A fourteenth song?
It is believed that The Beatles may have intended to record a 14th song for A Hard Day’s Night on 3 June 1964. However, Ringo Starr was taken ill with tonsillitis and pharyngitis during a photo session that morning, and stand-in drummer Jimmie Nicol was brought into Abbey Road for a rehearsal ahead of The Beatles’ imminent world tour.The rehearsal took place between 2.30 and 5.30pm, replacing a pre-booked recording session. After Nicol had left the studio, The Beatles recorded demos of ‘You Know What To Do’, ‘No Reply’, and It’s For You. The latter song was given to Cilla Black.
It is not known whether the group intended for any of these songs to feature on A Hard Day’s Night. However, The Beatles’ failure to record a final song for the album meant that it was released, unusually, with 13 tracks.
Whether ‘I’ll Be Back’ was always intended to be the album’s last song is not known, but it intriguing to imagine how the album might have sounded if accompanied by a full version of one of the three demo songs.
The ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ opening chord
For more information on this subject, read our feature on the ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ opening chord.
The clanging chord which opened the title track of The Beatles’ first film, third album and seventh UK single remains one of the most iconic moments of their career. Along with the final piano chord that ends ‘A Day In The Life’ in 1967, it bookended what was perhaps the group’s most creative phase as songwriters and recording artists.
We knew it would open both the film and the soundtrack LP, so we wanted a particularly strong and effective beginning. The strident guitar chord was the perfect launch.
George Harrison: Rickenbacker 360/12 guitar
John Lennon: Gibson J-160 6-string acoustic guitar
Paul McCartney: Hofner violin bass
Ringo Starr: snare drum, cymbal
George Martin: Steinway grand piano
The chord was identified as an Fadd9 by George Harrison during an online chat on 15 February 2001:
Q: Mr Harrison, what is the opening chord you used for A Hard Day’s Night?
A: It is F with a G on top (on the 12-string), but you’ll have to ask Paul about the bass note to get the proper story.
Paul McCartney added a D note, played on the 12th fret of the D string on his Hofner violin bass. For more information, read our feature on the ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ opening chord.
In the studio
The Beatles met Francis Hall, the president of guitar company Rickenbacker, during their first visit to America in February 1964. Hall set up a meeting in New York City to demonstrate new instruments and amplifiers, and George Harrison was given one of the new 12-string 360 electric guitars. John Lennon also requested a custom-made 12-string 325 model, which was delivered at a later date.
How do I like it? Marvellous. It’s gear. It sounds a bit like an electric piano, I always think, but you get a nice fat sound out of it.
Melody Maker
The sound of the Rickenbacker became a key part of A Hard Day’s Night. The 12-string was perhaps most notable in the iconic opening chord of the title track, and in ‘I Should Have Known Better’ and ‘You Can’t Do That’. The instrument also influenced many of recordings that followed by bands such as The Byrds and The Searchers.
A further development in the studio was the advance to four-track recording, replacing the two-track facilities that had been used on Please Please Me and much of With The Beatles.
The very first records we made were mono, though I did have stereo facilities. To make mixing easier I would keep the voices separate from the backing, so I used a stereo machine as a twin-track. Not with the idea of stereo – merely to give myself a little bit more flexibility in remixing into a mono. So the first year’s recordings were made on just two tracks and were live; like doing broadcasts. With the great advance of four-track we were able to overdub and put on secondary voices and guitar solos afterwards. By the time we did A Hard Day’s Night we would certainly put the basic track down and do the vocals afterwards. Invariably, I was putting all the rhythm instruments onto either one or two tracks (generally one track) so you would have bass lumped with guitar. It wasn’t until later still that we began putting bass on afterwards as well, giving Paul the opportunity of using his voice more.
The first song to be recorded for A Hard Day’s Night was Paul McCartney’s ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’. It was taped on 29 January 1964 in EMI’s Pathé Marconi Studios in Paris, in a daytime session before one of their residency concerts at the city’s Olympia Theatre.
The session had been booked for The Beatles to record German-language versions of ‘She Loves You’ and ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’. The recordings were completed ahead of schedule, leaving the group free to record a new song.
‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ was taped in just four takes, in probably less than an hour. The song became the follow-up to ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ when released in the UK as a single on 20 March 1964, simultaneously acting as a stopgap between future recordings and a teaser for The Beatles’ forthcoming LP.
The small matter of conquering America meant The Beatles didn’t return to the studio until 25 February, when they recorded ‘You Can’t Do That’, and early versions of ‘And I Love Her’ and ‘I Should Have Known Better’; both were remade in subsequent days.
For the rest of February and early March the group recorded songs for the film soundtrack. They also taped several songs which were eventually issued on the standalone Long Tall Sally EP.
As was typical in the early 1960s, The Beatles didn’t attend mixing or editing sessions for the album. George Martin worked on the recordings in the group’s absence, on one occasion adding a piano part to ‘You Can’t Do That’ while The Beatles were on holiday.
Filming for A Hard Day’s Night was over by the end of April, but touring duties continued. The Beatles recorded the non-soundtrack songs for the LP in just three consecutive days from 1 June 1964, before beginning their world tour of Denmark, the Netherlands, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand on 4 June.
In their absence the album was edited and mixed for mono and stereo by George Martin and the EMI studio engineers. It was completed on 22 June and released in the United Kingdom on 10 July.
This was the first of the remasters that I purchased as I had yet to hear most of the songs in stereo.
The remaster did not disappoint. This is clearly the best of their pre-Rubber Soul albums. And not just because it’s all originals and no covers, but in spite of that fact. The Beatles weren’t exactly going through the motions when they did covers but most of the material on this album was as good or better than any cover version they had recorded to date…
Quite a thrill finally hearing that opening chord in stereo for the first time!
haha john keeps on hogging the writing, being credited for all songs except two
Erik K,
Paul McCartney wrote three songs “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “And I Love Her” and “Things We Said Today”.
Interesting that their only (pre-Pepper) album without a Ringo spotlight is also their only LP with 13 songs instead of 14. Maybe they eventually decided against including Ringo’s “Matchbox” cover for the sake of preserving the all-original Lennon-McCartney purity?
They probably dropped matchbox to keep it all original
However the day Ringo got tonsillitis they were going to record a fourteeth track
Wow, I didn’t know that! Too bad they hadn’t recorded “Matchbox” a year earlier: If so, then they could’ve used it on WTB in place of “I Wanna Be Your Man”; and reserved THAT one for AHDN. Result = 14 MacLen originals, including one each for George & Ringo. Or, hmmm, maybe they could’ve taken “I Call Your Name” from the 4-song “Long Tall Sally” EP and added the two German songs in its place, thereby turning a 4-song EP and 13-song album into a 5-song EP and 14-song album – albeit one without a Ringo vocal…
UNLESS…John relinquished “I’ll Cry Instead” for Ringo to sing, which I’m sure he would’ve done quite nicely! It’s got that C&W/rockabilly feel, and of course that was Ringo’s specialty.
Yeah, I’d say you’re right.
John really wanted this to be totally original.
This album proved that they didn’t need the covers that filled in the first two efforts. Also, it shows the competitive nature of Lennon & McCartney with each other to top the other’s effort, with “A Hard Day’s Night” being put out to no doubt match what Paul had did just before it with “Cant Buy Me Love”.
However, the album as a whole is John at his best across an entire Beatle album. “If I Fell” is one of his strongest efforts & “You Can’t Do That” could have easily been another #1 if released as a single. Add in “Ill Be Back” and you have John’s voice & songwriting flow at it’s very best in his pure rock singer phase of the early Beatle work.
This is John’s album. Sgt pepper is Paul’s
I’m going to have to respectfully disagree with you on that one, Liam. On AHDN, Lennon sang lead vocals on 9 of the 13 tracks. On Pepper, Lennon sings lead or has a major vocal contribution to 7 of the 13 songs, Paul 8. The two best songs on the album (arguably, of course) are Lennon’s: “Lucy…” and “A Day in the life.” Hence, Lennon is all over Pepper, even on Paul’s songs: superb vocals on “Sgt. Pepper,” co-writer of “With a Little Help,” middle-eight of Getting Better, co-writer and beautiful vocals on “She’s leaving home.” Given that, it might be somewhat accurate to call AHDN
John’s but Pepper is definitely not `Paul’s.’ AHDH is a great album.
