Dean Martin Knocked The Beatles’ ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ Off the No. 1 Spot

The charts pitted The Beatles‘ “A Hard Day’s Night” against a Dean Martin song. For a moment, Martin came out on top. Subsequently, he made a famous comment about The Beatles to Elvis Presley.

Dean Martin took on The Beatles’ ‘A Hard Days Night’ but he felt Elvis Presley couldn’t

The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” topped the Billboard Hot 100, staying on the chart for two weeks. It spent a total of 13 weeks on the chart. The rock ‘n’ roll number appeared on the album of the same name. A Hard Day’s Night was No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for 14 weeks, lasting on the chart for 56 weeks on the chart.

According to Stereogum, “A Hard Day’s Night” was knocked off its pedestal by Martin’s “Everybody Loves Somebody.” Martin’s hit was the No. 1 song in the United States for one week. After this happened, Martin reportedly assured Elvis, “If you can’t handle The Beatles, I’ll do it for you, pally.”

The Beatles’ song holds up a lot better than Dean Martin’s

Decades later, “A Hard Day’s Night” is still one of the defining songs of the Fab Four’s early period. In recent years, “A Hard Day’s Night” has been covered by Jack Antonoff and it appeared in the hit movie Yesterday. It’ll probably stick around for as long as people remember The Beatles.

On the other hand, “Everybody Loves Somebody” has been entirely forgotten. It’s so kitschy and dull that it makes Petula Clark’s songs sound exciting. Even by the standards of 1960s music, it sounds incredibly old-fashioned and archaic to modern ears. Maybe its kitschy style would work if it had a little more energy, but instead, it’s a bit sluggish. As a live performer, Martin had a lot of charisma — but there’s a reason his radio hits are on the dustbin of history.

John Lennon said ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ was random

The book Lennon on Lennon: Conversations With John Lennon features an interview from 1968. In it, he was discussing “Revolution 9” when another song came up. “Most of it is completely random in that respect and all the words,” he said. “It’s like throwing the dice or the I Ching or whatever it is. There’s no such thing as random, really. It’s random compared with sitting down and saying, ‘It’s been a hard day’s night, it’s been a hard day’s night, working like a dog.’

“But even that’s random,” he opined. “And it was a couple of sixes, and I’m not about to do it again and settle for an 11. It probably was an 11, rather than … You very seldom get a double six in whatever you’re doing on that buzz, ’cause when you’re on the buzz where you’re actually doing the thing where you’re not aware, very seldom is the tape recorder on or everybody’s got it at the same bit. So most things are nine out of 12 or things like that.”

“Everybody Loves Somebody” overshadowed “A Hard Day’s Night” for a while but “A Hard Day’s Night” became the more indelible song.