60 Years of Beatlemania: Celebrating the Enduring Legacy of A Hard Day's Night
Packed cinemas, sky-high record sales, and screaming hordes of teenage girls seem to be the collective memories of the peak of mid-sixties Beatlemania. The Beatles’ A Hard Day’s Night and its accompanying feature film, which celebrate their 60th anniversary this year, are an embodiment of the British Invasion of the 1960s. Featuring effortlessly crafted melodies with charming, albeit simplistic, lyrics, this album is packed with abundant charm and has contributed vastly to the band’s impact on modern pop. It seems that this album has always been in the background of my life – whether it be the opening track as a demo on our old Yamaha keyboard or the countless showings of the film on TV, Sunday after Sunday. Having reached number one in the UK and USA upon its release, there is no doubt that this album is truly beloved and deserves to be celebrated.
The opening track of the album has one of the most iconic opening bars of all time. George Harrison’s signature 12-string Rickenbacker punches the album open with its striking dissonance. This track works perfectly as the opening of this iconic album, and you’d be hard pressed to find a single person who doesn’t at least recognise the opening chord by itself. For me, it’s difficult to listen to this song without it conjuring up the imagery from the band’s debut film, also released in 1964. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr playfully escaping swathes of hormone-filled teenage fans in black and white is seared into my mind and only contributes to the nostalgic, romanticised feeling of the album, released just as Beatlemania was nearing its peak. Lennon’s melodic complaints of ‘working like a dog’ eventually die down into Harrison’s arpeggios by the end of the song, smoothly transitioning into the next tracks.
Source: palatinate.org.uk
