Beatles - A Hard Day's Night
United Artists, an American film company, produced A Hard Day's Night. The movie was released in Britain July 6, 1964, and it marked the Beatles' acting and film debut. Shot between March 2 and April 24, the movie follows the Beatles through a day of Beatlemania and ends with a live television performance.
After having conquered America, the Beatles settled down to record the songs they'd written mostly under seige conditions in New York and Paris, intended as the soundtrack for their movie debut. A Hard Day's Night was their first album to include only material written by the group, with Lennon in a prolific phase generating the bulk of the songs. Released on July 10, 1964, it moved 1.5 million copies in nine days to become the fastest-selling album in U.K. history. It reached No. 1 on July 30 in the U.S. and U.K. simultaneously, racking up an impressive 21 weeks on top on their home turf.
Paul McCartney: John would be knocking off "I Should Have Known Better" on his own, and I'd also be doing the same. We finished it all pretty quickly and soon had more than enough songs. It wasn't like we were writing a soundtrack, we were just writing Beatle songs that happened to be a soundtrack.
The film's working title was Beatlemania #1. As the story goes, the eventual title was a result of one of Ringo’s often peculiar expressions ... After a particularly difficult day, he said, "It's been a hard day..." and realizing it was already nighttime, added, "...'s night." Producer Walter Shenson asked John and Paul to write a song titled A Hard Day's Night to play over the opening sequence, which had already been filmed.
The LP included all the songs from the film on side one and new Beatle songs on side two.
1964
Side 1
1. A Hard Day's Night
2. I Should Have Known Better
3. If I Fell
4. I'm Happy Just To Dance with You
5. And I Love Her
6. Tell Me Why
7. Can't Buy Me Love
Side 2
1. Any Time At All
2. I'll Cry Instead
3. Things We Said Today
4. When I Get Home
5. You Can't Do That
6. I’ll Be Back