9.46pm
8 August 2019
A HARD DAY’S NIGHT (1964) AVERAGED RANK
This is a copy paste:
I decided to go on a task of continuing and updating list of every post averaged in the thread to create a decent ranking of the tracks off every album. In this case A Hard Day’s Night . I clarify my process and rules below.
1 – A Hard Day’s Night (243 points)
2 – If I Fell (235 points)
3 – And I Love Her (228 points)
4 – Things We Said Today (200 points)
5 – I Should Have Known Better (182 points)
6 – I’ll Be Back (178 points)
7 – Can’t Buy Me Love (162 points)
8 – You Can’t Do That (159 points)
9 – Tell Me Why (137 points)
10 – I’m Happy Just to Dance with You (135 points)
11 – I’ll Cry Instead (100 points)
12 – Any Time At All (92 points)
13 – When I Get Home (55 points)
brought to you by some of the most renowned and important Beatles critics in the world:
50yearslate,
AvecPaix,
Beatlefan123,
Callon,
Dark Overlord,
Dingle Lad,
Dr.Bert,
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Father McKenzie,
myself,
knowhereman,
kurwabobrze,
meanmistermustard,
moriz,
Mr.Bellamy84,
paintingmyroom,
Pineapple Fields,
SgtPeppersBulldog,
sir walter raleigh,
Skelter,
Sky999,
StrawberryFields91,
The walrus100,
TheWigglyBeatle,
twist a little closer,
Von Bontee,
WhenWeWasFab
& Wil1972.
Averaging process and rules:
A pretty classic averaging system; it goes basically by giving the maximum amount of points to the top track on every post (in this case 12) and as the list progresses into the “worst” tracks each track gets one point less. The last track gets no points. For this to apply the post must have the 13 A Hard Day’s Night songs ranked.
IMPORTANT: if you think one of your rankings might have one of these ambiguous qualities that might disqualify it and you want to be counted in the averaging DON’T edit it; post it again with more detail, otherwise I won’t be able to subtract the points and add them again and it won’t be counted anyway.
Particular cases:
-NO. 1- Sometimes if there is a track missing but there’s a written clarification, it can be counted. In the case of Abbey Road , for instance, some people don’t count Her Majesty . In that case I count the post and give no points to Her Majesty only if there is a written statement of why its missing. If one track is missing and the post doesn’t have any written clarification then it is considered a mistake and therefore disqualified.
-NO. 2- The tracklist considered is taken out of the Wikipedia/RYM/Discogs “official” tracklists. This means those who rank the Abbey Road Medley as a whole don’t get counted unless they clarify by writing that the tracks separately also rank that way, same with any variation of the sort.
-NO. 3- If a person implies to a previous post that “that would exactly be [their] ranking” and don’t post any ranking themselves, then the points of the first person will be added a second time in behalf of the second person.
-NO. 4- Only one person each ranking. If you posted several times your changes, only the last one will be counted (unless it has any mistakes, missing tracks, etc., in that case then the last one that has no issues will be the one counted).
-NO. 5- The rankings are considered given the numbers apply to them, “1” universally represents the top spot. Unless there is a written statement that clarifies it’s the other way around, this is the way it will be counted.
-NO. 6- If there are no numbers on the ranking and no written clarification it could go either way. At first I used to think the ones at the top were the number 1 spot but in some cases it just isn’t that way. So I decided I’ll just grab the worst rated track up to that point and I see if it falls on the top half or the bottom half. If it falls on the top half I’ll consider the bottom half the top spot and if it falls on the bottom half then I’ll consider the top half the top spot. It might be unfair at times as it might reverse someones’ ranking if they are unlucky by voting positively a previously negatively voted track, but in the grand scheme of things I think it was mostly accurate. In case that the number of tracks is odd (A Hard Day’s Night , Sgt. Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Magical Mystery Tour , Yellow Submarine ‘s Side B & Abbey Road ) and the worst rated track falls in precisely the middle spot then I just take the second to worst rated and judge as to where that one falls.
-NO. 7- If there are “ties” in someone’s ranking their ranking can still be counted but it won’t represent exactly the ties in the overall averaging. If there is still a list-like format then I go from the bottom to the top adding points just like usual, so tied tracks can get different scores but just differing in one single point or two (unless you tie like 5 tracks together), but I think it’s more fair than not letting those people participate at all. It might seem unfair but if the tied tracks were to get the same points, it would increasingly leave an averaging gap between those songs so it’s mathematically better to just stick to the original adding process.
