Worst Beatles song on A Hard Day's Night

Previously:
Worst Beatles song on Please Please Me
Worst song on With The Beatles

there are no bad songs on this record. fyi.

Yeah, this is tough. I went with "You Can't Do That" over "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You". I prefer the former in its Rubber Soul versions (and Nilsson's version kinda kills it for me, since it's about the only Nilsson song I actively hate).

"I Happy Just To Dance With You"

despite thematic tie to the title track, "When I Get Home" seems the odd one out, which of course only makes it interesting... (in a "Good Morning, Good Morning" kinda way)

"happy just to dance" is sort of a throwaway, i guess, but it has such an ingratiating george vocal on it.

See, it's George's nasal vocal on that one that brings it down for me. I sing it all the time around the house, as this is my kids' favorite movie and we watch it as close to constantly as is possible; and I sing it with my nose plugged for maximal verisimilitude/comedic effect.

George's vocal = total awes. The only time this guy was ever ingratiating.

it's like Eeyore smiling.

I love the harmonies on it (mostly Paul, I think).

I'm Happy Just To Dance With You is the only one I can't really hum right off the bat ... so I guess that one!

I reckon The Grateful Dead loved that part of "Things We Said Today" that goes "me I'm just a lucky guy/love to hear you say that love is love/and though we may be blind/love is here to stay..." - has those bluesy country harmonies they were to specialize in.

If I fell.

http://www.ivid.net/images/crazy_talk.jpg

"I went with "You Can't Do That" over "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You". I prefer the former in its Rubber Soul versions"

not sure I understand this, you mean thematically (Run for Your Life)? as in 'possessive asshole john songs"

I think I'd have to go with the title track, which I love only slightly less than everything else on this album.

This is much harder because it's such a perfect album. But I have never been much of a fan of "Can't Buy Me Love", so I vote for that one.

I don't understand the "You can't do that" talk, I'd seriously consider voting for it for "best b-side"

"You Can't Do That" is great. And "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You" is even greater. But there are so many great songs on this album.

I agree.

Of course, the real worst track on this album was "You Know What To Do", but they knew that well enough to never include it.

voted "A Hard Day's Night" for having the worst couplet in their discography:

You know I work all day to get you money to buy you thing
And it's worth it just to hear you say you're gonna give me everything

I like all of these quite a bit, but I'm going for Can't Buy Me Love. It's kinda autopilot Beatle Paul, not much in the way of standout moments or anything. It works well in the movie, in the Running Jumping & Standing Still Film-type segment.

Yeah, there really are no BAD songs on the album. I guess "When I Get Home" has always sorta kinda sounded weakest to me? But the bridge is so great, the "I'll love her more/When I walk through that door" part. Still, a bridge is not a song, so I'll just go with that out of inertia.

SB for anyone who picks "Tell Me Why" or "If I Fell."

"when i get home" is totally the weakest; lameness all around!

When I said I prefer "You Can't Do That" in its Rubber Soul versions, I mean that I hear similarities between it and what they're doing on that later album (and Help!). Girl groups were at their commercial apex in 1964 I think, and I suspect the influence went both directions between those artists and the Beatles. By 1965 I think they've better incorporated harmonies like on "You Can't Do That" into their songs: e.g. "You Won't See Me" and "Nowhere Man".

I don't mean to suggest I hate the song (at least not in its incarnation here. Picking the worst song here is like (pick your favorite impossible task); I just go with "annoys me periodically for some reason" instead.

"gonna love her till the cows come home" ???!!!

probably their worst line ever

i love that line

Love all these songs but When I Get Home is the weakest...

I like all of these quite a bit, but I'm going for Can't Buy Me Love. It's kinda autopilot Beatle Paul

My main problem is that it sounds like "She Loves You" mark 2, only not as good as the original. The Beatles didn't often do this copying their hit singles thing, but "Can't Buy Me Love" to me sounds a bit like that.

"I'm Happy Just To Dance With You." Sorry, George.

"Can't buy me love" does activily irritate me.

It was the track that trendy vicars would work into the sermon at church, back when.

But, the message in the song is more confused, like "everybody tells me so" but then Paul seems unconvinced like he's giving all his money away in an act of sarcasm. The later verses seem tacked on like he wrote them much later.

Still, I "have voted and cannot vote again" , so..

I hear all the talk against "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You," but I think I'm more convinced by:

gonna love her till the cows come home" ???!!!

But this really is the closest they get to a completely dud-free album. SO MUCH FUN to sing along to if you put it on while cooking, cleaning, etc. Just jam-packed with hooks, around every corner there's something inventive happening. Probably in my top three Beatles records.

"And I Love Her," which is a bit too stately for me to love. Still like it a lot, obv., but this is one tough call.

I fucking love "Can't Do That". Reminds me of Milkshakes-era Billy Childish at his best, even though it oughta be the other way around.

The song is great because:

Verse 1: Aggressive "I'm gonnna let you down and leave you flat"
Verse 2: Defiant "I think I'll let you down..."
Verse 3: vulnerable "I know I'll let you down..."

The vulnerability is there, but it feels like one of the earliest pissed-off and mean Lennon songs. Was he a prick on record before this?

"Not a Second Time" maybe?

maybe, though he's a bit weepy to be a real prick in that one

"Last night I said these words to my love/You know you never even try love/Come on, please please me like I please you."

Pretty prickish, tbf.

Pretty blatant request for a BJ, I reckons.

