A Hard Day's Night is GREAT to find! Not to be missed!

The strong opening note of the CD album grabs the listener's attention-although it doesn't take much extra effort to KEEP the listener's attention as this CD is one of The Beatles' finest outputs of music. The first seven songs are from the movie (now on DVD) of the same name; the collection of songs and ballads on this album is striking and reflects the youthful excitement and optimistic energy of the early Beatles' work.

A Hard Day's Night is the first song and this is a phrase coined by Ringo as he reflected on a previous all-nighter pulled by the band when they were under great pressure to turn out some hits. He is known to have said that the foursome had worked through "a hard day's night;" and thus the main line of the title song (as well as the title itself) was born!

Of particular note is the moving ballad "If I Fell." The ballad is beautiful and shows a man's (not just a woman's) vulnerability in a romantic relationship.

The sound quality is excellent and the cover pictures are photographic stills from the end of the movie of the same name.

This Beatles CD is indeed full of the "classic songs" another reviewer refers to and I highly recommend it as a must-have for any Beatles fan as well as lovers of this type of music. Moreover, this is an excellent starting point for those of us who are more accustomed to the "traditional" sound of the crooners or other music genres if these listeners want to get a first class introduction to early 1960s rock.

A must for any serious collection

So much has been written about the Beatles later albums such as Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road and The White Album, which all made your customer poll Top 100. It's a real shame that the Beatles earlier(pre-Rubber Soul) albums are underappreciated because they are all first rate rock 'n roll. A Hard Day's Night is the best of the earlier albums and ranks right up there with their later classics and also should have been on your customer Top 100. Every track here is brilliant in consumate beat-pop style. Infectious joy just explodes out of every song. A friend of mine described this album as "a guaranteed bad mood buster. The unforgettable opening guitar riff of the title song sets the tone for what is to come. And I Love Her is arguably McCartney's best love song. Lennon's glorious harmonica never sounded better than in I Should Have Known Better. The songs are more complex than it may first seem so listen to them carefully. For instance, Tell Me Why is a great rocker whose backbeat has a syncopated snazz that gives it a swing sound as well. Hardly pop fluff. The most incredible thing about this album is that it was written on the run while Beatlemania raged around them and they were pressured to get a soundtrack out for the movie, unlike the later albums when they had more time to experiment in the studio. A Hard Day's Night is a timeless classic that sounds as fresh and energetic today as it did 35 years ago. No serious rock collection is complete without it.

Beatlemania!

A Hard Day's Night, being the Beatles' third LP and the soundtrack to their first feature film, signals the height of Beatlemania craze and the top of their pop-star period. The film 'A Hard Day's Night' shows the Beatles' remarkable sense of humor and self consciousness in regards to the absurdity and silliness of their popularity at the time. The album, though, is a perfect pop album, one of the finest ever made by anyone. It shares its qualities with the other truly perfect pop albums - The Beach Boys' 'Pet Sounds', Fleetwood Mac's 'Rumors' and Carole King's 'Tapestry', to name a few - short, catchy, highly melodic songs, simple rhythms, a perfect structure, and musical and harmonical complexities that make the music sound completely fresh and unique and yet do not overwhelm the music to make it less listenable.



In fact, while the songs are not as expressive and experimental as the ones the Beatles recorded in the late 60s, in many ways Lennon and McCartney were at the top of their songwriting career at this very point - they prove themselves on 'A Hard Day's Night' to be completely mature and completely aware musicians who know precisely what they're doing, and in that aspect they were lightyears ahead of any other rock musicians working at that time, save maybe Brian Wilson. It's no accident that this was the first Beatles album to feature nothing but original songs; and interestingly enough, the only Beatles album EVER to feature nothing but Lennon/McCartney compositions. It truly shows them at their best, and it's easy to see, even today, that it wasn't just they're charm, their sense of humor and their good looks that made them the superstars they were. Very few songwriters manage to achieve that perfect blend of originality and complexity with lightness and catchiness that Lennon and McCartney did on this album.



That much can be heard from the very first chord of the title track, which opens song, album and film and is as powerful and heavenly today as it was forty years ago. A stroke of genius so simple, so perfect - it's little touches like this chord, like the drum entry on 'If I Fell', like the harmony on 'I Should Have Known Better', or the ever so slight Latin touch on 'And I Love Her', that make the difference between pop music and timeless music like this. These are the details that demand the listener's attention and make them take notice. Each song on this album is beautifully crafted like that, mainly 'A Hard Day's Night' and 'Can't Buy Me Love', by no accident the album's leading singles, but the others as well, including the second side - songs that were not on the film, and perhaps just a little bit weaker than the first half, but still include classics like 'Things We Said Today', 'I'll Be Back' and John's wonderfully and typically bitter 'You Can't Do That'.