-NO. 8- If there are two tracks that are “tied” then I will just give more points to the one that is named first, regardless of descriptions, just to keep the whole thing going. Unless there’s a specific written clarification of why one of the tracks is better or more of a favourite, then I’ll just give more points to the one named first.
-NO. 9- However, if there’s a tie between three tracks (or more) then that post will no longer be counted unless the list has a specific ranking format in which case see item “-NO. 7-“.
-NO. 10- I guess that if someone doesn’t want to be counted in the averaging he can ask me not to count him in but I hope nobody does that so we get his opinion too
All of these rules are up to debate if someone disagrees with part of the judgement. I’m sure we can reach an agreement if they are considered questionable.
IMPORTANT: if you think one of your rankings might have one of these ambiguous qualities that might disqualify it and you want to be counted in the averaging DON’T edit it; post it again with more detail, otherwise I won’t be able to subtract the points and add them again and it won’t be counted anyway.
Also here’s a playlist with the results from worst to best in case you want to see how effective it proves in practice (I’ll try edit these as well):
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the twist
9.55pm
26 August 2015
- Cant Buy Me Love
- A Hard Days Night
- Any Time At All
- If I Fell
- Tell Me Why
- Im Happy Just To Dance With You
- I Should Have Know Better
- And I Love Her
- Things We Said Today
- When I Get Home
- I’ll Be Back
- I’ll Cry Instead Underrated Album,This Was Hard
"The Only Lyrics That Made Me Cry Were "I Don't Believe In Beatles, The Dream Is Over - RingoStarrDrums
10.40pm
30 August 2015
1. If I Fell
7. I’ll Be Back
9. Tell Me Why
10. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
11. Anytime At All
12. I’ll Cry Instead
13. When I Get Home
8.34am
Moderators
Members
Reviewers
20 August 2013
There is an older thread where a few people ranked the songs on this album https://www.beatlesbible.com/f…..g-ranking/
I locked it and redirected people to this thread because the other thread was created in the songs section instead of the album section. @Pineapple Records, has your ranking changed?
Can buy Joe love! Amazon | iTunes
Check here for "how do I do this" guide to the forum. (2017) (2018)
11.25am
26 August 2015
Ahhh Girl said
There is an older thread where a few people ranked the songs on this album https://www.beatlesbible.com/f…..g-ranking/I locked it and redirected people to this thread because the other thread was created in the songs section instead of the album section. @Pineapple Records, has your ranking changed?
Ok Thanks “Ahhh Girl”
"The Only Lyrics That Made Me Cry Were "I Don't Believe In Beatles, The Dream Is Over - RingoStarrDrums
4.17pm
15 May 2015
RingoStarrDrums said
Ahhh Girl said
There is an older thread where a few people ranked the songs on this album https://www.beatlesbible.com/f…..g-ranking/I locked it and redirected people to this thread because the other thread was created in the songs section instead of the album section. @Pineapple Records, has your ranking changed?
Ok Thanks “Ahhh Girl”
I don’t think so Ahhh Girl — thanks!
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Ahhh GirlA ginger sling with a pineapple heart,
a coffee dessert, yes you know it's good news...
12.18pm
1 September 2015
2. I’ll Be Back
3. Tell Me Why
7. Anytime At All
10. If I Fell
11. And I Love Her
12. I’ll Cry Instead
13. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
John has such strong material on this album. The title track is really one of their absolute bests. I’ll Be Back has one of their greatest vocal melodies. “Yoooou, could find better things to dooo” sounds so great.
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Beatlebug, Wil19726.51pm
8 April 2016
This is a really great album. It’s sad it took many years until I discovered it. This is how I’d rank the song:
- You Can’t Do That – This is probably my favourite of all their blueslike songs. I love John’s vocals on it. It has a lot of repetition, but that doesn’t bother me, because I really love the song.
- A Hard Day’s Night
- I’ll Cry Instead
- Can’t Buy Me Love
- I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
- Things We Said Today
- I Should Have Known Better
- Any Time At All
- When I Get Home
- I’ll Be Back
- And I Love Her – It’s a nice song with a beautiful melody, but I think the half-step modulation (from E major to F major) ruins the song. I am glad the Beatles didn’t use that type of modulation (where the same melody is repeated in a higher key) very often (the whole-step modulation in the last chorus of Penny Lane works perfectly though).
- If I Fell – I like the how the intro modulates from D sharp minor to D major in a very unusual way. The rest of the song doesn’t affect me that much; it’s mostly boring and seems to go on forever, I think. The harmonies are good though.
- Tell Me Why – I don’t dislike this one. It just doesn’t affect me that much.