Because he's not adverse to giving her some, so, you know...

re: Not A Second Time, I think he's squarely in wounded/vulnerable territory there. The AHDN album really debuts Lennon going nuts on women for looking at him wrong, plus all the obsessions with jealousy/public opinion. "You Can't Do That" is just insane: his plans to let her down and leave her flat, the way she has to tolerate his emo thrashing* "if you wanna stay mine", and how much this is driven just by what others think:

Everybody's green
Cause I'm the one who won your love
But if they'd seen
You talkin' that way
THEY'D LAUGH IN MY FACE!!

* - There's something kind of perfect in Weezer of all bands lifting "I can't help my feelings, I go out of my mind."

Yep, and that's why I don't understand how anyone could vote that song the worst.

Talk about 'recognising the child inside the man', hey Yoko taught him nowt he didn't know already about it.

Pretty blatant request for a BJ

I've just read about this theory in Revolution in the Head. It allegedly being one of the reasons Capitol didn't release it untill the band became massive.

Lennon seems to have spent quite a bit of his time in the early Beatle days writing songs in which he would warn girls not to cross him. Just as he spent most of his solo career apologising to Yoko in song.

"i'll cry instead" (which i love) takes its self-pitying to pretty prickish levels. especially the way he sings "i'm gonna break 'em in two/show you what your loving man can do."

Not a bad song here, but if I gotta vote, I'll say "And I Love Her" - and only for the guitar solo, which manages to incorporate both the trucker's gear change and the verbatim-vocal move (two general no-nos in my personal rulebook.)
(And really I can't even fault it for those, since it manages to come off mock-serious enough to almost pass for a tongue-in-cheek parody. i wish i could recall the exact images that accompany it in the film.)

What really makes "You Can't Do That" to me is the middle eight. Once the song starts being a bit too repetitive for its own good, then that glorious "Everybody's green...." section comes around and the needed climax is suddenly there. Generally "A Hard Day's Night" is the ABC of songwriting.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

yes but how many songwriters slip in the truckers gear change at the start of a guitar solo, myonga? it took me an age to work out what magic was used there.

voted "A Hard Day's Night" for having the worst couplet in their discography:

You know I work all day to get you money to buy you thing
And it's worth it just to hear you say you're gonna give me everything

― abanana

Worse than
"I don't wanna say that I've been unhappy with you
But as from today, well, I've seen somebody that's new"
from "Another Girl"?
(And that's not the only couplet in AG that's worse than your example above, IMO.)

(but maybe "Worst Beatles Couplet" is another thread.)

xpost - Yeah, good point! I guess I wanted (tried) to say that it's the generally the kind of thing I disapprove of "in principle" but they made it work anyways.

Worst Beatles couplet has GOT to be "My love don't give me presents. / I know that she's no peasant." from "She's a Woman."

no way, that's a hilarious line. and a great, great song.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Decisive!

what, because of the cows line?

what's wrong with I'm Happy Just to Dance..? I love that song

Nothing wrong with it of course. One of my favourites on this album. And George's nasal Scouse singing makes a great song even better.

Listening to Past Masters for the first time in a long while, I wonder if "I Call Your Name" had been the fourteenth song on the record, would it have been the worst? I suspect including any of the covers on the Long Tall Sally EP would have thrown the record off-balance, but there's already a lot of Lennon on the record and this isn't one of his best.

Curious what would make anyone choose "If I Fell" in this poll.

"I call your name" is where they break into a ska beat for the break. So, not worst.

yeah, "If I Fell" getting any votes here is pure madness

also, I remember "You Can't Do That" being little more than a basic blues progression but I've always been partial to it, thanks in large part to the vocal performance, which I really love

Before my time...Can't remember "When I Get Home." Never liked "I'm Happy Just to Dance with You." "Can't Buy Me Love" (favourite scene in the movie) getting more votes than "And I Love Her" surprises me.

Can't Buy Me Love for me is all about the killer bassline

I love this whole album. It's the first Beatles album I ever listened to and the first time I listened to an album that (at the time) seemed really old - not just a '60s album but a MONO album. I didn't know it at the time, but it was my gateway to all music, not just the current day's pop hits. I could never vote in this poll for that reason, but it's also the one Beatles album where I never, ever skip any tracks. I think it's the only one where they didn't exclude any great originals from the same recording sessions because they decided to pull them for a single-only release. (They did produce some great covers - most notable "Long Tall Sally" - but it says a lot about their development and confidence as songwriters that this is the only time they'd release an album with no covers until Rubber Soul.)

otm. i'm overdue for a listen.

and "I Call Your Name" is great! MAYBE it'd be among the weaker tracks here, but all it needs to match the energy level is one added, breathless harmony part, like the "oh-oooh-oh-IIIII" at the start of "When I Get Home."

"I call your name" is where they break into a ska beat for the break. So, not worst.

I never found this a particularly convincing or well-performed arrangement decision, but it's not so distracting to sink the song.

So I slotted this song into the track 8 position, and, Pancakes Hackman, my choice for worst is still "Tell Me Why". It's not bad but the melody and harmonies are borderline irritating.

I think the album is perfectly fine without it, but I do like "I Call Your Name." Also, the one Mamas and Papas collection I have includes a cover as a highlight, and as enjoyable as it may be, I still prefer the Beatles' original.

I don't like that cover at all, the song really needs an uptempo treatment.

Yeah, I’ve never liked that one either

Maybe if The 5th Dimension did it and had Frank Sinatra sit in it would at least have some novelty value.

LOL, if you want real novelty value, you'd probably need someone from Star Trek in there.

I...CALL....your NAME!