A Hard Day's Night

(Lennon/McCartney)

Quick Facts

Composer	John & Paul
Lead Vocal	John & Paul
Recorded	Apr 1964
Length	2:33
Key	G
Noted Takes	9
Producer	George Martin
Engineer	Norman Smith

Originally released on

A Hard Day's Night (single)

Parlophone — R 5160

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Story

"A Hard Day's Night" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Credited to Lennon–McCartney, it was primarily written by John Lennon, with some minor collaboration from Paul McCartney. It was released on the soundtrack album A Hard Day's Night in 1964. [Wikipedia]

A Hard Day's Night is a song by The Beatles, written by Lennon–McCartney and led on vocal by John Lennon & Paul McCartney. Title from a Ringo malapropism; opens with the most analysed chord in pop. Within the catalogue, its title-track thread connects it to Help!; its film thread connects it to I Should Have Known Better, If I Fell, I'm Happy Just to Dance with You. The iconic title derives from Ringo's malapropism—a slip of tongue during press junketry that McCartney and Lennon weaponized into rock immortality. Recorded 16 April 1964 as album closer and film theme, the track opens with an iconographic chord analysed for decades by musicologists as hybrid harmonic voicing. The opening chord became the most scrutinized moment in pop music (Lewisohn 1988, p. 45). The film A Hard Day's Night was completed in April 1964, followed by the Rediffusion television special Around the Beatles, where the Beatles appeared just days after finishing principal shooting (Kozinn 1995, p. 79). The accompanying album represents the peak of the band's early period, full of energy and assurance (Kozinn 1995, p. 98).

The session work falls within the band's Beatlemania (1962–1964) period, recorded 16 Apr 1964 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road. George Martin produced; Norman Smith engineered. For session-by-session detail, see Mark Lewisohn's account on p.43 of The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (excerpt below). The master emerged from take nine — “only the fifth complete run through” (Lewisohn p.43). The same morning, overdubs were added to that take: a second vocal and percussion, and a middle-eight solo recorded at half speed by George Martin on piano and George Harrison on guitar. Opening the record on its strident, ringing chord was George Martin's deliberate choice — a strong launch for both the film and the soundtrack LP (Lewisohn p.43). The full mix and overdub lineage is set out in the section below.

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 Martin, in Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, p.43

A Hard Day's Night is unquestionably the peak of the band's early period.- Allan Kozinn, Kozinn 1995, p. 98

What's distinctive

One of the canon’s dual lead vocals — John on the verses, Paul on the middle-eight. Recorded approximately 44 of 67 into the Beatlemania (1962–1964) sessions. Carries the unique tag ‘famous-chord’ — no other song shares it. Take count: 9 — take nine, “only the fifth complete run through,” was the master, and the whole song was cut start to finish in three hours (the pre-V12-C “22” had no documentary basis).^1,2

Recording

The only Beatles single written to order against a film deadline — and cut start to finish in one morning. The title had been handed to Lennon and McCartney before the song existed: Ringo’s tired malapropism, “it’s been a hard day…’s night,” captured the unfinished film so well that it was adopted as the official title and announced to the press on 13 April 1964. A few days later the Beatles built a number one in three hours — nine takes attempted, only five complete, and take nine (“only the fifth complete run through”) was the master.^1,2
The most famous opening chord in pop is a studio construction. The launch was George Martin’s idea — he wanted “a particularly strong and effective beginning” for a song that would open both the film and the LP. On the earliest takes the chord was drenched in the new Abbey Road Repeat Echo effect (this was the first Beatles track to receive it), but by take 4 the echo had been decided against and is nowhere on the finished album; a low piano note was overdubbed onto the start to bolster the crashing chord.^1,2
The middle-eight solo was the session’s sleight of hand. Unable to land the solo on the first four takes, Harrison was asked to leave it out of the basic take; takes 5–9 simply held down the rhythm through the middle-eight. The solo was then built with George Martin’s half-speed trick — tape at 7.5 ips, Martin (piano) and Harrison (guitar) playing an octave low so that, played back at 15 ips, the figure rang out at pitch with a bright, “Baroque character.” Harrison then overdubbed the jangling arpeggio that closes the record on the same Rickenbacker that opens it.²

