"A Hard Day's Night" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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US picture sleeve
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Single by The Beatles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
from the album A Hard Day's Night | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
B-side | "Things We Said Today" (UK) "I Should Have Known Better" (US) |
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Released | 10 July 1964 (UK) 13 July 1964 (US) |
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Format | 7" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Recorded | 16 April 1964, EMI Studios, London |
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Genre | Rock | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Length | 2:32 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Label |
Parlophone (UK) Capitol (US) |
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Writer(s) | Lennon–McCartney | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Producer(s) | George Martin | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Beatles UK singles chronology | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"A Hard Day's Night" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Written by John Lennon, and credited to Lennon–McCartney, it was released on the film soundtrack of the same name in 1964. It was later released in the UK as a single, with "Things We Said Today" as its B-side.
The song featured prominently on the soundtrack to the Beatles' first feature film, A Hard Day's Night, and was on their album of the same name. The song topped the charts in both the United Kingdom and United States when it was released as a single. The American and British singles of "A Hard Day's Night" as well as both the American and British albums of the same title all held the top position in their respective charts for a couple of weeks in August 1964, the first time any artist had accomplished this feat.
The song's title originated from something said by Ringo Starr, the Beatles' drummer. Starr described it this way in an interview with disc jockey Dave Hull in 1964: "We went to do a job, and we'd worked all day and we happened to work all night. I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, 'It's been a hard day …' and I looked around and saw it was dark so I said, '… night!' So we came to 'A Hard Day's Night.'"
Starr's statement was the inspiration for the title of the film, which in turn inspired the composition of the song. According to Lennon in a 1980 interview with Playboy magazine: "I was going home in the car and Dick Lester [director of the movie] suggested the title, 'Hard Day's Night' from something Ringo had said. I had used it in In His Own Write [a book Lennon was writing then], but it was an off-the-cuff remark by Ringo. You know, one of those malapropisms. A Ringo-ism, where he said it not to be funny … just said it. So Dick Lester said, 'We are going to use that title.'"