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This is the third Beatles album ever released and is notable for a few reasons. First, it was their first soundtrack album. The first seven songs (the “A” side) contain songs from the movie while the other 6 songs (the “B” side) were just other songs recorded to put on the album. The other notable thing about this record is that it’s the only Beatles album to feature every song being composed by the Lennon/McCartney duo.
The Album
1) A Hard Days Night
Man, if that first note doesn’t send chills up your spine, you shouldn’t be listening to the Beatles. Is there a better chord to start the album off on? This song doesn’t need any commenting on. I should note that this is the only song the Beatles didn’t play at the concert at the end of the movie. There’s a good reason for that. They hadn’t written it when that scene had been shot! They needed a title for the movie and the Beatles used a Ringo-ism and turned it into a song in a night. The early takes show they have the chord there and George kind of knows what he wants to do for the solo. The ending is also really cool too with the arpeggiated riff at the end with George’s sterling 12-string Rickenbacker.
Yeah Count: 2
Love Count: 2
2) I Should Have Known Better
This is a pretty average Beatles song. I’ve always liked it but there’s nothing real notable about it. They did this song in the movie while on the train playing cards. The solo is simple yet effective and an instrument that would dominate early Beatles records, the harmonica, is used on here.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 11
3) If I Fell
Who said John Lennon couldn’t write the schmaltzy ballad songs? Honestly, I have nothing else to say about the song. It’s a typical ballad where John strums on the acoustic and George picks away on the electric guitar. John and Paul do the vocals, and the harmonies are perfect. The Beatles were always great on doing vocals like that, mainly due to Paul’s versatility as a singer.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 12
4) I’m Happy Just to Dance With You
On the Hard Days Night DVD, producer George Martin said he really didn’t like this song. I tend to agree with him. It’s not baaaad but it’s not a classic either. It’s a straight up fast paced dance song with a nice rhythm guitar driving the song. George Harrison handles the vocals too.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 3
5) And I Love Her
Probably one of the early great Paul ballads which he would later surpass the next year. I love the acoustic guitars on this one and the lead guitar part is perfectly complimentary to the rhythm. There are some suspect rhyme schemes (me and tender-leee) but it doesn’t detract from the song.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 10
6) Tell Me Why
Probably the worst of the 7 soundtrack songs in my opinion. It’s just your average Beatles song and I guess the only defining characteristic is the part of the song where John and Paul sing in the high falsetto for one line. It’s different and its little things like that, that make me love the Beatles. They are never afraid to try different things on their songs.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 1
7) Can’t Buy Me Love
This was another number one song for the Beatles and it comes up big on every level. From the opening line to the perfect rhythm guitar and the nice guitar stabs puncuating the choruses it is just awesome. The guitar solo is a great example of George’s prowess and if you listen closely you can hear the original solo that was recorded the first time through. They overdubbed the better solo, but they were still using 4-track so they couldn’t erase the old one, only mix it reallllly low.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 14
8) Any Time At All
The start of the B-side and you know they had to start off any side with a nice up tempo number. This is a surprisingly good song for what were really throwaway songs tacked onto the soundtrack. I love the opening drum beat followed by the chiming guitars playing on the song.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 1
9) I’ll Cry Instead
From Any Time at All, to this. I really don’t like this at all. The feel of the guitars make it hard to get into. It’s kind of countryish but pop too. Not my cup of tea at all.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 0
10) Things We Said Today
I love the way the strummed guitar sounds in the beginning, almost like a spanish sound. I really like this song and it has some damn spiffy lyrics, too.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 12
11) When I Get Home
One of the other songs I didn’t like at all in this album. The beginning sounds like they needed something to say and whooo ahh is the best they could think of. Let’s face it, a total throwaway song.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 2
12) You Can’t Do That
One of the best things about this album is George Harrison’s new 12-string Rickenbacker he got before the movie started. He recorded many songs on this and Beatles for Sale with the 12-string and this is one of the best examples of the chiming sound of Rick 12-strings.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 2
13) I’ll Be Back
I don’t know why this song isn’t more popular amongst Beatles fans. It’s a great acoustic number with great lyrics and a great sound. A hidden gem on the B side of the soundtrack.
Yeah Count: 0
Love Count: 1
The Liner Notes
8 pages long this time. The first page is the cover. The second and third pages have the track listing and tell us its songs from the movie. Pages 4-6 contain an essay written by Tony Barrow. Page 7 has the usual CD information and the last page has some pictures of the boys from the movie.
The Sound
This was recorded WAY back in 1964 using analog tapes and only 4 track tapes to boot. It sounds really good for its age. Nowhere near the standards of today, but the Beatles sounding like this is better than anything released now, in my totally unbiased opinion!
The Final Review
I have no ill will towards this record. I love this record. I don’t have any real complaints about it since from top to bottom its very good. There are 3-4 songs I don’t like as much as others but no record is perfect. Well, some are, but this isn’t one of them! All kidding aside, it’s a great look at the Beatles first foray into the movies and you can hear the songs they played in the film with 6 extra original Beatles songs. It’s a great record and compared to any other record in the world it’d be ranked highly. But the Beatles are competing with a great band, themselves. So out of the 13 Beatles albums, I can’t rank it any higher than 10th. But it’s a good 10th.
10th out of 13.
Final Rating:
8.0
Final Yeah Count: 2
Final Love Count: 71
Cumulative Yeah Count: 136
Cumalative Love Count: 160
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