According to Lennon in a 1980 interview with Playboy magazine: "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.

As he described in his 1980 Playboy interview, "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.

'OK,' he said cheerfully and, borrowing my pen, instantly changed it to the slightly suggestive: 'When I get home to you/I find the things that you do/Will make me feel all right.'

"[8] "A Hard Day's Night" is widely known for its iconic Rickenbacker 360/12 12-string guitar's "mighty opening chord" played by George Harrison.

[12] According to George Martin, "We knew it would open both the film and the soundtrack LP, so we wanted a particularly strong and effective beginning.

The strident guitar chord was the perfect launch,"[10] having what Ian MacDonald called "a significance in Beatles lore matched only by the concluding E major of 'A Day in the Life', the two opening and closing the group's middle period of peak creativity".

[23] Dominic Pedler has also provided an interpretation of the chord,[24] with the Beatles and George Martin playing the following: This gives the notes: G-B-D-F-A-C (the B is a harmonic).

[25] He concluded that Martin's piano contribution provided the important element in the chord beside Harrison's playing.

[26] In November the following year, Wired published an article on Brown's use of Celemony's Melodyne Editor with Direct Note Access technology to further analyse the chord.

Houston, who also used a Fourier transform, attributed a greater importance in Lennon's contribution on acoustic guitar, rather than the piano notes played by Martin.

[28] Harrison played a repeated guitar arpeggio, outlining the notes of the opening chord, thereby ending the song in a circular fashion.

"[31] Lennon opens the twelve-measure-long verse and carries it along, suddenly joined at the end by McCartney, who then sings the bridge.

During the recording of "A Hard Day's Night", Lennon and McCartney doubletracked their vocals throughout including the chorus.

The instrumental break is played by Harrison on a Rickenbacker 12-string guitar, with Martin doubling on a piano, recorded to tape at half-speed and then sped up to normal.

In the description of Rolling Stone's editors: "But by the time the session ended at 10 that night, he had sculpted one of his most memorable solos – an upward run played twice and capped with a circular flourish, with the church-bell chime of his guitar echoed on piano by Martin.

The Beatles were the only ones who had done this until 1970 when Simon and Garfunkel achieved the same feat with their album Bridge over Troubled Water and its title track.

[13] After watching the film A Hard Day's Night and seeing Harrison's choice of guitar,[35] Roger McGuinn adopted the Rickenbacker as his and the Byrds' signature instrument.

[36][37] In this way, according to author Andrew Grant Jackson, "A Hard Day's Night" "birthed" the folk-rock sound that the Byrds popularised in 1965.

[38] That same year, "A Hard Day's Night" won the Grammy Award for Best Performance by a Vocal Group.

The Beatles played it for the last time on 31 August 1965 at the Cow Palace in Daly City, California.

Peter Sellers made a comedy version in which he recited the lyrics in the style of Laurence Olivier in the film Richard III.