Saturday, December 14, 2019

#52 - A Hard Day's Night: The Beatles (1964)


The Beatles? Again? And with Robert Freeman to boot? It’s like a broken … um … what is it now? Oh yeah, record!

In this one, Freeman wanted to play off the film (of the same name) by taking multiple shots of each of the lads and making them look a little like the frames of a movie.

This look was for the Brit release only. It looked rather different in the US.


And that blue and red theme means it’s probably a good time to share the Beatles’ two greatest hits albums. 



I just love that juxtaposition. The original was done by Angus McBean. Not sure if he did that second one. These two are known as the red & blue albums (to go with the white album, I guess).


Interestingly, Freeman gets credit for only one solo Beatle album


A Hard Day’s Night was actually a movie before it was an album. Shot in black and white, the movie was a day-in-the-life look at the band. 


It also involved quite a bit of gamboling about

It was directed by Richard Lester, who also directed Help, Lennon’s How I Won the War, a couple of Superman flicks, and a bunch of pretty forgettable stuff. 


A Hard Day’s Night, though, is actually pretty good (and still fresh today), and was also surprisingly influential.

The album was half hits from the movie and half new stuff. Hits include the title song and “Can’t Buy Me Love.”

Not too surprising, but there are plenty of parodies/homages for this one.





That last one’s my particular fave.




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1 comment:

  1. Nice tribute. Regarding those greatest hits albums, am currently reading SOLID STATE: The Story of "Abbey Road" and the End of the Beatles, and there's a section in it that talks about the second photo. I do believe Angus was called back to re-take that "Lads" photo, and interestingly enough, was done in 1969. In follow-up to the problematic "Get Back" project (later known as the LET IT BE movie/LP), but seemingly re-purposed for the red and blue albums, post-breakup.

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