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A Hard Days Night (2009)

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The Beatles
A Hard Day’s Night

Apple Records
0946 3 82413 2 4

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1. A Hard Day’s Night*

2. I Should Have Known Better*

3. If I Fell*

4. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You*

5. And I Love Her*

6. Tell Me Why*

7. Can’t Buy Me Love*

8. Any Time At All

9. I’ll Cry Instead
 
10. Things We Said Today

11. When I Get Home

12. You Can’t Do That

13. I’ll Be Back

A Hard Day’s Night Mini-Documentary
(Insert Into Computer To View)

*From the soundtrack of the United Artists film ‘A Hard Day’s Night’

Words and Music: John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Produced for records by George Martin
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Alun Owen began work on the original screenplay late last autumn. Producer Walter Shenson and director Richard Lester watched their newest screen stars at work over Christmas and the New Year on the stage of the Finsbury Park 'Astoria' in London. John and Paul began to compile a collection of new compositions for the soundtrack while The Beatles were appearing at the Paris 'Olympia' last January. One morning early in March a specially chartered train moved out of Paddington station and the first day's shooting of The Beatles' first feature film got under way.

Reel upon reel of precious film had filled the camera crew's metal cans before a title had been selected for the United Artists picture. Then Ringo casually came up with the name at the end of a particularly strenuous session on the film set. 'It's been a hard day's night that was!' he declared, squatting for a moment on the arm of his canvas chair behind the line of cameras and technicians. The film, which also stars Wilfred Brambell in the role of Paul's (mythical) Irish grandfather, was promptly named 'A HARD DAY'S NIGHT'.

The story depicts something like 48 consecutive hours of activity in the bustling lives of four beat group boys. Named John, Paul, George and Ringo. A Hard Day's Night is heard at the very beginning of the film as the boys sing and play over the opening titles. The number features John's double-tracked voice, producing a duet effect. Its brisk, compelling theme crops up in orchestral form elsewhere during the film as part of recording manager George Martin's instrumental soundtrack score.

John's I Should Have Known Better makes an early appearance in the film during a railway sequence when the four boys are seen playing cards in the guard's van of the train.

John and Paul share the vocal action on If I Fell, the first of four songs featured in extensive theatre/studio sequences which show the group rehearsing and finally performing in a television spectacular. I'm Happy Just to Dance With You gives George a chance to handle the lead vocal, And I Love Her hands the solo spotlight to Paul who is joined by John for Tell Me Why.

The last of the soundtrack's magnificent seven, Can't Buy Me Love, has already been a worldwide disc hit for The Beatles. In 'A HARD DAY'S NIGHT' it forms the musical backdrop to several different scenes—when the boys are seen chasing across a field after a quick-fire getaway from the television studio and when the incredible race between Beatles, fans and police takes place with the boys tearing along streets and down alleyways in double-quick time!

Creating and perfecting completely new compositions for the soundtrack of 'A HARD DAY'S NIGHT' presented John and Paul with one of the greatest challenges of their pop-penning career. In the past their song-writing had been done at a more leisurely pace. Now they had a shooting schedule deadline to meet and the entire collection of fresh numbers had to be compiled during a season of concerts in Paris and a now legendary visit to America. To assist their work the two boys had a grand-piano moved into their hotel suite at the George V in Paris.

By the beginning of March the task was complete and The Beatles had a total of almost a dozen new songs ready for final rehearsal. At every stage of its conception and production care was taken to see that 'A HARD DAY'S NIGHT' would not turn into a continuous parade of Beatle performances. After all The Beatles themselves had agreed that the film should portray as many different facets of the four boys' individual personalities as possible. Indeed the comedy content was, and is, of paramount importance, and John, Paul, George and Ringo are afforded maximum opportunity to display their on-the-spot sense of humour.

It became apparent that no more than six new songs should be introduced via the soundtrack of the film. To increase this number would have left insufficient screen-time for the action of the plot. On the other hand it seemed most unfair to hold back the remainder of the boys' new songs when each one was of such excellent quality. Eventually the decision was made to record all the material which John and Paul had written and include the extra titles on the second side of this album.

Although the voice of George Harrison is much in evidence throughout this album the solo vocal activity on the second side is shared between the songs' composers, John and Paul. Paul handles the lyrics of Things We Said Today and he's heard in duet with John on I'll Cry Instead. For the main part John's is the dominant voice featured on Any Time At All, When I Get Home, You Can't Do That and I'll Be Back although George and Paul back up his efforts strongly on all titles.

When you listen to the second side of this record you will agree that it would have been a pity to cast aside such a fabulous set of songs solely because they couldn't be fitted into the structure of 'A HARD DAY'S NIGHT'. Now, with this album in your library, you have a collection of Beatle recordings which is comprehensive and up to date. At the same time it is interesting to remember that the LP housed within this sleeve is the first-ever album release to be made up entirely of self-composed and self-performed Beatle compositions.