Equipment

Studio	EMI Studios, Abbey Road — Studio Two (recording, 16 Apr 1964; rough remixes 20 Apr; mono remix ‘10’ 23 Apr; US mono remix 9 Jun); Studio One control room (UK stereo remix, 22 Jun 1964)¹
Tape machine	Four-track (1964) — by April 1964 the group was recording to four-track, and the album made heavy use of the fourth track for double-tracked vocals (the inherited “Studer J37 from late-1963” is a dating error)²
Console	REDD.51 valve desk (Studio Two control room) — stereo mixing on it was awkward, which shaped this song’s mix history²
Microphones	Neumann U47, U48; AKG D19 (drums); STC 4038 (overheads)
Outboard / effects	Fairchild 660 limiters (vocal channels, Tracks 3–4, from early 1964); Altec/EMI RS124 compressors (Tracks 1–2); Abbey Road Repeat Echo (used then removed); EMT 140 plate reverb²
Guitars	Rickenbacker 360/12 twelve-string (Harrison, opening + closing chords), Gibson J-160E (Lennon), Höfner 500/1 violin bass (McCartney), Ludwig kit (Starr)
Amplifiers	Vox AC30 (TB & non-Top-Boost variants)

Recording Timeline

16 April 1964 (Thu) — recording, takes 1–9 (take 9 the master) + overdubs, EMI Studio Two — 10.00am–1.00pm. P: George Martin. E: Norman Smith. 2E: Geoff Emerick. Nine takes attempted, five complete; take nine, “only the fifth complete run through,” was the ‘best’. The same morning carried all the overdubs — the half-speed piano/guitar middle-eight, a second vocal, percussion (Norman Smith on bongos), the low piano note under the opening chord, and the closing guitar arpeggio. “Start to finish, it had been recorded in three hours.”^1,2
20 April 1964 (Mon) — rough mono + stereo remixes from take 9 — the United Artists film soundtrack, EMI Studio Two control room — 2.00–3.15pm. “Rough mono and stereo remixes of the title track. The tape was taken away by United Artists for the film soundtrack” — the lineage behind the US film and its United Artists soundtrack LP.¹
23 April 1964 (Thu) — mono ‘remix 10’ from take 9 — the UK single and mono LP, EMI Studio Two control room — 4.30–5.45pm. “Another remix… mono only this time, and for disc not film, replacing as ‘best’ the 20 April mix… named remix ten, although it was still from the original take nine.” This is the mono on the UK single (Parlophone R 5160) and the mono LP (PMC 1230).¹
9 June 1964 (Tue) — mono remix from take 9 — the US (Capitol & United Artists) tapes, EMI Studio Three control room — A fresh mono remix, after which “two identical tapes of the best mono remixes” were cut for Capitol Records and United Artists; the title A Hard Day’s Night was reserved for the United Artists soundtrack, so Capitol issued the same songs under a different album title.¹
22 June 1964 (Mon) — stereo remix from take 9 — the UK stereo LP (PCS 3058), EMI Studio One control room — A separate stereo pass from the rough 20 April stereo that went to United Artists. Stereo was genuinely awkward on Studio Two’s REDD.51 desk, so these mixes were handled with care.^1,2

I only ever played on one Beatles song, and that was 'A Hard Day's Night'. I played the bongos. Ringo couldn't do it… he just couldn't get that continual rhythm. So I said, "Okay, forget it, I'll do it."— Norman Smith²

Studio Notes

The half-speed guitar/piano solo. Martin’s “variation on the half-speed piano technique he had employed a year earlier on ‘Misery’”: tape at 7.5 ips, Martin (piano) and Harrison (electric guitar) playing “an octave lower than desired so that, upon playback at 15 ips, they would play at the proper pitch and speed.” The slow take made the otherwise near-impossible run “significantly easier to play” and lent the figure a “Baroque character” (the guitar/piano unison entering at 1:18).²
Recorded at 30 ips for the trick. The studio’s BTR machines ran at 15 and 30 ips; although the fidelity gain from 30 ips was “negligible,” George Martin would record at 30 ips to enable the half-speed overdub — “one of the earliest significant uses occurred during the recording of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’.”²
Repeat Echo on the opening chord — then removed. A Hard Day’s Night was “the first Beatles track to receive an application of Repeat Echo”; takes 1–4 carried “a whopping dose” on the crashing chord (take 1 even on the outro figure) before it was “decided against” and vanished from the finished album.²
Harrison held back from the basic take. Unable to land the solo on the first four takes, Harrison was asked — “in a sequence of events strikingly similar to the recording of ‘Misery’ in 1963” — not to attempt it live; takes 5–9 found him “simply holding down the rhythm during the middle-eight,” leaving the fourth track free for the overdubbed solo.²
Double-tracked vocals throughout — the four-track high-water mark. 1964 was the peak of the technique: “every single song on A Hard Day’s Night featured double-tracked vocals at some point,” the now-available fourth track making it “a more instantly accessible procedure than it had been with Twin-Track.” By this session the vocal channels (Tracks 3–4) had moved from RS114 limiters to Fairchild 660s, “preferred for vocal recording.”²
Source-conflict note — what went on which track. The two primary accounts differ on the drums. Lewisohn lists take nine as the basic rhythm on track one, bongos/drums/acoustic guitar on track three, and the end guitar plus George Martin’s piano on track four. Kehew & Ryan’s tape-box analysis instead places all four instruments (bass, drums, acoustic and electric guitar) on Track 1, vocals on Track 2, acoustic/further vocal/cowbell/bongos on Track 3, and piano and electric guitar on Track 4. Both agree the rhythm went down first and the solo, piano and end-guitar were overdubbed onto Track 4; they disagree on whether the drums sit on Track 1 or Track 3. Per §1 the discrepancy is flagged rather than resolved.^1,2

