A Hard Day’s Night is the first movie starring the Beatles. It was filmed and released in 1964. Here are a few trivia questions related to the film. The answers are below the last question.
(1) How many times is the name “Beatles” mentioned in A Hard Day’s Night?
(2) The movie has a character of a grandfather to which Beatle?
(3) Name the Beatle and his future wife that met on the set of A Hard Day’s Night.
(4) What is the only word that Pattie Boyd says in the film?
(5) The movie’s title originated from something said by which Beatle?
(6) What 13 year old child actor, who would later become a famous drummer/vocalist, was an extra in A Hard Day’s Night?
(7) Besides A Hard Day’s Night, what other Beatles’ films did actor Victor Spinetti appear in?
(8) What did Ringo reply when asked if he’s a Mod or a Rocker?
(9) Who directed A Hard Day’s Night?
(10) In the scene where The Beatles are running and playing in the field, a body double filled in for which Beatle who wasn’t actually there?
Answers:
(1) Zero – No one says the word “Beatles”
(2) Paul. Wilfrid Brambell played Paul’s fictional grandfather John McCartney
(3) George Harrison and Pattie Boyd
(4) “Prisoners?”
(5) Ringo. As he explained in an interview with DJ Dave Hull in 1964: “We went to do a job, and we’d worked all day and we happened to work all night. I came up still thinking it was day I suppose, and I said, ‘It’s been a hard day…’ and I looked around and saw it was dark so I said, ‘…night!’ So we came to A Hard Day’s Night.”
(6) Phil Collins. Phil is wearing glasses and can be seen in the audience at the television theater. On a side note, in 1970, at age 19, Collins played percussion on the George Harrison song “The Art of Dying”.
(7) Help! and Magical Mystery Tour
(8) “I’m a mocker”
(9) Richard Lester
(10) John, who was away promoting his book “John Lennon: In His Own Write.” Some close-up shots of him were later edited into the scene.
Billy Preston played the organ on the song “Let It Be” and the Fender Rhodes electric piano on “Get Back” and “Don’t Let Me Down” during the recording of the Let It Be album and film (earlier called Get Back). George Harrison brought Preston in to temporarily ease some of the tension in the studio during the tumultuous sessions. Also, the Beatles intended to record the tracks “live”, with no overdubbing, so it helped to have a fifth musician playing keyboards. At one point during the sessions, John Lennon suggested that Billy could join the band as the “Fifth Beatle”, but Paul McCartney nixed the idea saying that it was bad enough with four.
The “Get Back”/”Don’t Let Me Down” single was credited to “The Beatles with Billy Preston”. This was the only time an outsider was given this type of credit on an official Beatles-sanctioned release. Tony Sheridan had shared credit on some Hamburg-era recordings, but these were unsanctioned reissues on which the Beatles were primarily the backing group.
Preston also played Hammond organ on the tracks “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and “Something” that appeared on the Abbey Road album.
The Beatles first met Billy Preston in 1962 when he was part of Little Richard’s touring band. Manager Brian Epstein had organized a Liverpool show in which the Beatles opened for.
A Hard Day’s Night is the only Beatles album where all of the songs were written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. It is also the first Beatles album to contain only original compositions, and no cover songs. A Hard Day’s Night was released on July 10, 1964, as the soundtrack to the Beatles’ film of the same name.
Most of the band’s earlier albums contain at least a few covers, and most of their albums have at least one George Harrison composition, but A Hard Day’s Night had neither. Harrison does get to sing lead vocals on the Lennon/McCartney penned “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You”.
A Hard Day’s Night is one of three Beatles albums that do not feature Ringo Starr on vocals on at least one track (Magical Mystery Tour and Let It Be are the others). But Starr is credited with the accidental creation of the movie/album’s title. During an interview with Playboy magazine in 1980, John Lennon said: “I was going home in the car and Dick Lester [director of the movie] suggested the title, ‘Hard Day’s Night’ from something Ringo had said. I had used it in ‘In His Own Write’, but it was an off-the-cuff remark by Ringo. You know, one of those malapropisms. A Ringo-ism, where he said it not to be funny… just said it. So Dick Lester said, ‘We are going to use that title.’”
Ringo Starr and actress Barbara Bach first met on the set of the film Caveman in February 1980. They married just over a year later on April 27, 1981, shortly after the film’s release.
Ringo and Barbara were dating and spending a holiday together in December 1980, when the news broke about the murder of John Lennon. The couple flew to New York to comfort John’s widow, Yoko, and the Lennon’s son Sean.
Over the years, Bach has appeared in some of Starr’s music videos, and has accompanied him on his tours. She also appears with Ringo in Paul McCartney’s 1984 film Give My Regards to Broad Street.
Just before her 18th birthday, Barbara was in attendance at the famous Beatles’ August 1965 concert at Shea Stadium in New York. Not really a Beatles fan, she was only there as a chaperone to her younger sister Marjorie, as Barbara preferred the music of Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, and Bob Dylan. Coincidentally, another future Beatle wife, Linda Eastman, was also at the Shea Stadium concert.
Eight Arms to Hold You was one of the working titles for the Beatles’ 1965 film, Help!. It was suggested by film producer Walter Shenson. Copies of the single “Ticket To Ride/Yes It Is” and early copies of the US-released 45 single “Help!/I’m Down” are actually printed with Eight Arms to Hold You as the movie title instead of Help!.
Another working title of the Beatles’ second film was Beatles Phase II.
