55 Years Ago: Beatles Begin Experimenting on 'A Hard Day's Night'
On their first couple of albums, the Beatles fleshed out the track listings with covers drawn from their pre-fame club shows, when they were required to play everything from Little Richard to show tunes.
But for their third LP, A Hard Day's Night, which was released on July 10, 1964, the songwriting team of John Lennon and Paul McCartney would be responsible for all 14 of its songs for the first time.
Because George Harrison, who made his entry into the songwriting world on With the Beatles' "Don't Bother Me," would soon become more prolific, A Hard Day's Night is the only Beatles album to consist solely of Lennon-McCartney originals. More importantly, it showcased precisely how quickly they were growing as composers.
They had already shown signs, with the chord progressions heard on With the Beatles (especially on "All My Loving" and the coda to "It Won't Be Long") becoming more sophisticated, but they still relied too often on simple pop and R&B ideas (see "Little Child" and "Not a Second Time").
Source: ultimateclassicrock.com
