The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night

As widely popular and influential as the movie A Hard Day's Night is, the album is highly remarkable in its own right. It is responsible for many Beatle firsts and other notable achievements, such as:

First Beatles soundtrack album

First Beatles album to feature all original compositions

Only Beatles album with songs credited entirely to Lennon/McCartney

Only album with no George Harrison compositions

#1 UK Album for 21 weeks

A Hard Day's Night - UK & US #1 single

Can't Buy Me Love - UK & US #1 single

And I Love Her - US #12 single

John Lennon writes the majority of the 13 tracks on his own

One of two British Albums (with Let it Be) that Ringo does not have a lead vocal

A Hard Day's Night was the 3rd UK album release for the Beatles.

Originally released on July 10, 1964 (4 days after the movie) on Parlaphone.

The album was recorded in Abbey Road Studios from January 29 - June 3, 1964. The 13 original songs have a total playing time of 30 min 45 sec.

A Hard Day's Night is a highly influential album.

George Harrison's 12-string electric guitar leads persuaded The Byrds to leave folk music for full-time rock n roll. The Beatles US Success opened new markets for other UK groups like The Rolling Stones, Kinks, and Animals. The success of the original Lennon/McCartney songs also inspired rising American groups (Lovin Spoonfuls, Beau Brummels) to pen their own songs.

All of the songs on Side 1 appear in the soundtrack to the movie A Hard Day's Night. The songs on Side 2 were recorded for the movie, but were not included (the only exception being I'll Cry Instead, which appears in the Prologue of the 1980 re-release).

Side one
# Title Lead vocals Length
1. "A Hard Day's Night" Lennon and McCartney 2:34
2. "I Should Have Known Better" Lennon 2:46
3. "If I Fell" Lennon and McCartney 2:24
4. "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" Harrison 1:59
5. "And I Love Her" McCartney 2:33
6. "Tell Me Why" Lennon 2:12
7. "Can't Buy Me Love" McCartney 2:14

Side two
# Title Lead vocals Length
8. "Any Time at All" Lennon 2:15
9. "I'll Cry Instead" Lennon 1:49
10. "Things We Said Today" McCartney 2:40
11. "When I Get Home" Lennon 2:20
12. "You Can't Do That" Lennon 2:39
13. "I'll Be Back" Lennon and McCartney 2:20

The American version of A Hard Day's Night was originally released on June 26, 1964 by United Artists Records. Since United Artists owned the rights to the movie and it's soundtrack, the Beatles American label, Capitol, could not release an album from the movie. United Artists, was only able to release the 8 songs that were actually in the film and padded it with instrumental versions of four songs, composed by George Martin (which play in the backround during the film).

Side one
"A Hard Day's Night" - 2:33
"Tell Me Why" - 2:10
"I'll Cry Instead" - 1:48
"I Should Have Known Better" (instrumental, George Martin & His Orchestra) - 2:10
"I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" - 1:59
"And I Love Her" (instrumental, George Martin & His Orchestra) - 3:46
Side two
"I Should Have Known Better" - 2:44
"If I Fell" - 2:22
"And I Love Her" - 2:29
"Ringo's Theme (This Boy)" (instrumental, George Martin & His Orchestra) - 3:10
"Can't Buy Me Love" - 2:12
"A Hard Day's Night" (instrumental, George Martin & His Orchestra) - 2:06

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