – was a fairly quirky taste in CD covers and ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ is no different. The artwork, with each band member in an almost old fashioned photo strip in different poses and pulling faces, is taken straight from a scene in the movie of the same name in which George is posturing for a photographer during the press scene. Again, like the opening chord strike of the song ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, as soon as you notice the album cover, you are taken back to that particular scene within the movie and it all ties in well together to make it seem as if The Beatles really were on top of their game in terms of self promotion.

HAS IT BEEN ‘A HARD DAY’S NIGHT’?
Perhaps for those of you who have been good enough to read every word of this review, then yes!

One of the things that I liked about the soundtrack was its mainly up-tempo feel; although some of the tracks are perhaps a little lacking in terms of vocal and lyrical quality, there really isn’t that much of a dull moment on the album and – as a whole – ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ is an enjoyable listening experience and a great accompaniment to the film in question because of its light hearted moments, although the darker tunes of ‘Things We Said Today’ and ‘I’ll Be Back’ create a good juxtaposition to many of the other songs on the record.

Yet, it does have to be emphasised that the album is hardly magnificent in terms of the bands exploration of different styles and genres, which is in great contrast to some of the bands later work like ‘The White Album’ and ‘Abbey Road’. Having said that, with the exception of a few foolishly over the top numbers such as ‘Any Time At All’ and ‘When I Get Home’, all of the songs are well paced and have a great charm about them; although whenever I listen to the CD, I don’t instantly gloss over the track listing and remember all of the tracks by name, upon the opening strike of a chord, you instantly remember the song in its entirety, making it a familiar and comfortable album to listen to with some great sing-along moments which is as every bit as commercially gratifying as I would expect it was back in the day.

Is ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ soundtrack the quintessential Beatles album? From the early days, it’s very much the norm of a Beatles CD; for all of the sweet and soft ballads and bouncy up-tempo numbers, it’s a great album if you just want a to listen to an album that is simple, well executed with a great, uplifting vibe that isn’t too much of a complex listen.

It's interesting to note how 'A Hard Day's Night' was voted as the fifth greatest rock album of all time by the Rolling Stone magazine. It's an album that does stick with those key instruments of guitars, drums and raspy, screaming vocals and seemingly one of The Beatles records where that simple formula really stands out and makes the album work.

It did take me a good couple of listens before I truly liked ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ as a soundtrack as I didn’t find it to be as endearing or as striking as many of the songs from later soundtracks like ‘Help!’ and definitely ‘Magical Mystery Tour’. Yet, now that I’ve given it a chance, ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ is an album that I’m sure I’ll be playing for a very, very long time for its cheeriness and enriching character.

QUICK STATS
Year: 1964
Length: 30.30 mins approx
Tracks: 13
Buy at: £9.98 at Amazon.co.uk – eligible for free super saver delivery! 

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