Many people think of The Beatles classic film when they hear "A Hard Day's Night" but the soundtrack album by the same name was a huge step forward for the band's songwriting. Their first two albums included only 8 original songs each (along with 6 covers) and quite a few of those originals were not particularly good. A Hard Day's Night was all originals (no covers) and for the most part these songs were a huge improvement over their previous originals.

From the first distinctive chord of "A Hard Day's Night" the album has it's own special feeling. High energy & classic songwriting. This album is filled with brilliant singles like the aforementioned title track that leads off the album & "Can't Buy Me Love" along with gorgeous ballads like "If I Fell" & "And I Love Her."

Sure there are a couple of not so great songs on the album. Particularly I have never been a fan of "When I Get Home" which just sounds like a throwaway to me. I'm not a huge fan of "I Should Have Known Better" and "I'm Happy Just to Dance With You" either but they both have their charms.

One of my very favorite songs on the album is "Things We Said Today" which just has this perfect unique vibe to it. Great acoustic strumming with an irresistible McCartney melody. Perhaps my favorite part of the song is when it goes back into verse on the word "enough." It's largely because of those smart little bits of songwriting that their songs still sound so fresh even 40 years later.

"I'll Cry Instead" is another one of my favorites. It has sort of a faux country sound to it and I don't normally get into The Beatles faux country songs. But this one and "I've Just Seen a Face" (from Help!) are two notable exceptions. I just love Lennon's singing on this one. It's a great catchy melody and while the lyrics are kind of silly, they somehow just work.

The album ends with strongly with "You Can't Do That" & "I'll Be Back." Both are songs that I didn't get into much at first for some reason but that I appreciate quite a bit now.

If you are mostly a fan of the later Beatles music, it can sometimes be hard to get into their earlier work. But if you have an open mind and understand the context of the times, I think you can appreciate the brilliant tunes included on A Hard Day's Night.

One bit of trivia that you may find interesting is that A Hard Day's Night is the only Beatles album that includes only Lennon/McCartney originals. Why is that? Well, it's because it's their only early album that doesn't include any covers. While many of their later albums are all originals as well, by then George Harrison was contributing at least one song for each album. For example every song on Sgt. Pepper is a Lennon/McCartney original except for Harrison's "Within You Without You."

There's no doubt that The Beatles took a huge step forward artistically in 1964 with A Hard Day's Night. Of course we now know that it was only the beginning of many huge steps forward The Beatles would take throughout the 1960s.