A HARD DAY'S NIGHT

This is the first significant Beatles album. After the 1963 LPs Please Please Me and With the Beatles, the Beatles and producer George Martin took their time with A Hard Day's Night, which acted as a soundtrack to the group's first movie. While only the first seven songs were featured in the film, all thirteen were new Lennon-McCartney originals written during the production of the album - - quite a difference from the two prior albums on which more than 40% of songs were covers.

As had been the case on With the Beatles, John Lennon is the star here. A Hard Day's Night includes nine Lennon originals, including five strong numbers: "A Hard Day's Night," "I Should Have Known Better," "If I Fell," "You Can't Do That," and "I'll Be Back." McCartney's exuberant "Can't Buy Me Love" is another highlight, and his relatively somber "And I Love Her" and "Things We Said Today" suggest a growing sophistication. (While all of the songs on A Hard Day's Night are credited to Lennon-McCartney, at least three included meaningful input from both, including "A Hard Day's Night" and "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You," the latter sung by George Harrison.)

While the UK version is now considered canon, the version of A Hard Day's Night that I grew up with was my mother's United Artists version, the one with the red cover. It's missing "Any Time at All," Things We Said Today," "When I Get Home" (all released in the US on Something New later in July), "You Can't Do That" (released in April on The Beatles' Second Album), and "I'll Be Back" (released in December on Beatles '65). In their place were orchestral, instrumental recordings of "I Should Have Known Better," "And I Love Her," "A Hard Day's Night," and "This Boy," the vocal version of the last of which did not appear on any version of the A Hard Day's Night album. Confusing. The four instrumentals were conducted by George Martin and, as far as I know, don't feature the Beatles at all. Of course, collectors and serious Beatles fans will want these recordings, but they're really nothing special. So the UK version - - the one with the blue cover - - is where it's at.

A Hard Day's Night finds the Beatles taking a major step forward. Even if A Hard Day's Night doesn't contain any all-time classics, its average song is considerably better than the average song on either of their first two LPs.