Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night

This is probably one of the most studied songs by the Beatles in their entire catalog. Why is it studied? That opening chord or chords. It baffled musicians for years on how to duplicate it. It took around 40 years to figure it out to be exact. It’s probably one of the most recognizable intros in rock. A musician didn’t figure it out…that took a Dalhousie mathematician. None of the Beatles could remember exactly how they did it.

Here is a PDF you can download. A Hard Days Night Chord . It’s called Mathematics, Physics and A Hard Day’s Night. Here is what Wiki said: George Harrison: Fadd9 in 1st position on Rickenbacker 360/12 12-string electric guitar. John Lennon: Fadd9 in 1st position on a Gibson J-160E 6-string acoustic guitar. Paul McCartney: high D3 played on the D-string, 12th fret on Hofner 500/1 electric bass. George Martin: D2-G2-D3 played on a Steinway Grand Piano.

I just don’t see how they thought it up…it was most likely helped by George Martin.  Anyway, it’s a great song and a hugely popular one from their early years. The title came from something Ringo said and John remembered it. They all called Ringo’s odd phrases Ringoisms. Ringo said “We went to do a job, and we’d worked all day and we happened to work all night. I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, ‘It’s been a hard day…’ and I looked around and saw it was dark so I said, ‘Night!’ So we came to ‘A Hard Day’s Night.”

A Hard Day’s Night was written and recorded in less than 24 hours. It only took them 3 hours to finish the song. It was another song that was written under pressure. The movie production had begun and this was the last song to be recorded. On the way to the studio, John Lennon was talking to a journalist Maureen Cleave who was sharing a cab with him.

He showed her the lyrics to A Hard Day’s Night. They were scrawled down on a birthday card sent from a fan to his son Julian. What the lyrics were was  “When I get home to you / I find my tiredness is through …” and Cleave didn’t like the word tiredness and told John…so he grabbed her pen and wrote, “When I get home to you / I find the things that you do / Will make me feel all right.” Today Julian’s birthday card is in the British Library.

The song peaked at #1 on the Billboard 100, #1 in Canada, #1 in New Zealand, and #1 in the UK in 1964.

The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard Album Charts, #1 in Canada, and #1 in the UK.

A fun fact about the movie. Phil Collins was one of the school kids brought in as extras for a scene in the movie where The Beatles perform. He didn’t make the cut, but years later, the film’s producer gave Collins the outtake footage with him in it and had Collins add commentary to the DVD release.

They won their first Grammy with this song.

A Hard Day’s Night

It’s been a hard day’s night
And I’ve been workin’ like a dog
It’s been a hard day’s night
I should be sleepin’ like a log
But when I get home to you
I find the things that you do
Will make me feel alright

You know I work all day
To get you money to buy you things
And it’s worth it just to hear you say
You’re gonna give me everything
So why on Earth should I moan?
‘Cause when I get you alone
You know I feel okay

When I’m home
Everything seems to be right
When I’m home
Feeling you holding me tight, tight, yeah

It’s been a hard day’s night
And I’ve been workin’ like a dog
It’s been a hard day’s night
I should be sleepin’ like a log
But when I get home to you
I find the things that you do
Will make me feel alright, ow

So why on Earth should I moan?
‘Cause when I get you alone
You know I feel okay

When I’m home
Everything seems to be right
When I’m home
Feeling you holding me tight, tight, yeah

Oh, it’s been a hard day’s night
And I’ve been workin’ like a dog
It’s been a hard day’s night
I should be sleepin’ like a log
But when I get home to you
I find the things that you do
Will make me feel alright
You know I feel alright
You know I feel alright

…

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

38 thoughts on “Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night”

  1. It’s really a good song both lyrically and musically. I don’t play guitar so I don’t really understand the guitar chord instructions but it is an odd , but memorable opening chord. Really got your attention right off.

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    1. Yea it’s almost jaring…who knew it would be that complicated? People who labeled them as simple at the start…should look at this lol. Of course they only could remember their parts…not what the others were doing.

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      1. Max, I believe they were led by their muses and weren’t caught up by musical notation. I’m glad they let their muses flow free. It was when they started getting caught up in logistics that things started to fall apart for them (as a group.)

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      2. Yea…this is when they are really getting along well. People call Beatles early music “simple”… this shows…no not all of it.

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    1. Thanks so much…it really is and it’s funny it took that long to figure it out. You can fake it but to sound just like that…it’s a complicated process.

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    1. Do you remember back when radio dj’s would put say 5… 1-2 second pieces of songs together and you would have to guess all five? WKRP had an episode about it but I remember it happening on our radio. They were hard.

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  8. Yes, that iconic opening chord! I must have heard it more than a hundred times, possibly a couple of hundreds of times. It still excites me every time I hear it again.

    I didn’t realize it took so long to reconstruct the chord! That’s kind of crazy!

    And, yep, what would The Beatles have been without Ringo? And it’s not just because of the great Ringoisms!

    I could go on here for eight days a week!😀

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    1. To get it exact you have to have all of the instruments do it right…some people thought it was one chord and that was it…you can fake it but not get it perfect.
      Ringo rules!

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  9. Fascinating, that first video. Now I have to wonder *how* they went about remastering it? You know how much I love this song and virtually all of their songs. I just went out to see how The Analogues did it, as they pride themselves on recreating the music exactly with the same (or as close to the same) instruments as The Beatles did. Disappointingly they don’t give it the same oomph or pause Fab 4 does, from what my ears can hear.

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    1. It’s not easy to do…it’s crazy that it took nearly 40 years to reduplicate it… it was probably a happy mistake but it sure worked. It’s one of the most recognizable intro in rock music.

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  11. ‘if someone tries to tell you that the Beatles were actually bad at music…you’re talking to a person without ears, or a heart or a mind…’ – Jeff Tweedy (Wilco)

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  14. classic. Remember going to the cinema as a kid to watch this in Chesham, the end of the London Tube line in rural Buckinghamshire. I went back there a few months ago to the pub across the road from our house, my old school and the park, river and town centre. It hasn’t changed since 1965, it really hasn’t (bar the odd new housing here and there), like a small town frozen in time….

    What a song, what a great film, what a band!

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