Best Song on The Beatles’ ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ Poll

Love this album so much. Hard to pick between "And I Love Her" and "I'll Be Back."

Definitely the strongest pre-Rubber Soul album, IMO.

 

And I Love Her. A 20 something yr old, has no business writing a song this good. George Harrison's solo, made him a guitar god for me.

 

"A Hard Day's Night"

Honorable Mention:
"I Should Have Known Better"
"If I Fell"

 

*
You Can’t Do That

 

Track ranking

1. And I Love Her: The best of the early ballads easily. George's playing on here is awesome and is the stand-out of the song, and the song itself has quite a dark mood to it which is odd for an early track. 10/10.

2. You Can't Do That: It rocks hard, it's got a great solo and it's stand-out track on the very lacklustre (for The Beatles) second side. They also played it really well live. 10/10.

3. A Hard Day's Night: Quintessential pop rock. The formula was perfected on this album with these two tracks. 10/10.

4. Can't Buy Me Love: More quintessential pop rock showing the big change in sound from their previous albums in even the more rocky (not folky) rock tracks. It's not as good as A Hard Day's Night and I find it a bit dull nowadays, but to deny the quality of the melody would be ludicrous and I think this song is a product of having been listened to too much by me so... 9.5/10.

5. I Should Have Known Better: Great melody, great vocals, great bridge. Folk rock gold. 9/10.

6. I'll Be Back: It's quite similar to I Fell Fine in terms of the vocals in that there's pretty simple harmonies for the harmonies and then John goes alone, but the melody's way better than I Fell Fine. 8.5/10.

7. I'm Happy Just To Dance With You: It's not all that memorable (besides the scene in the movie) as a song and that's why it so frequently gets ignored or overlooked, but it is some very nice folk rock. 8.5/10.

8. Things We Said Today: Quite a melancholic song, got a little bit of atmosphere. Again uncharacteristic for their early tracks (not as though that's a bad thing) but not anywhere near to the point of And I Love Her. It's a lot more subtle. Anyway, great song. 8.5/10.

9. Tell Me Why: There's a few twin tracks on the album - songs that sound fairly similar, and along with IHJTDWY this is one of them. It's more fairly unmemorable folk rock, but it is still a really good song... 8/10.

10. If I Fell: Too simple melodically and the harmonies are too simple a lot of the time (although there are some beautiful moments). When John goes off by himself it's much more impressive. 7/10.

11. I'll Cry Instead: Folk is my least favourite genre and so I can't say I'm the biggest fan of this song. Nevertheless, it's catchy as hell just like everything on the album. 7/10.

12. When I Get Home: Folk rock stuff the album is known for. It's good, but it's very unexceptional for The Beatles. Exceptional performance by John though. You can hear him straining. 6/10.

13. Any Time At All: These last three songs are why the second side of AHDN is so dull compared to every other Beatles album second side (besides perhaps Help!) and this is the worst offender. The Beatles were never as bad as mediocre to my ears, even at their worst, but this does come fairly close. 6/10.

 

I agree almost completely, exact in the reverse order

 

'You Can't Do That'

 

"You Know What To Do"

 

My ranking::

I'll be Back
A Hard Day's Night
If I Fell
And I love Her
I should have known Better
Things we said Today
You can't do That
When I get Home
Any tine at All
Can't buy me Love
Tell me Why
I'll cry Instead
I'm happy just to dance with You.

 

I have to mention again after listening in the car: HDN side two is the business!

Side two
No. Title Lead vocals Length
1. "Any Time at All" Lennon 2:11
2. "I'll Cry Instead" Lennon 1:45
3. "Things We Said Today" McCartney 2:35
4. "When I Get Home" Lennon 2:17
5. "You Can't Do That" Lennon 2:35
6. "I'll Be Back" Lennon and McCartney 2:24

No Ringo! No George! No Problem!

 

Only 3 of those 6 compare to any of the songs on the first side imo.

 

I do love Hard Days Night, Can’t Buy Me Love and And I Love Her, but they now have lost their shine from overplaying as they’re on pretty much very single compilation. So the other tracks and side 2 always feel like a nice change

 

True! The second side is a lot more fresh to me than the first, especially those songs, so I appreciate it for that.

 

The title track.

I have come to appreciate this album a LOT more over the past 12 years. I always liked it best among the first five, but now it rivals RUBBER SOUL and ABBEY ROAD in my estimation.

JcS

 

From the opening chord of this album to the last chord of Sgt Pepper, amazing ride

 

My faves are tied: "If I Fell" and "The Things We Said Today." When I was in Navy boot camp, my Service Week work party and I sang these two songs to pass the time.

 

I just got an Odeon red original of this album which basically re-introduced me to the record. It's just a fantastic pop album. I'd forgotten how good it is. I voted for "Things" but could've easily picked "I'll be Back" or "If I fell". Couldn't really find a good forum thread reviewing the sound quality of these original red Odeons, but this one sounds pretty good to me. I guess I need a UK 70's reissue to compare it to.