Call it dated if you must, but I dare you to find one serious musician in the last forty years who was not influenced - if not directly - by 'A Hard Day's Night'. And though it may take a bit more attention to find the genius in it than in Sgt. Pepper or Abbey Road, it's impossible not to fall in love with it. Again, it's the multi-layerness of it that makes a perfect pop record that lingers through the ages. Even if the Beatles hadn't become the psychedelic and avant-garde gurus that they had in '67-'70, and A Hard Day's Night was their last and finest achievement, it would have been enough to earn them a place in the history books.

It's The British LP

This CD is not the same as the United Artist soundtrack LP from 1964. Unlike that LP, which featured a few Beatles songs along with four instrumental tracks, this is the British album of the same name, with fourteen new tracks by the Fab Four. Since those tracks were chopped off in the states, Capitol issued the Something New album to pick up the slack.

For those curious, the tracks on the UA LP were as following:

1. A Hard Day's Night ["Vocal Version"] 2. Tell Me Why ["Vocal Version"] 3. I Cry Instead ["Vocal Version"] 4. I Should Have Known Better [instrumental] 5. I'm Happy Just to Dance With You ["Vocal Version"] 6. And I Love Her [instrumental] 7. I Should Have Known Better ["Vocal Version"] 8. If I Fell ["Vocal Version"] 9. And I Love Her ["Vocal Version"] 10. Ringo's Theme (This Boy) [instrumental] 11. Can't Buy Me Love ["Vocal Version"] 12. A Hard Day's Night [instrumental]

Due to a quirk in contractual agreements, United Artists, who produced the movie, were able to issue their one and only Beatles LP; after all, the movie was basically to promote their music, not to display their comedic acting skills.

Anyone who yearns to experience Beatlemania on a scaled down version would be wise to buy this CD. It contains pure pop magic.

The Beatles Get Going

This album is when the Beatles go from popular pop/rock band to international superstars. This particular album shows the development of the band from the pop stars of "Please Please Me" fame to the talented, young musicians about to embark on the most important era of Rock & Roll history. Classics like "A Hard Day's Night" and "Can't Buy Me Love" are joined by some fabulous often heard Beatles tunes and some underrated gems. In the latter category, be sure to include "Any Time At All" "And I Love Her" and "You Can't Do That". In the first category falls "I Should Have Known Better" and "Tell Me Why". A great, historic album and a must have for anybody who is interested in The Beatles, or, music, period.

To the toppermost of the poppermost...

It's said that Beach Boy Brian Wilson's reaction to hearing "Rubber Soul" was "It's a whole album worth of great songs..." If this one (3 albums earlier) isn't ALL great, it's darn close. Every track here carries a Lennon/McCartney credit and all but 2 are at least good with several Beatles classics in there as well.



The album couldn't possibly have started any stronger. The opening chord to "A Hard Day's Night" blasts out of your speakers like a bullet out of a gun barrel and from that point on the Beatles seem bent on proving they are the best band in the world. Along the way we're treated to rocker "I Should Have Known Better" and Paul's first really good ballad ("If I Fell").



Clunker "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You" gums up the proceedings a bit but lovely Spanish tinged ballad "And I Love Her" resumes the roll of great songs. The momentum doesn't slow again until "Tell Me Why".



"Tell Me Why" is a great song in terms of its structure regardless of any complaints Lennon may have later made about it. The problem is the production sounds just a bit thin on the chorus harmonies. That and the section in the 3rd verse right after Paul sings "only listen to my pleas" is VERY shrill and painful. It should have been reworked. What could have been a great song becomes an also ran among their better works.



"Can't Buy me Love" recovers from the stumble with the idea of opening the song with the hook, an idea that was very new (never before done?) at the time. It's a Beatles classic and an all-time great in the annals of rock.



After this, things tone down a bit again but there are two more really great songs before the album ends: underrated ballad "Things We Said Today" (unusual in that it contrasted its optimistic love you forever lyric with very "dark" sounding acoustic guitar figures and somewhat jarring harmonies) and "You Can't Do That" which married John Lennon's jealous threat to a girl to an chipper pop melody.



BOTTOM LINE: "A Hard Day's Night" and "Can't Buy me Love" are among the best songs rock music has produced. The album has very few missteps. This is where the Beatles begin to take shape.