'A Hard Day's Night' album is criminally underrated
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Whenever Beatles' albums are placed in the Top whatever albums of all-time, its their albums from 'Rubber Soul' onward that get placed in the Top 10 or so. After listening to AHDN album recently, it strikes me as to how good this album really is. The melodies and vocals are off the charts, especially in 1964. I'd say 75% of the songs are "classics". Also, all of the songs are L&M originals. Not sure if any major pop/rock artist had ever released an all-original album at that point (Dylan's 1st few albums had covers). Yet, when you see polls like the most recent Rolling Stone magazine Top 500 albums list, AHDN is ranked 300+ something. Criminal! As for reasons why, maybe: 1). Many consider it a soundtrack & not a real album. 2). In the U.S., it was released with only the first half containing songs. 3). It's a Lenn0n-dominated album, even though Macca's 3 songs are all classics. AHDN needs to get more respect!
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John's masterpiece!!
An amazing album
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Joey, in the U.S. it was released as a soundtrack album by United Artists and the instrumentals were mixed in with the Beatles tunes. Yellow Submarine had Beatles songs on side 1 and all the instrumentals from the movie on side 2. The U.K. version is much better and I agree, underrated. https://redyetirecords.com/products/beatles-a-hard-days-night-used-lp?utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=googlepla&variant=4650553921&gclid=CjwKEAiA2abEBRCdx7PqqunM1CYSJABf3qvabV8Zn1s2lpPSlkyaH-cGXSCfjuMyVoaTnLf5ZiX5ZxoCvrfw_wcB The U.K. version had songs from the movie on side one and other Beatles songs on side 2.
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JoeySmith:
Whenever Beatles' albums are placed in the Top whatever albums of all-time, its their albums from 'Rubber Soul' onward that get placed in the Top 10 or so. After listening to AHDN album recently, it strikes me as to how good this album really is. The melodies and vocals are off the charts, especially in 1964. I'd say 75% of the songs are "classics". Also, all of the songs are L&M originals. Not sure if any major pop/rock artist had ever released an all-original album at that point (Dylan's 1st few albums had covers). Yet, when you see polls like the most recent Rolling Stone magazine Top 500 albums list, AHDN is ranked 300+ something. Criminal! As for reasons why, maybe: 1). Many consider it a soundtrack & not a real album. 2). In the U.S., it was released with only the first half containing songs. 3). It's a Lenn0n-dominated album, even though Macca's 3 songs are all classics. AHDN needs to get more respect!
It is hard for me to think any Beatle album is underrated. It is more like some are just not as good as others. As for RS, several Beatle albums are in the top 20 and I believe Sgt Pepper was #1 so I would not get too upset about "Hard Day's Night" ranking.
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JoeySmith:
2). In the U.S., it was released with only the first half containing songs.
That right there. The American version isn't so great.
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JoeySmith:
Whenever Beatles' albums are placed in the Top whatever albums of all-time, its their albums from 'Rubber Soul' onward that get placed in the Top 10 or so. After listening to AHDN album recently, it strikes me as to how good this album really is. The melodies and vocals are off the charts, especially in 1964. I'd say 75% of the songs are "classics". Also, all of the songs are L&M originals. Not sure if any major pop/rock artist had ever released an all-original album at that point (Dylan's 1st few albums had covers). Yet, when you see polls like the most recent Rolling Stone magazine Top 500 albums list, AHDN is ranked 300+ something. Criminal! As for reasons why, maybe: 1). Many consider it a soundtrack & not a real album. 2). In the U.S., it was released with only the first half containing songs. 3). It's a Lenn0n-dominated album, even though Macca's 3 songs are all classics. AHDN needs to get more respect!
Re: 'A Hard Day's Night' album is criminally underrated It was underrated by a criminal
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Yeah AHDN is great, it's my 3rd favoruite album after Revolver & Abbey Road. I love I should have known better, John's vocals are amazing on it.
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I totally agree it's underrated. It plays like a Greatest Hits album. It's also the only album where every song credited to Lennon & McCartney. I love it.
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I actually like side 2 better. Any time at all, Things we said today, and I'll be back are years ahead of what other groups were doing in 1964.
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I can't imagine any version of AHDN not being fab. Would like to own it again. I loved that movie, too. It's in the top level of the classics.
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It's not underrated according to allmusic which is an excellent resource. Besides do we really care what others think? http://www.allmusic.com/album/a-hard-days-night-mw0001948685