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Wil1972, Von Bontee4.11pm
31 October 2016
There isn’t a single Beatles song I remotely dislike. There are however favorites and least favorites.
1.) I’ll be back – Very underrated
2.) Any Time At All
4.) I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
5.) If I Fell – 2009 remaster is terrible
6.) When I Get Home
7.) I’ll Cry Instead – too short on the UK album
8.) And I Love Her – 2009 remaster is terrible
10.) Tell Me Why
11.) A Hard Day’s Night – too overplayed
12.) You Can’t Do That
5.34pm
8 April 2016
Beatlefan123 said
11.) A Hard Day’s Night – too overplayed
12.) You Can’t Do That
Those two songs are both in my top 20 favourite Beatles songs. Too overplayed? I would say Can’t Buy Me Love is more overplayed.
Beatlefan123 said
I’m glad to see that you didn’t rank this one too low.
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pepperland, Beatlefan12310.25pm
26 January 2017
I love ranking albums like Abbey Road (sans Medley) and the White Album because the songs are so diverse and fun to compare. With AHDN , Rubber Soul and Revolver , I hate having to rank and break apart such masterworks.
If I had been alive when AHDN was released I seriously would have lost my mind.
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Beatlebug, Ahhh Girl, WeepingAtlasCedars, Martha"The pump don't work cause the vandals took the handles!"
-Bob Dylan, Subterranean Homesick Blues
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-Brian Wilson, Surfer Girl
12.17am
2 November 2016
1. If I Fell – This song just makes me happy. That’s something I need right now. The harmony is really something else.
2. A Hard Day’s Night – A classic. A fun, cheeky little song.
3. Can’t Buy Me Love – It’s popular for good reason. I never get tired of it.
4. Tell Me Why – Bouncey, with nice harmony. Also catchy.
5. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You – A sweet, cute song. Very catchy.
6. I Should Have Known Better – There’s just something about this song that I like. I’m not sure what it is, but it’s good.
7. I’ll Be Back – Love the harmonies. John sounds so pleasing.
8. And I Love Her – A very gentle tune. Not much to say about it.
9. Any Time At All – The chorus is a little weird to me, but I really like the rest.
10. Things We Said Today – Great harmony here. It has an interesting composition. Sounds a bit too country for me in some parts.
11. I’ll Cry Instead – Again, too country-esque for me. Decent vocals from John, though.
12. When I Get Home – This is a good song, it just doesn’t really stick out much for me.
13. You Can’t Do That – Not a huge fan of the lyrics or how John sounds here.
Overall, not one of my favourite albums. There’s not a single Beatles song I dislike, though.
12.32pm
26 January 2017
I couldn’t rank these because I don’t know them all particularly well. I would have to say the best songs on this album are the title track, Can’t Buy Me Love and You Can’t Do That . YCDT is my favorite here because of that choppy solo and great riff.
I've been up on the mountain, and I've seen his wondrous grace,
I've sat there on the barstool and I've looked him in the face.
He seemed a little haggard, but it did not slow him down,
he was humming to the neon of the universal sound.
1.26pm
1 November 2013
Then why did you post in the thread if you couldn’t rank the songs?
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9.40am
Reviewers
14 April 2010
I notice that, except for a couple folk, ‘You Can’t Do That ‘ doesn’t get much respect in this thread. FFS, the OP didn’t list it at all. Seriously?
This Lennon rocker is among my top 10 Beatles tracks – top 5 on some days. But that’s because I prefer their rockers far more than the slower ones. It is interesting to note that those who ranked ‘YCDT’ near or at the bottom, picked a slow song as their favorite. One of the coolest things to me about The Beatles is how varied there songs were – even on the same album. You could not pigeon-hole them into any one particular style, yet they conquered every style they attempted. That variety accounts for how popular they are to this day – virtually something for everyone.
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Pablo Ramon, WeepingAtlasCedars, AvecPaix, Von Bontee, Wil1972To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.
10.21am
19 October 2016
Zig said
I notice that, except for a couple folk, ‘You Can’t Do That ‘ doesn’t get much respect in this thread. FFS, the OP didn’t list it at all. Seriously?
I know I’ve expressed my affection for You Can’t Do That elsewhere but not in this thread. It’s a GREAT song, I love the riff, the cowbell and the drum fills in addition to the ripping vocal.
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Zig, WeepingAtlasCedars, WeepingAtlasCedars, Wil19723.45pm
12 April 2017
It was tough to figure my order for most of these. Most of the lower ones, I felt like I was ranking too low, because it’s not like I don’t like them. Anyway, without further ado….
