John Lennon believed one Beatles song showed he was 'dominating the group'

The Beatles run from the police in a still from their movie 'A Hard Day's Night' which was released in 1964
-Credit:Getty Images


Sir Paul McCartney and John Lennon's songwriting was the creative driving force behind The Beatles' success. Under the joint credit Lennon-McCartney, the two penned the vast majority of the band's tracks and boast a collection of hits that other musicians can only dream of.

Irrespective of whether their Beatles songs were the result of a collaborative process or written independently by John and Paul, they received the joint credit. Their process changed over time, with many tracks in the early years written by John and Paul as they sat together, but as the 1960s went on and artistic differences emerged, they tended to write by themselves before presenting the track to the other.

It seems there was always some competition between Sir Paul and John about their compositions, leading John to be quite dismissive about his writing partner at times. The ECHO has recently looked at his disdain for 'Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' - which was Sir Paul's brainchild, how he laughed at the track 'Let it Be' and his outright hatred for 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da'

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In a 1980 interview with Playboy, John said: "There was a little competition between Paul and I as to who got the A-side – who got the hits." In that case, he was speaking about how the band wrote and recorded 'A Hard Day's Night', which shared its name with the 1964 film and accompanying album.

The song's title came from a comment made by Sir Ringo Starr. He explained: "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'."

Sir Paul enjoyed the gaff from Sir Ringo and said the band decided they should use it as the title. He said: "We’d almost finished making the film and this fun bit arrived that we’d not known about before which was naming the film. So we were sitting around at Twickenham studios having a little brain-storming session; director Dick Lester, us, Walter Shenson (film producer), Bud Ornstein (European head of production for United Artists) and some other people were sitting around trying to come up with something and we said, ‘Well, there was something Ringo said the other day’… He said after a concert, ‘Phew, it’s been A Hard Day’s Night.’

The Beatles, from left to right; Ringo Starr, John Lennon (1940 - 1980), Paul McCartney and George Harrison (1943 - 2001), outside Buckingham Palace, London, after receiving their MBEs (Member of the Order of the British Empire) from the Queen
The Beatles - Ringo Starr, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison at Buckingham Palace in 1965 -Credit:Hulton Archive/Getty Images

"John and I went, ‘What? What did you just say?’ He said, ‘I’m bloody knackered, man, it’s been A Hard Day’s Night.’ ‘Hard day’s night! F*****g brilliant! How does he think of ’em? Woehayy!’ So that came up in this brain-storming session, something Ringo said, ‘It was A Hard Day’s Night.’"

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John then went away to write a song with that title overnight. About that, he told Playboy in 1980: "the next morning I brought in the song … 'cuz there was a little competition between Paul and I as to who got the A-side – who got the hits. If you notice, in the early days the majority of singles, in the movies and everything, were mine … in the early period I'm dominating the group … The reason Paul sang on 'A Hard Day's Night' (in the bridge) is because I couldn't reach the notes."

The band then recorded the song at EMI Studios, taking less than three hours to do so. About the recording process, film producer Walter Shenson said: "There were John and Paul with guitars at the ready and all the lyrics scribbled on matchbook covers. They played it and the next night recorded it. It had the right beat and the arrangement was brilliant. These guys were geniuses."

The song charted at number one around the world. In August 1964, the single 'A Hard Day's Night' and the album were top of the charts in America and the United Kingdom simultaneously - the first time any musicians had done so.