Working Like A Dog.

"A Hard Day's Night" is the first song on the third UK Parlophone LP. As well as being the title of the first movie, it's also the title track and was released worldwide as a single. "A Hard Day's Night" being the obvious A-side of said single. The Beatles needed a title for the movie and one of Ringo's word play phrases "Hard Day's Night" was adapted for the movie. The song was written mainly by John and is a Lennon/McCartney composition. John sings the verses and Paul sings the middle eight. The first chord that rings out and grabs everyone's attention is played on George's newly acquired twelve string Rickenbaker, a piano and a bass note. The chord is a Gsus7/9. "Hard Day's night" was also used in one of John Lennon's poems written for his first book: "In His own Write". The song was literally written overnight once the phrase was established as being the title.

"A Hard Day's Night" was recorded in one session and it took nine takes to perfect. Five of the takes were complete run-throughs. The song was recorded on Thursday April 16 1964 at EMI Studio two between ten in the morning and one in the afternoon. Four days later on April 20, rough mono and stereo mixes were made in studio two and the mixes were taken away by United Artists for the film. "A Hard Day's Night" was once again mixed for mono three days later on April 23 1964 and this time it was mixed for the soundtrack record itself. Another mono mix for United Artists (this time to insert in the film) was done in studio three on June 09 1964 and this mix featured an artificial extended ending. Finally, "A Hard Day's Night" was mixed for stereo (record) two and a half weeks before release on June 22 1964 from studio one.

"A Hard Day's Night" was played many times in concert by The Beatles including the 1964 North American Tour, the 1964 Christmas shows in London, as well as the 1965 European and North American Tours. Many live bootlegs contain the song and a performance from the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles is available on the EMI/Capitol LP: "The Beatles Live at The Hollywood Bowl".

The commercial version is available on the Parlophone UK LP/CD "A Hard Day's Night", also the North American version of the United Artists' film soundtrack LP: "A Hard Day's Night". It is also found on the Parlophone UK LP "A Collection of Beatles Oldies" as well as the Apple 2-LP/2-CD: "The Beatles 1962-1966", the song is also available on the EMI and Capitol version of the LP "20 Greatest Hits", and finally the Apple 2-LP, CD "1".

The Beatles performed "A Hard Day's Night" twice on BBC radio: the first time on "Top Gear" and the second time on "From Us to You". It was also released in this form on the Apple 2-LP/2-CD: "Live at the BBC".