#307 - The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night (1964)
MUSIC HISTORY COMPILED BY ADAM BERNARD:
BACKGROUND – THE BEATLES
We all know the basic history of the Fab Four - formed in Liverpool in 1960, consists of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They're music ranges across many genres, stemming from 1950s rock and roll but also including traditional pop, classical music, ballads, hard rock, and psychedelia. Beatlemania was feverish around the world in the 1960s. They released the first two of their "Core Catalogue" albums in 1963 - Please Please Me, and With The Beatles. They would release two albums in 1964 - Beatles For Sale in December, but by preceded by today's album. Today's album started a run of 6 consecutive albums to top the charts on both sides of the bond, with Sgt Peppers being the last in 1967.
They released three huge albums from 1965 through 1966 - Help! (August 1965), Rubber Soul (December) and Revolver (August 1966). They continued their insane rise of popularity in 1967 with Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, followed by the Magical Mystery Tour. The White Album was released in 1968, and Yellow Submarine and Abbey Road in 1969. Their final album came out on May 8, 1970, 13 years to the date before Adam was born. The White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be also topped the charts in both the U.S. and the U.K.
The Beatles are the best-selling music act of all time, with estimated sales of 600 million units worldwide. They hold the record for most number-one albums on the UK Albums Chart (15), most number-one hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart (20), and most singles sold in the UK (21.9 million). The band received many accolades, including seven Grammy Awards, four Brit Awards, an Academy Award (for Best Original Song Score for the 1970 documentary film Let It Be) and fifteen Ivor Novello Awards. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1988, and each principal member was inducted individually between 1994 and 2015.
ALBUM BACKGROUND – A HARD DAY’S NIGHT
After playing their first live performance in the United States on the Ed Sullivan show in February 1964 and playing a few other state-side performances, the group went back to England to prepare for making their first major feature film in March, as well as an accompanying album. Everything for the album was laid down by early June.
This is the third studio album by the Fab Four. It was released in July 1964 in the UK, with a different version two weeks prior in the United States with a different track listing that had some of the score from the movie. This is the only album where every song has McCartney & Lennon as the writers (with Lennon being the primary on 9 tracks). It peaked at #1 on both sides of the pond, and has since gone 4x platinum in the US and platinum in the UK.
As with Help!, the first side of the record was the soundtrack to the film of the same name. The second side consists of other songs written for the album.
It was on the tour supporting this album that the Beatles met Bob Dylan, and subsequently introduced to marijuana.
The movie A Hard Day’s Night was directed by Richard Lester. This was the title song to the first of five Beatles movies. It got two Oscar nominations and was a hit with critics and audiences. At the time, a lot of movies were made starring musicians, but most were showcases for the singers and not very good (think Elvis movies). A Hard Day's Night was a surprise because it actually had cinematic value. It even sold well when it was released on DVD many years later.-When the deal was made to make the movie, The Beatles had not yet caught on in America and there were fairly low expectations for the film, as The Beatles were thought of as a fad that would soon pass. By the time filming began, The Beatles were huge and it was clear that a lot of people would see the movie. The studio considered putting more money into the film, but they decided to stick with the original modest budget. In order to save money, it was shot in black and white.
The movie presented The Beatles as four distinct personalities, which changed the way they were marketed. Previously, they were always presented as a unified group, but it became clear that fans loved seeing their differences and began to associate with them individually.
Beatles take stance against racism: During the 1964 US tour, when informed that the venue for their upcoming concert in Jacksonville, the Gator Bow, was segregated, the Beatles said they would refuse to perform unless the audience was integrated. Lennon stated: "We never play to segregated audiences and we aren't going to start now ... I'd sooner lose our appearance money." City officials relented and agreed to allow an integrated show. The group also canceled their reservations at the whites-only Hotel George Washington in Jacksonville. For their subsequent US tours in 1965 and 1966, the Beatles included clauses in contracts stipulating that shows be integrated.