Original 1964 Cover Notes by TONY BARROW

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A Hard Day’s Night
The Beatles


Historical Notes

The Beatles' third album in less than eighteen months was released on 10th July, 1964 to accompany the arrival in cinemas of their first movie. Filming for A Hard Day's Night had begun just eight days after returning from their first American trip when three appearances on The Ed Sullivan Show had ensured Beatlemania swept the country. In the first week of April, 1964, all Top Five singles in the Billboard Hot 100 were by The Beatles with another seven of their songs listed in the chart. During the early months of 1964, their success spread all around the world and in June they played concerts in Denmark, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.

The thirteen songs on the British version of A Hard Day's Night were divided so that the seven tracks heard in the film were grouped together on side one and the non-movie material was on side two. Several of the songs feature the characteristic jangle of George Harrison's recently acquired Rickenbacker twelve-string guitar; a distinctive sound that proved very influential. A Hard Day's Night is the only Beatles LP on which every song is credited to Lennon and McCartney. The album reached number one in the UK at the end of July, 1964 and remained there for 21 out of its 38 weeks in the Top Twenty.

The American version of A Hard Day's Night also quickly climbed to number one and stayed at the top for fourteen of the 51 weeks it was listed in the chart. It was released as a film soundtrack album on United Artists, the company that also distributed the movie. It featured only eight performances by the Beatles: seven songs from side one of the British album plus an extended version of side two's 'I'll Cry Instead', which had once been considered for the film. The other four tracks were George Martin's orchestral arrangements of songs from the movie, including 'Ringo's Theme (This Boy)'.

A month later, Capitol Records compiled a new Beatles LP called Something New. It featured four songs from the movie and four from side two of the British album, including 'I'll Cry Instead'. Despite having five tracks in common, for nine weeks Something New was at number two in the American chart while A Hard Day's Night held number one.

Their first film had been planned in late 1963 before any glimmer of Stateside success. Upon its release, it played a significant role in showcasing the group's music and image not only in the USA but throughout the world. At the end of 1964, the group's assimilation of new musical and lyrical ideas was evident in the sound of their next LP Beatles For Sale...

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Recording Notes

Produced by George Martin
Principal Engineer: Norman Smith

'Can't Buy Me Love' is the earliest recording on A Hard Day's Night. When the group were in Paris for a three-week season of concerts at the Olympia Theatre, they visited EMI Pathe Marconi Studios to record German language versions of two recent hits—'I Want To Hold Your Hand' and 'She Loves You'—and their next single 'Can't Buy Me Love'. This Beatles session on 29th January, 1964 was the only time the group recorded in a studio outside the UK.

On their return from a two-week promotional tour of the USA, the group quickly recorded songs for their forthcoming film in four days of sessions at Abbey Road between 25th February and 1st March. They had dispensed with the twin-track recording of their previous two albums and were now using four-track tape machines, which allowed much greater flexibility. Although four-track recording had been available at Abbey Road studios since the beginning of the sixties, it had usually been reserved for 'easy listening' sessions with orchestras and featured vocalists. The Beatles first recorded on four-track in October, 1963 and continued to do so until eight-track became available during sessions for The Beatles ('The White Album') in the summer of 1968.

A four-track machine enabled The Beatles and George Martin to expand arrangements and also provided opportunities to repair mistakes in an instrumental or vocal overdub by 'dropping in'. This studio expression describes the process of playing back a tape to the musicians in the studio, close to the point where an overdub went wrong, dropping into record on the selected track and then dropping out of it as soon as the repair is made. This facility also made it possible for vocals and instruments to be recorded on the same track at different places, provided they did not overlap.

The title track was recorded in three hours during the morning of 16th April, 1964 and is a good example of how the four recording tracks were used both efficiently and creatively. The rhythm section of drums, bass and guitar was sent to track one, while John and Paul's vocals were recorded at the same time on track two. After four false starts and five complete performances, take nine was chosen as the master onto which overdubs were made using the two remaining tracks. Bongos, cowbell, acoustic guitar and double-track vocals from John and Paul were added to track three. The final track contained George Martin's piano playing on the opening chord and the solo plus George Harrison's guitar part at the end of the song.

A Hard Day's Night was completed in 65 hours spread across seventeen days—the last on 22nd June, 1964 was a nine-hour mixing session.

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This remastered album has been created from the original stereo analogue master tapes.

Remastered by Guy Massey and Steve Rooke
Project Co-ordinator: Allan Rouse

Thanks to Simon Gibson

Historical Notes: Kevin Howlett and Mike Heatley
Recording Notes: Allan Rouse and Kevin Howlett
Project management for EMI Records Ltd: Wendy Day and Guy Hayden


All songs published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC.


Digital Remaster ® 2009 The copyright in this sound recording is owned by EMI Records Ltd. © 2009 EMI Records Ltd. This label copy information is the subject of copyright protection. All rights reserved.

Artwork © 2009 Apple Corps Ltd. All photographs © Apple Corps Ltd., except where otherwise stated.

Album Redesign: Drew Lorimer
Photo Retouching: Gavin O'Neill

Photo editing and research: Aaron Bremner and Dorcas Lynn

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