Sorry to disagree with your disagreement MMM but I tend to agree with Liam: Paul wrote five songs (and a reprise) while John wrote three songs. John then contributed to two songs from Paul (Getting Better and With a Little Help) and Paul contributed to John’s (A Day in the Life, arguably the best song on the album, by the way). Finally, the whole concept of S. Pepper came from Paul.
Thanks for your comment, but could we please keep this discussion to A Hard Day’s Night?
I agree with Liam above about this being John’s album. I truly believe he was carrying the Beatles on his shoulders here when they needed him to. His voice was the strongest, he was cheekiest, he wrote the books, he wore the cap. And here he wrote the songs. His final song I’ll Be Back heralds the next phase of the Beatles the same way Tomorrow Never Knows and A Day in the Life do.
In 10 of the 13 songs, Lennon was the dominant composer. George Martin and McCartney seldom talk about this album, because Martin wasn´t so influential here, and McCartney didn´t write so many songs.
The melodies are innovative. The title song has glissando like arabian folk music?, the middle part in I Should Have Known Better has an increasing tension — with two changes of key — instead of the tension only in the A-bits, the intro to If I Fell has three changes of key! and the rest sounds like a madrigal from 15th century, I´m Happy Just To Dance With You is like a mix of Irwing Berlin and Lennon, and in When I Get Home, Lennon changes the melody only by changing the rythm in the same note! Lennon was a pure genius.
Why do you say Martin wasn’t so influential on this album ?
And in three of the best songs, Paul was the dominant – if not sole – composer (Can’t Buy Me Love, And I Love Her, Things We Said Today). Paul had no problem writing fewer songs; he was more consistent in his amazing creativity. McCartney was / is a pure genius.
Great synopsis, Johan. Indeed a great album which seems to be increasingly appearing on other artists favorite albums list. And I strongly agree with Mean Mr. Mustard on his assessment of Pepper. Pepper was an album born of many ideas thrown in from all directions (and by all Beatles), hence the colorful soundscape. AHDN, quite simply, was a great guitar/bass/drums album of mostly Lennon tunes.
A great album… Lennon’s input is very strong… nearly like a solo album.
man, I can’t even focus on my appreciation of the music on HDN- I’m too caught up in the memories of sitting in a theater with my Beatles-loving friends, anticipating, then hearing the huge ‘CLANG’ and then getting swept away by the frenetic journey through their ‘world’- a total multi-media immersion for a 14 year old, if you count the popcorn…
My favorite tracks BTW were Things We Said and I’ll Be Back, both haunting, minor-key masterpieces.
This is my favourite Beatles album. It is also a Lennon masterpiece. If anybody was ever in any doubt who was driving force behind the beatles.Give this a listen then look no further.
So sgt pepper took you by surprise, you better see right through that mothers eyes.
I received this great album in 1979 for my 13th Birthday along with Rubber Soul. This is unique because it is totally filled with Lennon- McCartney compositions. The title song A Hard Days Night is brilliant with one of the most iconic guitar openings in pop/ rock history. The songs on side one perfectly compliment the brilliant film that they were largely the soundtrack for. The title track, I Should Have Known Better, And I Love Her, Cant Buy Me Love and If I Fell are great tunes, the latter particularly a lovely song. Side two whilst not used in the film, illustrate the progression of the Lennon- McCartney song writing team. You Cant do That, Ill Cry Instead and Ill Be Back are all strong and obviously written largely by John Lennon. And Things We Said Today, one of Paul McCartneys most beautiful ballads and a real favorite of mine.
Although “Please Please Me” & “With The Beatles” were great Beatles LP’s, AHDN certainly brought them to the next level. perfect timing releasing the movie as they rose to superstardom!
Does anyone know what the vinyl album I have here is? It is different than the normal cover you see and is red, white and black. 4 of the songs on the album are instrumental versions produced by George Martin. It is an official Parlophone/EMI recording made in Australia.
