- This article is about the song. For the album, see A Hard Day's Night; for the film, see A Hard Day's Night (movie).
"A Hard Day's Night" sold over one million copies within just five weeks of its release as a single in the United States.
"A Hard Day's Night" is a 1964 hit song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, performed by the Beatles and produced by George Martin. The song featured prominently on the soundtrack to the Beatles' first feature film, A Hard Day's Night, and was on their album of the same name. The song topped the charts in both the United Kingdom and United States when it was released as a single. Featuring a prominent and unique opening chord, the song's success provided the first inkling that the Beatles were not the one-hit wonder some had suggested when they first came to America. The American and British singles of "A Hard Day's Night" as well as both the American and British albums of the same title all held the top position in their respective charts for a couple of weeks in August 1964, the first time any artist had done this.
A sample from the song is available.
Title inspired by Ringo-ism
The song's strange title originated from something said by Ringo Starr, the Beatles' drummer. Starr described it this way in an interview with disc jockey Dave Hull in 1964: "We went to do a job, and we'd worked all day and we happened to work all night. I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, 'It's been a hard day...' and I looked around and saw it was dark so I said, '...night!' So we came to 'A Hard Day's Night.'"
Starr's statement was the inspiration for the title of the movie, which in turn inspired the composition of the song. According to Lennon in a 1980 interview with Playboy magazine: "I was going home in the car and Dick Lester [director of the movie] suggested the title, 'Hard Day's Night' from something Ringo had said. I had used it in 'In His Own Write' [a book Lennon was writing then], but it was an off-the-cuff remark by Ringo. You know, one of those malapropisms. A Ringo-ism, where he said it not to be funny... just said it. So Dick Lester said, 'We are going to use that title.'"
In a 1994 interview for The Beatles Anthology, however, McCartney disagreed with Lennon's recollections, basically stating that it was the Beatles and not Lester, who had come up with the idea of using Starr's verbal misstep: "The title was Ringo's. We'd almost finished making the film, and this fun bit arrived that we'd not known about before, which was naming the film. So we were sitting around at Twickenham studios having a little brain-storming session... and we said, 'Well, there was something Ringo said the other day.' Ringo would do these little malapropisms, he would say things slightly wrong, like people do, but his were always wonderful, very lyrical... they were sort of magic even though he was just getting it wrong. And he said after a concert, 'Phew, it's been a hard day's night.'"
In 1996, yet another version of events cropped up — in an Associated Press report, the producer of the movie A Hard Day's Night, Walter Shenson , stated that Lennon described to Shenson some of Starr's funnier gaffes, including "a hard day's night," whereupon Shenson immediately decided that that was going to be the title of the movie (the originally planned title was Beatlemania). Shenson then told Lennon that he needed a theme song for the film.
The making
Regardless of who decided on the title, Lennon immediately made up his mind that he would compose the movie's title track. Both Lennon and McCartney were credited as co-authors, though the two of them did not actually work on their songs together — instead, one would write the majority of the song, and the other would critique it. (In some cases, even when there was no input from the other Beatle, such as on "Yesterday", both of them would still be credited as authors.) It was a symbiosis that could be described as friendly competition.
Lennon proceeded to dash off much of the song in one night, and brought it in for comments the following morning (the original manuscript lyrics may be seen in the British Library, scribbled in ballpoint on the back of an old birthday card). As he described in his Playboy interview, "...the next morning I brought in the song... 'cuz there was a little competition between Paul and I as to who got the A-side — who got the hits. If you notice, in the early days the majority of singles, in the movies and everything, were mine... in the early period I'm dominating the group."
McCartney proceeded to help Lennon write the bridge, completing the song. In the Associated Press report, Shenson described his recollection of what happened. At 8:30 in the morning, "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." Shenson declared, "It had the right beat and the arrangement was brilliant. These guys were geniuses."
During that period of time, the Beatles were being interviewed by reporter Maureen Cleave of London's Evening Standard. Lennon showed Cleave the lyrics, and she suggested to him that the lines "I find my tiredness is through/And I feel alright" sounded weak. Lennon eventually replaced the lines in question with "I find that the things that you do/They make me feel alright".
