The origin of A Hard Day’s Night is something that could straight out of a bad biopic. Ringo often came up with malapropisms, such as Tomorrow Never Knows. According to Paul, "...he said after a concert, 'Phew, it's been a hard day's night.' John and I went, 'What? What did you just say?" In 1980 John added, "I had used it in 'In His Own Write,' but it was an off-the-cuff remark by Ringo, one of those malapropisms - a Ringoism - said not to be funny, just said."
With the upcoming Beatles film being titled A Hard Day’s Night, it was decided that there should be an accompanying song. So John took it upon himself to write it. Paul recounted, "John said, 'I'll write it,' and he did; he came back the next day with it. I think he might not have had all the words. I might have been in on that middle eight." With that the song was brought into the studio on April 16th, 1964.
This session lasted three hours, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The song materialized almost out of thin air, with little practice beforehand. The film’s director, Richard Lester, was present for the session. It was his insistence that the song needed a "cinematic" opening that led to the now-iconic chord being created. This chord has been a point of contention for half a century, but it likely consisted of Paul playing a D on his bass, George playing an Fadd9 chord with an F in the bass, John playing the same chord as George but with an extra A note, Ringo hitting his snare, kick, and cymbals, and George Martin playing D1, G1, D2, and G2 on his piano. At least that's my takeaway of the opening chord.
Lester’s other suggestion, a "dreamy" ending, resulted in the arpeggiated fade-out. With that, The Beatles set out to record the song. It took only nine takes to nail down the basic track, which consisted of George on his Rickenbacker, John on his acoustic J-160E while singing, Paul on bass while singing, and Ringo on drums. Overdubs included John and Paul double-tracking their vocals, George and George Martin playing the solo in half-time (which would later be sped up), Ringo overdubbing bongos and cowbell, George adding his arpeggiated guitar to the ending, and George Martin adding his piano to the opening chord.
With that, the song was completed and ready for mixing.
Now there is a possibility that engineer Norman Smith was the one on bongos with him saying, "I only ever played on one Beatles song, and that was ‘A Hard Day’s Night’. I played the bongos. Ringo couldn’t do it. I went down to the studio and showed him what to do, but he just couldn’t get that continual rhythm. So I said, ‘Okay, forget it, I’ll do it.’ We overdubbed it, and I left my Tape Op behind upstairs to operate the equipment." Although that could be the case I just left it as Ringo.
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Studio Chatter (0:00)
Opening Chord (0:33)
Drums (0:36)
Bongos/Cowbell (3:01)
Bass (5:20)
John's Vocal Track 1 (7:45)
John's Vocal Track 2 (9:27)
Paul's Vocal Track 1 (11:09)
Paul's Vocal Track 2 (11:59)
Opening Piano Chord (12:53)
Piano Solo Full Speed (12:57)
Piano Solo Half Speed (13:12)
Guitar Solo Full Speed (13:41)
Guitar Solo Half Speed (13:56)
Acoustic Guitar (14:28)
Electric Guitar (16:52)
Ending Guitar Arpeggio (19:16)
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John Lennon - Lead Vocals, Rhythm Guitar (Gibson J160E)
Paul McCartney - Lead and Harmony Vocals, Bass Guitar (1963 Hofner 500/1)
George Harrison - Lead Guitar (1963 Rickenbacker 360-12 Fireglo)
Ringo Starr - Drums (1963 Ludwig Downbeat Black Oyster Pearl), Bongos, Cowbell
George Martin - Piano (1905 Steinway Vertegrand upright)
#thebeatles #paulmccartney #georgeharrison #johnlennon #ringostarr #aharddaysnight