That’s the American “A Hard Day’s Night” album originally released on the United Artists label. They got the rights to do the soundtrack as a part of the deal of making a movie.
That sounds like the Capitol (US) version of the album.
John was extremely generous despite this being essentially his masterpiece.
1. He lets Paul sing the middle eight on A Hard Day’s Night
2. He gives Paul the more recognizable harmony on If I Fell
3. He lets Paul and George join him in 3 part harmonies in Tell Me Why
4. He gives Paul the second Any Time at All! in the refrain of that song.
5. He brings Paul and George in again for some brilliant harmonies in When I Get Home
6. He lets Paul harmonize with him in most of I’ll Be Back
Compare that with Paul, who didn’t want
harmonies in Can’t Buy Me Love and
And I Love Her, both of which could certainly have used them.
The notion that John had all the ego and Paul was the cute little angel couldn’t be more inaccurate
“The notion that John had all the ego and Paul was the cute little angel couldn’t be more inaccurate.”, true, although I’m not sure who actually believes that.
John Lennon said that the reason he “gave” Paul the lead on the middle eight was because Paul could hit the high notes he wanted. In other words, John and Paul were collaborating for the good of the song, Same goes for the others. Sure, the writer of a song had priority but they also had an interest in making the best possible arrangement and recording of their song. On the next album John even sang lead on “Every Little thing’, a song mostly written by Paul. But hey, it worked, and that’s what matters.
I can’t say I miss harmonies in “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “And I Love Her”, but there are plenty of other Paul songs where John sings harmonies, ‘cos they worked out that way.
In later years there was indeed more ego getting in the way of collaboration, which is unfortunate. They still made great music though…although John later said he should have sung Paul’s song ‘Oh! Darling” on Abbey Road. Maybe he had a point there. John could scream like few others could.
There are some interesting alternative takes of Can’t buy me love which feature some backing vocals/ Thee give the song a gospel flavour and work well. That said, the released version is probably the best one.
Biased John Lennon fan.
You are a b s o l u t e l y right!!
Paul’s this. John’s that. All from people who weren’t there and haven’t a clue.
Sad.
A little late to the Paul bashing party, wouldn’t you say?
If you’re self-aware enough to label yourself biased, why even comment with notions of objectivity? John said that he couldn’t hit high notes in A Hard Day’s Night and No Reply which would explain Any Time At All and If I Fell. I don’t think it was really ever the case of John “letting” Paul sing harmony on his songs… Paul would come up with ideas for harmonies much more often than John, so it might make sense that Paul threw out harmony ideas for John songs more often than the inverse. I don’t think either of them were shy about dismissing other’s ideas for their own songs. Last point… I’ll Be Back needs the harmony line to keep it from being a dull song, whereas Can’t Buy Me Love and And I Love Her are not only complete melodies, but try figuring out a harmony line… I can’t find one that sounds natural. If your complaint is that John and George are not oohing and ahhing in the background then I’d say your priorities are in need of repair.
As for me, you can have your Pepper, your White Album, your Abbey Road. This is the greatest Beatles album ever. Fire away, lads and lasses!
Although I would plumb for Revolver, there is a very strong argument to be made for AHDN as the greatest Beatles album. Very strong.
I can see why you — or anyone, for that matter — would choose Revolver as number one. And I love that its status has only grown over the years. It’s a close second to AHDN in my book. But then no one’s publishing my book, are they?
Don’t forget that this is the only album (I can think of) that has definitive endings for every song. Not one fade-out (which is often used as a cop out in my opinion). It’s actually my favourite Beatles album. I can’t help but get caught up in the excitement when I listen to it. Its freshness and originality is infectious.
