There's been a particular jump forward in ballad writing- on 'And I Love Her' in particular, Paul McCartney hits a note of humble, open-hearted sincerity he'd return to again and again.

Formidably prolific at this point, the pair had been creating songs- and hits- for other performers which must have given them useful insight into how to make different styles work.

The album is most famous now for being the first all-original record the band put out- and their only all Lennon-McCartney LP.

Coinciding with their leaving Liverpool and moving to London, this could easily have been their first step on a road of crowd-pleasing predictability: Instead, both film and this soundtrack album are a testament to how fabulous pop can be when you take care over doing it. He knew how to mix music and feelgood filmmaking to commercial effect.Ī Hard Day's Night, in other words, is a crucial inflection point in the Beatles' career. If the film was an enjoyable romp, so much the better- John Lennon asked for A Hard Day's Night director Richard Lester on the basis of a comedy short he'd made (later referenced in the film's famous 'Can't Buy Me Love' sequence), but Lester had also helmed 1962's It's Trad, Dad!, a snapshot of the British pop world just pre-Beatles (Tagline: 'The newest, most frantic fad!'). A film career might extend the fame a little, and smooth the band's inevitable transition to light entertainment.

Beatles tell me why a hard day's night