A Hard Day's Night

In entries from previous years, I have told the story of how producer Walter Shenson and director Richard Lester heard this phrase late in the shooting stage of production and decided that it would be the title of the film, then told Lennon and McCartney that a song of that title would be required.  When Lennon came in with this composition only twenty-four hours later, a recording session was hastily booked for the evening of April 16th, 1964.

Geoff Emerick was serving as second engineer on that date, and in his book Here, There and Everywhere, he relates that Richard Lester was also present in the booth.  It was Lester in particular who pushed for something big to open both the song and the film, resulting in the famous crashing chord.  He also wanted something "dreamy" to close out the number as it segued into the main action of the story.  Though his suggestions (or rather, demands) were realized, his presence on producer George Martin's turf was not exactly welcome according to Emerick.

On Anthology 1, we hear take one from that session, a sloppy performance, yet one that shows most of the elements already in place.  Take nine proved to be the keeper and overdubs were quickly added, including double-tracked vocals from John and Paul, plus bongos and a cowbell played by Ringo.  The trickiest overdub was the instrumental break played simultaneously by George Martin on piano and George Harrison on guitar.  The entire session lasted only three hours, and this after a true hard day's work shooting sequences running from police for the film.

This  session happened so late in the production process that there was only one week of principal photography left and no plans were made to show the group performing the song in the script.  It was used, instead, to open and close the film, playing at the top under the main titles during the mad rush at the train station, and under the closing credits as the helicopter takes off and still frame shots of the boys fill the screen.

The song's many releases include both a single and the lead track of the album A Hard Day's Night in the UK.  In the US, it was a single on Capitol Records and the title track of the soundtrack album on the United Artists label (George Martin's instrumental version from the score also appeared on this album).  It next appeared on the 1966 compilation A Collection of Beatles' Oldies in Britain.  Of course, it was on the 1973 Red Album (the cardboard insert on early copies of the American version claimed the song appeared on the Capitol Help! album - well, kinda.  The instrumental track Another Hard Day's Night features it in an arrangement by Ken Thorne played on Indian instruments).

The 1977 album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl features the song in a live performance from 1965.  It surfaced in 1982 on the compilation Reel Music and on both the US and UK versions of 20 Greatest Hits.  It was even included as part of the novelty single The Beatles' Movie Medley released in conjunction with the Reel Music album.  Another novelty occurred during a BBC performance from July of '64 when the piano part was very obviously dropped in from the single since George Martin was not present at the radio session.  This is available on the 1994 Live at the BBC collection.

The song was naturally included on the 2000 worldwide bestseller 1.  And on the more recent 1+, a video from French television shows group performing the song in concert on June 20th, 1965 in Paris.