3. I’ll Be Back
8. Tell Me Why
9. If I Fell
10. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
11. I’ll Cry Instead
13. When I Get Home
“When I Get Home ” is one of the few Beatles song I don’t even own anymore. I don’t think I’ve even heard it in the last 3 years.
10.23pm
15 March 2017
13. When I Get Home – This song doesn’t do much for me and just screams filler in my opinion.
12. Tell Me Why – Another filler song but I think this song is slightly better than When I Get home.
11. Any Time At All – Not one of my favourites and it is still a weak song.
10. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You – I don’t mind this song but it isn’t one of the strongest.
9. I’ll Be Back – Not a bad song either but there are better songs on this album.
8. Can’t Buy Me Love – I thought this song would be higher on my list but the remaining songs I like more but still a good song.
7. I’ll Cry Instead – Surprisingly high but I really like this track. It’s quick and to the point, which I like.
6. If I Fell – Some of the best harmonies the band ever did and really nice lyrics.
5. I Should Have Known Better – Love the harmonies, the harmonica, and George’s guitar solo.
4. And I Love Her – I think this might be Paul’s best ballad and credit to George for the guitar riff.
3. Things We Said Today – I like the transition from the verse to the chorus on this song.
2. You Can’t Do That – Surprised this has ranked so low but I love this song. Great belting vocals from John and I love John’s aggressive guitar solo.
1. A Hard Day’s Night – No doubt in my mind that this is the best song. The memorable guitar intro, John and Paul’s vocals, and George’s guitar solo make this my number one song on this album and one of my all time favourite Beatles songs.
This was hard. I forget how great this record is sometimes.
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11.17pm
14 December 2009
I don’t know why, but something about this great album always leaves me a bit cold. The songs are uniformly great, with maybe a couple better than that (and a couple that are less than great), and yet somehow the effect is that almost no song here, after it ends, makes me anxious to hear the next one. Until the next one starts and I get into it…and then the cycle repeats again. Maybe I wish it was sequenced differently – a little more than half of them I’d prefer hearing elsewhere on the album. And at least if I felt that way about a little LESS than half of them, it’d be easier to mentally reprogram those 5-or-6 out of 13 into more satisfying slots. (I definitely know that I’d like Side 2 to begin and end with “I’ll Cry Instead ” and “You Can’t Do That “, anyways.) As it is, I’m too lazy it’s too hard for me to mentally reconfigure the whole thing due to the many possibilities with all those undifferentiated middle songs.
Anyways, the point of all this is just an elaborate explanation why I haven’t got the desire to accurately rank the whole – just the top few and bottom few, and then have a bunch tied for 7th place or so! All of which have something unique to distinguish them from another, but not remarkably unique
13. I Should Have Known Better – This one and the next just seem to be more overexposed in proportion to how much I enjoy them. And I get annoyed that the most prominent lyric in the song is actually the title of an earlier (earliest) Beatles hit! Still, this song is much better than that one.
12. Can’t Buy Me Love – A fairly mundane rocker that, as I said, suffers from overfamilarity. Still, part of the reason that it’s overfamiliar is because of its famous visual accompaniment, and indeed it sounds MUCH better if it’s backed up by its amazing wave-of-the-future video. (Is it considered a video if it’s also a sequence taken whole cloth from a full length motion picture? I’m gonna say it is.) And the instrumental break is maybe the best part of the song, with the raucous whooping and the ghosts of wiped guitar parts.
11. Any Time At All – Piano parts are interesting, but that doesn’t necessarily mean enjoyable.
10. When I Get Home – Too similar to “You Can’t Do That “, and I like that one a lot better
7. I’ll Be Back
7. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
5. Tell Me Why – They finally write their own girl-group classic. Very cool drum pattern there.
4. I’ll Cry Instead – As cheerful as a sad song can be, and that giddy little bass near-solo is a delight
3. You Can’t Do That – Great rocker! Cowbell, Lennon solo, etc.
2. If I Fell – Those harmonies
1. A Hard Day’s Night – BRANNNNGGGGGGGGGgggggg…!
Paul: Yeah well… first of all, we’re bringing out a ‘Stamp Out Detroit’ campaign.
11.28am
21 February 2017
RingoStarrDrums said
- Cant Buy Me Love
- A Hard Days Night
- Im Happy Just To Dance With You
- I Should Have Know Better
- I’ll Cry Instead Underrated Album,This Was Hard
I agree this is an underrated album. Certainly my favorite of their early discs. I would rank them thusly:
1. AHDN
4. I’ll Be Back
10. If I Fell
11. I’m Happy Just To Dance With You
12. Tell Me Why
13. When I Get Home
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