The Beatles to celebrate ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ 60th anniversary with reissue
On National Album Day on October 19th, The Beatles are set to reissue their third album, A Hard Day’s Night, to celebrate its 60th anniversary.
National Album Day was founded in 2018, and each year, a series of classic records are re-released for the occasion. This year, the theme for the collection of albums centres around Great British Bands which makes The Beatles a perfect fit for the occasion.
Other albums involved in National Album Day include Suede’s Dog Man Star, Shotters Nation by Babyshambles, The Man Who by Travis, Dire Straits’ Making Movies and The Rolling Stones’ Get Yer Ya-Ya’s Out!
Artists that have previously supported the campaign include Kylie Minogue, Joy Crookes, Sharleen Spiteri, Lewis Capaldi, Mark Ronson, La Roux, Elbow, Paloma Faith, Blossoms, Alice Cooper, Novelist, Tom Odell, Mahalia, Toyah Willcox and Jazzie B. Last year Gabrielle, Declan McKenna, Tricky, Nuno Bettencourt, Shola Ama and The Corrs.
However, none of those names have impacted British music like The Beatles. Released in 1964, A Hard Day’s Night showcased the evolution of the Fab Four, and featured a string of classic tracks such as the titular effort, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, ‘And I Love Her’, and ‘I’ll Be Back’. For National Album Day, the LP will be available on 180g white vinyl for the first time.
Notably, A Hard Day’s Night was the first album released by The Beatles when they were undeniably the biggest band in the world, and it came with a series of expectations that they rose to with aplomb on the record. It solidified their status at the top of the musical hierarchy, and helped Beatlemania reach unfathomable heights.
What did The Beatles think about A Hard Day’s Night?
The Beatles had evolved from relying on a series of R&B covers like on Please Please Me and With The Beatles, and significantly, A Hard Day’s Night represented the first time that all of the material was penned by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Nevertheless, they were yet to reach the apex of their songwriting capabilities. It wasn’t until 1965’s Rubber Soul that they began to implement a storytelling approach to their lyricism, and musically, they were still yet to embrace experimentalism, like they did on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
Lennon reflected to Playboy’s David Sheff in 1980: “We were different. We were older. We knew each other on all kinds of levels that we didn’t when we were teenagers. The early stuff – the Hard Day’s Night period, I call it – was the sexual equivalent of the beginning hysteria of a relationship. And the Sgt Pepper–Abbey Road period was the mature part of the relationship.”
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