Actually, my ears hear fade outs on A Hard Day’s Night, I Should Have Known Better, Things We Said Today, and I’ll Be Back
My vinyl LP of AHDN melted in my car decades ago, but the CD I have is still going strong, as is the digital files of the album. I was right years old when I saw the movie of the same name. It was the first time I got a good look at the Beatles and heard their humour. They reminded me of what my suburb in Melbourne was like. My paper round was able to fund my Saturdays at the pictures and a record at Christmas time. My mother thought I was nuts not saving my pennies for some greater good. I loved every song in the movie, and when I got the album, side two did not disappoint either. My eldest brother ensured between us that we had everything the Beatles released in Australia. It was my brother’s extra buying power that bought us the singles and EPs and the albums I could not afford. I have stated before I was already a Lennon fan and AHDN continued my love of his voice and his songs. If I fell was a song, like You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away on the Help LP where Lennon intones a special quality in his voice which to me elevated him above every Singer of his generation. Lennon sand ballads, love songs, screaming rock, any style you can think of, and play acoustic guitar, and his customary rhythm guitar which drove Beatles songs and created their “sound.” AHDN was without doubt Lennon’s album. He came up with the goods and did the heavy lifting. Only those in the know, know how Lennon carried the Beatles. John Lennon gave us the Beatles, Paul McCartney took the Beatles from us. Yeah, I’m a Lennon fan, for the songs he gave us, not for his morality, behavior or utterances. His songs are his legacy, and he dominated AHDN to the advantage of all four Beatles, and George Martin, their producer.
‘Paul McCartney took the Beatles from us’???? Give us a break mate. McCartney’s harmonic 5ths, bass playing and songwriting gave the Beatles to us, equally as much as Lennon. Neither would have suceeded without the other. Open your ears.
Well said James. I actually think that the silliest, least-informed remark I’ve ever read or heard about the Beatles, anywhere, in any book, article, website, or blog, even in drunken conversations at 3 a.m. as “A Day in the Life” ends (based on Paul’s orchestration), is, “Paul McCartney took the Beatles from us.”
I’m late to the party but have enjoyed lurking here for a while. I have come to love this album and agree it’s mostly John’s influence that makes it great. While listening to “I should have known better” I came to appreciate how wonderful the rhythm section sounds with Paul’s bass and Ringo’s drumming driving the beat relentlessly. This is truly the Beatle sound that sent them to stardom. John’s vocals were never better. As an aside, I’m curious about who made the harmonizing vocals decisions on all their songs. Was it the composer, or perhaps GM? Did these decisions create problems? It’s unfortunate John and Paul didn’t harmonize more as that is the ultimate in rock vocals, in my humble opinion. Great blog! Cheers.
I have one of the A Hard Day’s Night LPs released in the Soviet Union in 1986. One song, When I Get Home, was omitted because the Soviet Union government deemed the sexual connotations too strong for public release at that time. Except from that, the Soviet Union release is the same as the UK version. The album title and the song titles are written in both English and Russian translation.
The thing about the Beatles is…they had at least a half-dozen albums which (in the light of time) are the equal or better of anything anyone else ever did. That’s a lot. No one else really has more than one or two.
Just for the record, Todd Compton’s well-researched book states that Paul helped with the writing of the song.
Compton, Todd, “Who Wrote the Beatle Songs? A History of Lennon-McCartney.”
The Beatles were so fond of Picardy cadence that their A Hard Day’s Night contains as many as three songs in which a minor chord is unexpectedly replaced by a major one.
In Things We Said Today and I’ll Be Back, the A major chord is heard at the end of each verse although both songs are set in A minor key. In And I Love Her, Picardy third is applied at the very end when at 2:24 the D major chord replaces the expected D minor with which the verse began.
Another famous The Beatles song with Picardy third is A Day in the Life that closes Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The song, set in the key of E minor, ends with a thunderous E major chord played by John Lennon, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, and Mal Evans on three separate pianos at the same time.
Looking back AHDN is a massive step forward from the previous albums, a combination of various factors I guess. The experience the Beatles now had in songwriting and recording, 4 track recording, Harrison’s 12 string guitar and Lennon on fire, possibly his greatest Beatles album in terms of songwriting
It also helped that they included previously released singles on this album, with both sides of the CBML and AHDN singles included. Imagine how much better With the Beatles would have been if it included She Loves You, I Want to Hold your Hand and This Boy in place of some of the covers or lesser compositions.
This was one of their “sea change” albums. Something different to it. A more mature sounding Beatles, again showing the world their expanding talents. Little did we realize at the time this would start a run of eight releases the still leave people amazed to this very day.