"A Hard Day's Night" Sleeve Notes 
Alun Owen began work on the original screenplay late last autumn. Producer Walter Shenson and director Richard Lester watcher their newest screen stars at work over Christmas and the New Year on the stage of the Finsbury Park 'Astoria' in London. John and Paul began to compile a collection of new compositions for the soundtrack while The Beatles were appearing in the Paris 'Olympia' last January. One morning early in March a specially chartered train moved out of Paddington station and the first day's shooting of The Beatles' first feature film got under way.
Reel upon reel of precious film had filled the camera crew's metal cans before a title had been selected for the United Artists picture. Then Ringo casually came up with the name at the end of a particularly strenuous session on the film set. 'It's been a hard day's night that was!' he declared, squatting for a moment at the arm of his canvas chair behind the line of cameras and technicians. The film, which also stars Wilfred Brambell in the role of Paul's (mythical) Irish grandfather, was promptly named 'A HARD DAY'S NIGHT'.
The story depicts something like 48 consecutive hours of activity in the bustling lives of four beat group boys. Named John, Paul, George, and Ringo. A Hard Day's Night is heard at the very beginning of the film as the boys sing and play over the opening titles. The number features John's double-tracked voice, producing a duet effect. Its brisk, compelling theme crops up in orchestral form elsewhere during the film as part of recording manager George Martin's instrumental soundtrack score.
John's I Should Have Known Better makes an early appearance in the film during a railway sequence when the four boys are seen playing cards in the guard's van of the train.
John and Paul share the vocal action on If I Fell, the first of four songs featured in extensive theatre/studio sequences which show the group rehearsing and finally performing in a television spectacular. I'm Happy Just To Dance With You gives George a chance to handle the lead vocal, And I Love Her hands the solo spotlight to Paul who is joined by John for Tell Me Why.
The last of the soundtrack's magnificent seven, Can't Buy Me Love, has already been a worldwide disc hit for The Beatles. In 'A HARD DAY'S NIGHT' it forms the musical backdrop to several different scenes---when the boys are seen chasing across a field after a quick-fire getaway from the television studio and when the incredible race between Beatles, fans and police takes place with the boys tearing along streets and down alleyways in double-quick time!
Creating and perfecting completely new compositions for the soundtrack of 'A HARD DAY'S NIGHT' presented John and Paul with one of the greatest challenges of their pop-penning career. In the past their song-writing had been done at a more leisurely pace. Now they had a shooting schedule deadline to meet and the entire collection of fresh numbers had to be compiled during a session of concerts in Paris and a now legendary visit to America. To assist their work the two boys had a grand-piano moved into their hotel suite at the George V in Paris.
By the beginning of March the task was complete and The Beatles had a total of almost a dozen new songs ready for final rehearsal. At every stage of its conception and production care was taken to see that 'A HARD DAY'S NIGHT' would not turn into a continuous parade of Beatle performances. After all the Beatles themselves had agreed that the film should portray as many different facets of the four boys' individual personalities as possible. Indeed the comedy content was, and is, of paramount importance, and John, Paul, George, and Ringo are afforded maximum opportunity to display their on-the-spot sense of humor.
It became apparent that no more than six new songs should be introduced via the soundtrack of the film. To increase this number would have left insufficient screen-time for the action of the plot. On the other hand it seemed most unfair to hold back on the remainder of the boys' new songs when each one was of such excellent quality. Eventually the decision was made to record all the material which John and Paul had written and include the extra titles on the second side of this album.
Although the voice of George Harrison is much in evidence throughout the album the solo vocal activity on the second side is shared between the songs' composers, John and Paul. Paul handles the lyrics of Things We Said Today and he's heard in duet with John on I'll Cry Instead. For the main part John's is When I Get Home, You Can't Do That and I'll Be Back although George and Paul back up his efforts strongly on all titles.
When you listen to the second side of this record you will agree that it would have been a pity to cast aside such a fabulous set of songs solely because they couldn't be fitted into the structure of 'A HARD DAY'S NIGHT'. Now, with this album in your library, you have a collection of Beatles recordings which is comprehensive and up to date. At the same time it is interesting to remember that the LP housed within this sleeve is the first-ever album release to be made up entirely of self-composed and self-performed Beatle compositions.
Produced for records by GEORGE MARTIN
Cover Notes by TONY BARROW
BEATLES FOR SALE
Sleeve Notes
This is the fourth by the four. 'Please Please Me', 'With The Beatles', 'Hard Day's Night'. That's three. Now...'Beatles For Sale'.
The young men themselves aren't for sale. Money, noisy though it is, doesn't talk that loud. But you can buy this album---you probably have, unless you're just browsing, in which case don't leave any dirty thumbprints on the sleeve!
It isn't all currency or current though. There's priceless history between these covers. None of us is getting any younger. When, in a generation or so, a radio-active, cigar-smoking child, picnicking on Saturn, asks you what the Beatle affair was all about---'Did you actually know them?'---don't try to explain all about the long hair and the screams! Just play the child a few tracks from this album and he'll probably understand what it was all about. The kids of AD 2000 will draw from the music much the same sense of well being and warmth as we do today.
For the magic of the Beatles is, I suspect, timeless and ageless. It has broken all frontiers and barriers. It has cut through differences of race, age and class. It is adored by the world.
This album has some lovely samples of Beatle music. It has, for instance, eight new titles wrought by the incomparable John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and, mingling with the new, there are six numbers culled from the rhythmic wealth of the past extraordinary decade; pieces like Kansas City, and Rock and Roll Music. Marvellous.
Many hours and hard day's nights of devoted industry went into the production of this album. It isn't a potboiling quick-sale any-old-thing-will-do-for-Christmas mixture.
At least three of the Lennon-McCartney songs were seriously considered as single releases until John popped up with I Feel Fine. These three were Eight Days A Week, No Reply and I'm A Loser. Each would have topped the charts, but as it is they are an adornment to this LP, and a lesson to other artists. As on other albums, the Beatles have tossed in far more value than the market usually demands.
There are few gimmicks or recording tricks, though for effect, the Beatles and their recording manager George Martin, have slipped in some novelties. Like Paul on Hammond organ to introduce drama into Mr. Moonlight, which also, and for the first time, has George Harrison applying a thump to an elderly African drum because Ringo was busy elsewhere in the studio, playing bongos. George's thump remains on the track. The bongos were later dropped. Ringo plays timpani in Every Little Thing, and on the Rock and Roll Music track George Martin joins John and Paul on one piano. On Words of Love, Ringo plays a packing case.
Beyond this, it is straightforward 1964 disc-making. Quite the best of its kind in the world. There is little or nothing on the album which cannot be reproduced on stage, which is, as students and critics of pop-music know, not always the case.
Here it is then. The best album yet---quite definitely, says John, Paul, George, and Ringo---full of everything which made the four the biggest attraction the world has ever known. Full of raw John and melodic Paul; a number from George, and a bonus from Ringo. For those who like to know who does precisely what, there are details alongside each title.
DEREK TAYLOR
