Early in 1964 John Lennon published his first book titled In His Own Write. The title itself is a play on words and there are many, many other funny usages of words and phrases throughout the book, as well as some hilarious illustrations, all made by John. This is an excerpt from one of the funny little stories in the book, called Sad Michael:

There was no reason for Michael to be sad that morning, (the little wretch); everyone liked him, (the scab). He’d had a hard day’s night that day, for Michael was a Cocky Watchtower.

Although John used the phrase a hard day’s night here, it was a re-occurrence of this phrase, made by Ringo, that inspired the title of The Beatles first movie. In a 1964 interview by Dave Hull, Ringo explained that he came out from working and said it’s been a hard day…then looked around noticing it was already late and said…night. So A Hard Day’s Night was originally a malapropism spoken by Ringo.

John immediately wrote the title song and came into Abbey Road studio on April 16, 1964 with the lyrics printed on the back of his son Julian’s birthday card (he had turned one year old earlier that month) and they laid down nine takes, with the last being used to create the master. Paul was given the bridge to sing because John had a hard time reaching the notes. The full account of take 1 was included on The Beatles Anthology 1 CD set. Featured here is take 2 (a false start) and the complete run through of take 3. Opening up with that unique and now immediately recognizable opening chord, this song’s worldwide success showed a lot of American skeptics that The Beatles were not going to be a one-hit wonder in the United States.

A Hard Day's Night promo ad for film, 1964

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