On April 16 1964, the Beatles gathered at Studio 2 of the Abbey Road Studios and recorded "A Hard Day's Night". It took them less than three hours to polish the song for its final release, eventually selecting the ninth take as the one to be released.
The release
"A Hard Day's Night" was first released to the United States, coming out on June 13, 1964 on the album A Hard Day's Night, the soundtrack to the film, and released by United Artists. The album was a hit, selling a million copies in just four days.
The United Kingdom first heard "A Hard Day's Night" when it was released there on July 10, 1964, both on the album A Hard Day's Night, and as a single, backed with "Things We Said Today" on the B-side. Both the album and single were released by Parlophone Records. The album proceeded to sell 1.5 million copies within a fortnight of its release. The single began charting on July 18, 1964, a week later ousting the Rolling Stones' "It's All Over Now" from the top spot on the British charts on July 25, 1964, coincidentally the day when both the American and British albums too hit the peak of their respective charts. The single stayed on top for three weeks, and lasted another nine weeks in the charts afterwards.
America first saw the single of "A Hard Day's Night" on July 13, 1964, featuring "I Should Have Known Better" on the B-side, and released by Capitol Records. Capitol had been in a quandary about cashing in on the success of the movie A Hard Day's Night, as United Artists held the publishing rights for the soundtrack (thus owning the rights to release the album of the same title). However, there was nothing preventing Capitol from releasing the songs in other forms, leading to six out of the seven songs from the movie's soundtrack coming out on singles.
The American single began its 13-week chart run on five days after release, and on August 1 started a two-week long run at the top, setting a new record—nobody before had ever held the number one position on both the album and singles charts in the United Kingdom and the United States at the same time. The Beatles were the first to do so, and continued to be the only ones who had done this until 1970 when Simon and Garfunkel achieved the same feat with their album Bridge Over Troubled Water and its title track. "A Hard Day's Night" went on to sell one million copies in America within just over five weeks.
After the Beatles had performed on The Ed Sullivan Show when they first came to America in early 1964, some American critics had dismissed them as one-hit wonders. "A Hard Day's Night" proved them wrong, as it only strengthened the Beatles' dominance of the world music scene in 1964. They would continue to feature prominently for the next six years until their disbanding in 1970.
In 1965, "A Hard Day's Night" won the Beatles the Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group.
Opening chord
"A Hard Day's Night" is immediately identifiable before the vocals even begin, thanks to George Harrison's unmistakable Rickenbacker 12-string guitar's opening chord. The exact chord played by Harrison has been the subject of contention. According to Walter Everett (1999: 13,19,312), the opening chord is a major subtonic ninth (♭VII, read "flat seven", plus the seventh and ninth, in G major: F A C E G) — the major subtonic being a borrowed chord commonly used by the Beatles, first in "P.S. I Love You" (see mode mixture), and later in "Every Little Thing", "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Got to Get You into My Life" (in the latter two against a tonic pedal).
Contrastingly, Alan W. Pollack ([1] http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/ahdn.html ) interprets the chord as a surrogate dominant (surrogate V, the dominant preparing or leading to the tonic chord), in G major the dominant being D, with the G being a anticipation that resolves in the G major chord that opens the verse. He also suggests it is a mixture of d minor, F major, and G major (missing the B). Tony Bacon (2000: 5) calls it a Dm7sus4 (D F G A C), which is the dominant seventh (plus the fourth, G). For more information regarding chord functions see diatonic function.
Everett (2001: 109) points out that the chord is pandiatonic. That analysis is supported by the research of Jason Brown, Professor for the Faculty of Computer Science at Dalhousie University in Halifax, whose research interests include graph theory, combinatorics, and combinatorial algorithms. Professor Brown announced in October 2004 that after six months of reseach he succeeded in analyzing the opening chord by "de-composing the sound into original frequencies, using a combination of computer software and old-fashioned chalkboard." According to Brown, the Rickenbacker guitar wasn't the only instrument used. "It wasn't just George Harrison playing it and it wasn't just the Beatles playing on it... There was a piano in the mix." To be exact, he claims that Harrison was playing the following notes on his 12 string guitar: a2, a3, d3, d4, g3, g4, c4, and another c4; McCartney played a d3 on his bass; producer George Martin was playing d3, f3, d5, g5, and e6 on the piano, while Lennon played a loud c5 on his six-string guitar.
