The Beatles: "A Hard Day's Night"

August 17, 1964 (2 weeks)

(This week's entry presents the first of many oddities that crop up with RPM's charts. First, Jan and Dean's "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" was the number one single for the week of August 11, 1964 meaning it was in fact a chart topper in Canada for just six days rather than a full week. Second, there doesn't appear to have been a published issue of RPM magazine the week after this one and, thus, no Top 40 to speak of. Because of this, I have credited the present single with a two week reign even though it only appeared on top on one chart. There will be gaps like this in the future (some much longer than just a week) so my policy is that the incumbent remains on top until evidence proves it has been dethroned. While it may seem ludicrous to credit a single with, say, eight weeks at number one when it clearly did merit such a lengthy stay at the top, I just have to shrug my shoulders and say, "there's not much you can do")

Thoughts that The Beatles' phenomenon might be short lived must have eventually passed - but when exactly did that happen? As late as 1966, there were reports that they could no longer sell out giant stadiums around the United States and then rumours began to spread that they were finished because they no longer wished to tour. Yet, the creativity continued to pour out of John, Paul, George and Ringo and the hits didn't cease. It was only when they chose to end it that they were done — and, yet, vast swathes of the populace around the world still aren't close to being done with them.

No, I think the moment when the nay sayers should have realized that the Fab Four would be around for good was "A Hard Day's Night", song, album and, yes, even movie. The LP was a major advance on their first two (which, let's not forget, were great as it is) with the Lennon-McCartney partnership being on such a roll that they could forgo cover versions altogether. And this was by no means a case of quantity over quality: its thirteen cuts represent a masterclass in consistency. The ballads ("If I Fell", "And I Love Her") are their strongest yet, the lyrics are more thoughtful (especially on standouts "Things We Said Today" and "I'll Be Back") and the energy doesn't let up for a second. Those who tend to get hung up on Rubber Soul being their creative breakthrough are overlooking that A Hard Day's Night — from roughly twenty months earlier — is their first true album length masterpiece.

I don't know if I'd say that the title track is the LP's best song (I prefer the quartet mentioned above as well as "You Can't Do That"; "A Hard Day's Night" is probably more on the level of "Tell Me Why" and "I'll Cry Instead"; sorry to belabour the point but damn this album is great: "I'm Happy to Dance with You" is probably its weakest track and even it's pretty good) but it is the opener and it signals both their position as kings of pop while hinting at what was to come. While John Lennon could be a lazy bastard when given the opportunity, he had been working a backbreaking schedule packed full of tours, promotion, recording sessions, songwriting and that blasted movie they were making with little in the way of let up. If not quite a diary-entry-as-song the way 1969's "The Ballad of John and Yoko" would be, I think it presents a pretty accurate summation of his hectic life in the middle of 1964. The whole thing is a rush but burnout must have been inevitable. (Sleep seemed to be sacrificed even when in the sanctuary of his newly purchased Kenwood estate, presumably because of wife Cynthia making John "feel all right")

For a group who had been rapidly in and out of the studio ever since recording "Love Me Do" near the end of 1962, The Beatles managed to make the most of the precious time they had at Abbey Road with producer George Martin. Recorded in mid-April following several weeks of filming, "A Hard Day's Night" is their most idea-packed number to date. George Harrison's 12-string solo adds a whole new dimension to their sound while the accompanying cowbell gives the song a sense of urgency, a clock ticking the hours away. (They say that when you notice the bongos you'll never unhear them which is something that I'll have to take their word on) It also has their most striking bridge yet, a pleading McCartney longing for the refuge of being back home for a bit. While the bulk of the song was written by Lennon, having his partner come in on the middle-8 to both complement and contrast him must have made an impression on the pair since they would utilize this trick again on such future recordings as "We Can Work It Out", "A Day in the Life" and "I've Got a Feeling".

I haven't discussed the movie largely because I haven't seen it in a long time. Honestly, none of their five films have ever meant a whole lot to me. I'd almost go so far as to say that it wouldn't matter to me had they never made them but with one caveat: the pressure to release soundtracks for both A Hard Day's Night and 1965's Help! upped the ante. Sure, there still would have been heavy demands placed on them but I suspect that the deadlines placed on them for both filming and recording resulted in an uptick in the quality of their work. (Though it admittedly doesn't prove a great deal, it's still worth considering that their so-so fourth album Beatles for Sale came during a creative lull when there weren't quite as many demands) If film making didn't do a great deal for them then providing music for their cinematic releases was inevitably going to be a venue for them to thrive. If not for the movie A Hard Day's Night, we would not have been given the pleasure of the song of the same name, which is reason enough to cherish their cinematic adventures.

Ultimately, "A Hard Day's Night" is the final gasp of Beatlemania before exhaustion began to set in. It was also perhaps the final time that the hunger for commercial success was a driving force. The major markets had all been conquered, the tours were selling out and audiences and critics alike seemed awfully fond of their first feature film. Now it was time for them to broaden their horizons. The Beatles would become far deeper, more experimental and much more mature with subsequent releases but they would never be this thrilling again.

Score: 9