A Hard Day’s Night is next in my series on who contributed more to each Beatles album, John Lennon or Paul McCartney. Lennon is up 2-0 so far (winning the Please Please Me & With The Beatles showdowns.)

A Hard Day’s Night (1964)

Their first two albums showed promise and A Hard Day’s Night was the the album that really made good on that promise. It’s an excellent pop rock album that has impressively little “filler” for 1964. It’s most notable because every song on the album was a Lennon/McCartney original. Each of their first two albums had 6 covers each, but they didn’t have to pad this one with any covers.

And while it was only the beginning of The Beatles doing albums with no covers, it actually ended up being the only Beatles album with nothing but Lennon/McCartney songs because from Help! on George Harrison was contributing songs to each album. From Rubber Soul on the band no longer included any covers on their albums (save for the short cover of the traditional song “Maggie Mae” on Let It Be.)

1. “A Hard Day’s Night” - John

The opening (and title) track was written primarily by John and I’m sure you’re quite familiar with it. I could write a chapter on the opening chord but I think some folks have already done that. John said in an interview that the reason Paul sings the bridge is not because Paul wrote that bit, but because John couldn’t reach the high notes.

2. “I Should Have Known Better” - John

Written by John on his own. I’ve never been much of a fan of this song but it has some charms. Factoid: It was the last Beatles song to feature a harmonica intro.

3. “If I Fell” - John

One of The Beatles best ballads. I think it’s a real sign that The Beatles music was beginning to get more sophisticated. A sign that they weren’t happy just doing the same thign over and over again, they were always pushing themselves to do something new and better. Factoid: Apparently “If I Fell” was Kurt Cobain’s favorite Beatles song and he would often play it when Nirvana would have technical difficulties at their shows.

4. “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You” - John

Written primarily by John specifically for George to sing. Again this isn’t one of my favorites, but even these lesser “formula songs” (as Paul described it) have their charms for me.

5. “And I Love Her” - Paul

John wrote a lot more songs than Paul did for this album but the few songs Paul did contribute were all outstanding. This is another one of The Beatles best ballads. There was some disagreement between Paul & John over whether John contributed to this tune. John says he helped with the bridge but Paul claims that he wrote it all on his own.

6. “Tell Me Why” - John

John said it resembled a “black New York girl group song.” I’ve always thought it was a bit of a “Beatles by the numbers” pop song, but it’s good if you accept it as just that.

7. “Can’t Buy Me Love” - Paul

One of The Beatles most classic early hits. Again, Paul didn’t write a whole lot of songs for this album, but the songs he wrote were all winners. On the other hand John was very productive at this time cranking out songs, but a lot of them weren’t particularly notable.

8. “Any Time at All” - John

Paul came up with the chords for the instrumental bridge, the rest of the song was John’s. Apparently the bridge wasn’t necessarily going to be an instrumental section, they just never came up with a vocal part for it. I think it works well as a little solo anyway.

9. “I’ll Cry Instead” - John

For some reason this one has always been one of my favorites on the album. It’s catchy and I’ve always dug the lyrics.

10. “Things We Said Today” - Paul

This is one my favorite underrated Beatles songs. The acoustic guitar is great (the fierce strums that start the song and come back in at later moments.) The melody is instantly memorable. The lyrics are quite good for an early song. Another thing I really love is how the music changes on the word “enough.”

11. “When I Get Home” - John

Definitely my least favorite song on the album, and actually one of my least favorite Beatles originals. It just sound sloppy to my ears. And not a good sloppy. Usually I can find something redeeming in a Beatles song, but there’s nothing much positive I can find about “When I Get Home” although the bridge is a bit better than the rest of it (except for that “cows come home” line.)

12. “You Can’t Do That” - John

I dig this one. And how about that cow bell? Factoid: John wrote and played the lead guitar break.

13. “I’ll Be Back” - John

Great closer. It has a nice dark mood, it fits in nicely after “You Can’t Do That.” Factoid: On the version of this included on The Beatles Anthology 1 you can hear that they tried this in 6/8 before settling on 4/4 time.

VERDICT: John

John wrote 10 of the 13 songs so I think he has to win this battle but while John was a bit hit & miss with his 10 songs, Paul was right on target with each of his three. If I were judging by average song quality, Paul would definitely win. But by that standard George contributed the most to Abbey Road, and I think that’s bull - you do have to consider quantity. And most of the 10 songs John wrote were good. I could really do without “When I Get Home” though. The album would be better with 12 tracks.

Buy The Remastered A Hard Day’s Night CD

The Beatles Stereo & Mono Box Sets

A Hard Day’s Night is included in both the Stereo Box Set & the Mono Box Set. Both can be ordered online at The Beatles Amazon.com Store.

1964, John Lennon, Most Valuable Beatle, Paul McCartney, The Beatles

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