A Hit Song Was Left Out of The Beatles’ ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ Because of the Director

The Beatles‘ A Hard Day’s Night is one of the most famous rock ‘n’ roll movies ever. John Lennon wrote a song for A Hard Day’s Night that the film’s director didn’t like. Subsequently, the track became a hit.

How The Beatles’ everyday lives inspired their 1st movie

Walter Shenson produced A Hard Day’s Night while Richard Lester directed the movie. During a 2000 interview with Salon, Shenson discussed the film. “Dick and I came up with the idea of [writer Alun] Owen to do the screenplay — not because he was available and had done a play and some television but because he was from Liverpool and it seemed natural that he could write in The Beatles’ idiom,” he said.

Shenson revealed the concept behind A Hard Day’s Night. “When we assigned [Owen] the picture, he wanted to know what we wanted him to write,” Shenson said. “We said, ‘An exaggerated day in the life of The Beatles.’

“And he asked, ‘What’s that?'” Shenson continued. “I said, ‘Well, they’re going to be performing in Dublin next weekend; I’ll arrange for you to go up there and move in with them. When you come back, you tell us what it’s like to be with them.'”

John Lennon wrote a song for The Beatles’ ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ that was about failing to ‘get laid’

The book All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono includes an interview from 1980. In the interview, John was asked about The Beatles’ “I’ll Cry Instead.” “I wrote that for Hard Day’s Night, but Dick Lester didn’t even want it,” John replied.

In the 1980 interview, John had little to say about “I’ll Cry Instead.” “[Lester] resurrected ‘Can’t Buy Me Love‘ for that sequence instead,” John recalled. “I like the middle eight to that song, though — that’s about all I can say about it.”

The book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations With John Lennon includes an interview from 1972. In it, John explained the message of “I’ll Cry Instead.” He said it was about failing to “get laid.”

How the soundtrack of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ performed on the charts in the United States

“I’ll Cry Instead” became a minor hit for The Beatles in the United States. The track reached No. 25 on the Billboard Hot 100. It stayed on the chart for seven weeks.

“Can’t Buy Me Love” became a much bigger hit. For five weeks, it topped the Billboard Hot 100. “Can’t Buy Me Love” stayed on the chart for 10 weeks in total. Both songs appeared on the soundtrack for A Hard Day’s Night. The soundtrack was No. 1 for 14 of its 56 weeks on the Billboard 200.

Lester wasn’t a fan of “I’ll Cry Instead” — but the song still found an audience.