Releases

16 April 1964 — recording, takes 1–9 (take 9 the master) — Studio Two, 10.00am–1.00pm. Take nine, “only the fifth complete run through,” was the ‘best’ and carried all the overdubs; the song was “recorded in three hours.” Every later release derives from this one take.^1,2
20 April 1964 — rough mono + stereo remixes — the United Artists film soundtrack — “Rough mono and stereo remixes of the title track. The tape was taken away by United Artists for the film soundtrack.” The lineage behind the US film and its United Artists soundtrack LP, issued separately from the UK Parlophone record.¹
23 April 1964 — mono ‘remix 10’ — the UK single (Parlophone R 5160) and mono LP (PMC 1230) — “Another remix… mono only this time, and for disc not film… named remix ten, although it was still from the original take nine.” This is the mono the UK heard on the single and the mono LP.¹
9 June 1964 — mono remix — the US (Capitol & United Artists) tapes — A fresh mono remix from take nine, after which “two identical tapes of the best mono remixes” were cut “for Capitol Records and United Artists.” The album title was reserved for United Artists’ soundtrack, so Capitol issued the same songs under a different collection title.¹
22 June 1964 — stereo remix — the UK stereo LP (PCS 3058) — Stereo mixing of the title track from take nine in the Studio One control room, a separate pass from the rough 20 April stereo that went to United Artists.¹
1987 mono CD — A Hard Day’s Night (Parlophone CDP 7 46437 2, mono) — the album’s first compact-disc issue was mono-only; the first four Beatles albums were issued on CD in mono.¹
2009 stereo remaster — A Hard Day’s Night (9 September 2009, Apple/EMI) — a 24-bit Abbey Road remaster of the 1964 stereo master (Allan Rouse / Guy Massey / Steve Rooke / Sean Magee). Per §1 less-specific-when-uncertain, this reissue post-dates the Lewisohn 1988 / Kehew & Ryan 2006 primary-source canon and is documented in official Apple/EMI release metadata.
2009 mono remaster — The Beatles in Mono (9 September 2009, Apple/EMI) — the 1964 mono master remastered for the mono box set. Same §1 caveat.
2014 mono vinyl — The Beatles in Mono vinyl box (2014, Apple/UMe) — an all-analogue cut from the 1964 mono master. Same §1 caveat.

Sources

Mark Lewisohn, The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (New York: Harmony Books, 1988), 43–46, 200.
Kevin Ryan and Brian Kehew, Recording the Beatles: The Studio Equipment and Techniques Used to Create Their Classic Albums (Houston: Curvebender Publishing, 2006), 55, 288–289, 380–383.

Frequently asked

Who wrote A Hard Day's Night?

“A Hard Day's Night” was written by Lennon–McCartney (primarily John Lennon).

Who sings lead on A Hard Day's Night?

John Lennon sings the verses and Paul McCartney takes the middle-eight (“When I'm home…”).

When was A Hard Day's Night recorded?

“A Hard Day's Night” was recorded in a single morning on 16 April 1964 at EMI Studios, Abbey Road.¹

How many takes did A Hard Day's Night require?

Nine takes: take nine — “only the fifth complete run through” — was the master, cut start to finish in three hours. The earlier “22 takes” had no documentary basis.¹

On this page

Story

What's distinctive

Recording

Equipment

Recording Timeline

Studio Notes

Releases

Sources

Frequently asked