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Meet the Beatles (Again) - A Hard Days Night

Posted at 2:10 AM on September 9, 2009 by The Current (2 Comments)
Filed under: Meet the Beatles (Again)

A Hard Days Night
Originally released in 1964
By Melanie Walker

Hard Day's Night When I hear The Beatles, the first thing I always think of is my father. He's a huge music fan and the Beatles are by far his favorite music act of all time. I wasn't sure if I would remember more than the hits from The Beatles third release, A Hard Days Night. But after reviewing the newly re-mastered disc, I was surprised to find that I knew almost every song word for word. Because of my father, The Beatles are permanently imprinted upon my brain. When I chose to review A Hard Days Night it wasn't for any particular reason. It's a fantastic soundtrack to an entertaining rock film. But, what I've discovered is that A Hard Days Night has a lot more in common with my family's history than I ever anticipated.

My father was born in Romford in the Essex region of England at the tail end of World War II. He was a mod, worked as a machinist for The Ford Motor Company and spent most of his hard earned cash on suits and records. The Beatles had just started to break in the U.K. in the early '60s and my dad was there.

He remembers watching some of their first performances in small theatres in Romford and West Ham as close as 20 feet from the stage. Dad listened religiously to their live weekend sessions on the BBC called "The Saturday Club." The Beatles weren't just gaining popularity all over the U.K. but were also steadily becoming well known in other countries as well. When a friend asked my dad if he thought they'd ever be popular in America he said, "I don't think so. There will be too much competition in the States." Well, dad's eating his words now.

A Hard Days Night was released in the fall of 1964 coincidentally around the same time my Father and most his family emigrated to the U.S. on The Queen Mary. The Beatles' had just made their first television appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in February 1964, which not only launched Beatlemania in America but also the entire British Music Invasion.

At the same time my father soon took his skills from Ford Motor Company to Hollywood, CA and took a position as a machinist at Universal Studios. He soon began working on the actual shoots as a camera assistant. As America continued to fall madly in love with The Beatles, my Dad fell head over heels for life in Hollywood.

It's really a difficult concept to grasp nowadays, but at this stage of their career The Beatles were often dismissed as nothing more than a fad that would eventually vanish. To ensure this would not be the case, The Beatles made a cinéma vérité-style motion picture comedy/musical called A Hard Days Night in early 1964, directed by Richard Lester. It was an entertaining mock documentary of two days in the life of The Beatles. The soundtrack was a triumph written entirely by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and included Beatles standards such as the title track, "Can't Buy Me Love," "And I Love Her" and "Things We Said Today." A Hard Days Night was an early testament to the Lennon / McCartney song writing partnership. They never really ended up writing together so easily, eventually choosing to follow their own songwriting routes. The film has been rated by Time magazine as one of the all-time great 100 films. Leslie Halliwell, a British film critic, has described it as a "comic fantasia with music; an enormous commercial success with the director trying every cinematic gag in the book." The film is credited as single handedly influencing 1960s spy films, The Monkees' television show and pop music videos.

In 1978 I was just a toddler, The Beatles had long ago broken up, Lennon was busy being a father and husband, McCartney was knee deep in Wings, Ringo was wrapped up in his solo release Bad Boy , George was gearing up to release his next self-titled album when my father was hired to work on a film called Butch and Sundance: The Early Days, a "prequel" of sorts to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It was directed by well-known Beatles film maker Richard Lester. Not surprisingly, my father was ecstatic to be working with "the" Richard Lester! Richard fondly reminisced about those days, saying that one of the most enjoyable things about The Beatles was their natural playfulness and comedic talents. Working with the Fab Four was a whirlwind adventure, having to shoot the entire film with two cameras (which is very unconventional) so as not to miss anything. None of the guys ever did anything twice and their main goal was to shoot "whatever looked good."

Fourteen years after Hard Days Night, Richard successfully built a career upon that very aesthetic with the Superman and Musketeers films, The Beatles had become the greatest and most influential band of the rock era and the entire time my father was there to witness it all as it happened. From working class Romford, England to Hollywood, California, A Hard Days Night is more than just another Beatles record to me and my family. It's evolved to become a cornerstone of my family's musical heritage. Listening to it reminds me fondly of my father, my childhood and the reasons why I fell in love with music in the first place.

Melanie Walker is the music director for The Current. She puts in many Hard Days Nights to create the sound of the station.

Comments (2)

A Hard Days Night has always struck me as being such a happy album--The Beatles had turbo-charged enthusiasm and energy in these tunes. You can tell that they were having an incredible time and their spirit is contageous! It's a pretty innocent album (especially I'm Happy Just to Dance With You" and "If I fell"), which is interesting given that they were houseband on the Reeperbahn just two years prior.

As much as I like the tunes on Side 1 (songs from the film), Side 2 tunes have always been my favorites and I think have a greater depth: Anytime at All, Things We Said Today, I'll Be Back, I'll Cry Instead, When I get Home--Incredible tunes (and you never hear them on radio!)

Posted by Todd | September 16, 2009 5:56 PM

Todd I can't agree more "Things we Said Today" is by far one of the best tracks on the album but you never hear it! I love that song...

Posted by Melanie Walker | September 17, 2009 6:36 PM

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