Music and lyrics
The song is in the key of G major and in 4/4 time, though Richard Middleton (1990) describes G as the dominant in the key of C major. The verse features the ♭VII or major subtonic chord that was a part of the opening chord as an ornament or embellishment below the tonic. The modal frame of the song though pentatonic features a ladder of thirds axially centered on G with a ceiling note of Bb and floor note of Eb (the low C being a passing tone) (Middleton 1990, p.203):
According to Middleton (ibid, p.201) the song has "a deep kinship with typical blues melodic structures: it is centered on three of the notes of the minor-pentatonic mode (Eb-G-Bb), with the contradictory major seventh (B♮) set against that. Morever, the shape assumed by these notes - the modal frame - as well as the abstract scale they represent, is revealed, too; and this - an initial, repeated circling round the dominant (G), with an excursion to its minor third (Bb), 'answered' by a fall to the 'symmetrical' minor third of the tonic (Eb) - is a common pattern in blues."
Lennon opens the twelve measure-long verse and carries it along, suddenly joined at the end by McCartney, who then sings the bridge. This represented a division of work which would feature prominently in future Beatles songs, with Lennon and McCartney each singing the parts they composed individually. This also made it easier to identify the individual styles of each composer, as McCartney was often the one with more upbeat lyrics, while Lennon's would be in a more cynical tone.
However, in his interview with Playboy, Lennon denied that McCartney's authorship of the bridge was the reason that he sang it: "The only reason he sang on 'A Hard Day's Night' was because I couldn't reach the notes. ...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."
There is also an instrumental break, performed on the keyboard by producer George Martin.
The song closes with Harrison's guitar-playing fading out, the first time the Beatles had used such a technique — most, if not all, of their earlier work had closed with a final chord (and cadence), such as "She Loves You" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand".
The actual lyrics speak about the singer's undying devotion to his lover, and how he toils so she can purchase the items she fancies. The singer sings about his tiredness when he comes home from work, but how the things that his lover does perk him up. The lyrics today would be considered by some to be politically incorrect, as it is argued that the lyrics imply that a woman's role is to stay home while the man is the breadwinner.
Other recordings
Peter Sellers recorded a comedy version of the song "A Hard Day's Night", in which he chanted the lyrics in the style of Laurence Olivier as Shakespeare's Richard III.
References
- Bacon, Tony (2000). Fuzz & Feedback : Classic Guitar Music of the 60's. Backbeat Books. ISBN 0879306122.
- The Beatles official website http://beatles.com/html/aharddaysnight/index.html . Retrieved Oct. 14, 2004.
- Campbell, Mary. (Jul. 1, 1996). Restored 'Hard Day's Night,' 'Help!' part of AMC festival http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/07-96/07-01-96/c02ae072.htm . Associated Press.
- CBC radio. As It Happens — broadcast of October 15th, 2004 http://www.cbc.ca/asithappens/media/dailyshow/2004-10-15-aih2.ram . Research on the opening chord. To hear the story, listen 12'35" into the broadcast.
- Everett, Walter (1999). The Beatles as Musicians: Revolver through the Anthology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195129415.
- Everett, Walter (2001). The Beatles As Musicians: The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195141059.
- Marck, J. I Am the Beatles http://www.iamthebeatles.com/article1164.html . Retrieved Oct. 14, 2004.
- Middleton, Richard (1990/2002). Studying Popular Music. Philadelphia: Open University Press. ISBN 0335152759.
- Miles, Barry (1998). The Beatles: A Diary. Omnibus Press. ISBN 0-71-196315-0.
- Shaw, T. (2001). Every Little Thing We Said Today http://website.lineone.net/~johnpaulgeorgeringo/book3.htm . Retrieved Oct. 14, 2004.
- Unterberger, R. AMG http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=33:q690s355a3mg . Retrieved Oct. 14, 2004.
External links
- The Beatles official website http://beatles.com/html/aharddaysnight/index.html
- Lyrics http://letssingit.com/beatles-a-hard-days-night-n7cpm1v.html
- Alan W. Pollack's Notes on "A Hard Day's Night" http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/ahdn.html
Last updated: 02-19-2005 20:21:19
