The Story Behind 'A Hard Day's Night'

A Hard Day's Night is a 1964 British comedy film written by Alun Owen starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—during the height of Beatlemania. It was directed by Richard Lester and originally released by United Artists. The film was made in the style of a mock documentary, describing a couple of days in the lives of the group.

The film premiered at The Pavilion Theatre in London on 6 July 1964—the eve of Ringo Starr's 24th birthday—and its soundtrack of the same name was released four days later. It was The Beatles' first soundtrack album. Reviews of the film were mostly positive; one oft-quoted assessment was provided by Village Voice, which labelled A Hard Day’s Night "the Citizen Kane of jukebox musical." Time magazine called the film "One of the smoothest, freshest, funniest films ever made for purposes of exploitation."Film critic Roger Ebert described the film as "one of the great life-affirming landmarks of the movies". In 2004, Total Film magazine named A Hard Day's Night the 42nd greatest British film of all time. In 2005, Time.com named it one of the 100 best films of the last 80 years. Leslie Halliwell gave the film his highest rating, four stars, the only British film of 1964 to achieve that accolade. It has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 71 sources, and it was placed in #1 position on its list of Best Reviewed Movies of All Time.

 

New York Times film critic Bosley Crowther noted the film was a subtle satire on the image of rock-and-roll music (and the Beatles in particular) as a source of youth rebellion and defiance of authority. The Beatles are portrayed as likable young lads who are constantly amazed at the attention they receive and who want nothing more than a little peace and quiet; however, they have to deal with screaming crowds, journalists who ask nonsensical questions, and authority figures who constantly look down upon them. In fact their biggest problem is McCartney's elderly, but "clean" grandfather, played by Wilfrid Brambell.
A Hard Day's Night was nominated for two Academy Awards; for Best Screenplay (Alun Owen), and Best Score (Adaptation) (George Martin).

Hamburg, Beatles First Destination

Before the end of August in 1961 they auditioned and hired drummer Pete Best and the five-piece band left for Hamburg four days later, contracted to fairground showman Bruno Koschmider for a 48-night residency. "Hamburg in those days did not have rock'n'roll music clubs. It had strip clubs", says biographer Philip Norman.

Bruno had the idea of bringing in rock groups to play in various clubs. They had this formula. It was a huge nonstop show, hour after hour, with a lot of people lurching in and the other lot lurching out. And the bands would play all the time to catch the passing traffic. In an American red-light district, they would call it nonstop striptease.

Many of the bands that played in Hamburg were from Liverpool...It was an accident. Bruno went to London to look for bands. But he happened to meet a Liverpool entrepreneur in Soho, who was down in London by pure chance. And he arranged to send some bands over.

Harrison, only seventeen in August 1960, obtained permission to stay in Hamburg by lying to the German authorities about his age. Initially placing The Beatles at the Indra Club, Koschmider moved them to the Kaiserkeller in October after the Indra was closed down due to noise complaints. When they violated their contract by performing at the rival Top Ten Club, Koschmider reported the underage Harrison to the authorities, leading to his deportation in November. McCartney and Best were arrested for arson a week later when they set fire to a condom hung on a nail in their room; they too were deported. Lennon returned to Liverpool in mid-December, while Sutcliffe remained in Hamburg with his new German fiancée, Astrid Kirchherr, for another month. Kirchherr took the first professional photos of the group and cut Sutcliffe's hair in the German "exi" (existentialist) style of the time, a look later adopted by the other Beatles.

During the next two years, the group were resident for further periods in Hamburg. They used Preludin both recreationally and to maintain their energy through all-night performances. Sutcliffe decided to leave the band in early 1961 and resume his art studies in Germany, so McCartney took up bass. German producer Bert Kaempfert contracted what was now a four-piece to act as Tony Sheridan's backing band on a series of recordings. Credited to "Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers", the single "My Bonnie", recorded in June and released four months later, reached number 32 in the Musicmarkt chart. The Beatles were also becoming more popular back home in Liverpool. During one of the band's frequent appearances there at The Cavern Club, they encountered Brian Epstein, a local record store owner and music columnist. When the band appointed Epstein manager in January 1962, Kaempfert agreed to release them from the German record contract. After Decca Records rejected the band with the comment "Guitar groups are on the way out, Mr. Epstein", producer George Martin signed the group to EMI's Parlophone label. News of a tragedy greeted them on their return to Hamburg in April. Meeting them at the airport, a stricken Kirchherr told them of Sutcliffe's death from a brain haemorrhage

Their First Step

It began when a 16 years old boy who could sing and play guitar formed the skiffle group with some liverpool schoolfriends in March 1957. The boy is John Lennon and he named that group The Quarrymen. Another 15 years old boy joined the team as a guitarist in July. We recognized this boy as Paul McCartney. In February 1958 a 14 years old boy named George Harrison also joined the group as lead guitarist. By 1960, Lennon's schoolfriends had left the group.

Lennon's fellow student name Stuart Sutcliffe joining on bass in January and he suggested changing the band name to 'The Beetles' as a tribute to Buddy Holly and The Crickets. The band became 'The Beatals' for the first few months of the year. After trying several names like 'Johnny and The Moondogs', Long John and The Beetles' and also 'The Silver Beatles', the band finally became 'The Beatles' in August.

The Quarrymen, Origin of The Beatles

The Quarrymen are an English skiffle band, initially formed in Liverpool in 1957, some of whose early members founded The Beatles, the most commercially successful critically acclaimed rock band in world history. Originally consisting and of John Lennon and several schoolfriends, The Quarrymen took their name from Quarry Bank High School which Lennon and other band members attended. Lennon's mother, Julia Lennon, taught Lennon and Eric Griffiths how to tune their guitars the same way as a banjo, and taught them simple chords and songs.

After starting a band called The Blackjacks, and then finding out that another group had the same name, Pete Shotton suggested naming themselves The Quarrymen, after a line in the Quarry Bank school's song. The Quarrymen played at parties, school dances, a cinema, and amateur skiffle contests before Paul McCartney joined the band. George Harrison only joined the band at McCartney's insistence, as Lennon thought Harrison to be far too young.

Their first recording on disc was "That'll Be The Day" (by Buddy Holly) and "In Spite Of All The Danger" (by McCartney and Harrison). After Stuart Sutcliffe joined, he suggested renaming them The Beetles, but they changed the name to The Silver Beetles, before finally changing it to The Beatles in 1960.

based from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quarrymen