Lennon wrote the song for the "break-out" sequence in the film. The song was recorded on 1 June 1964 in two sections, A and B which could then be spliced together at a later date to achieve the required length to fit the film. However, director Richard Lester eventually decided he preferred the livelier "Can't Buy Me Love" with its upbeat lyric, and that was used instead. When Walter Shenson re-released the film in 1981, "I'll Cry Instead" was included in a re-vamped opening sequence consisting of a "Swingin'" early to mid-1960s-style collage of photos of the Beatles in 1964 around the time they were shooting the film.

Although the song was not part of the original movie, the label of the American 45 lists the song as being "From the United Artists Picture, 'A Hard Day's Night'".   "I'll Cry Instead" was described by Cynthia Lennon as a cry for help, saying "It reflects the frustration he [John Lennon] felt at that time. He was the idol of millions, but the freedom and fun of the early days had gone." John Lennon later said the line "A chip on my shoulder that's bigger than my feet" was an accurate indication of his feelings at the time.   "I'll Cry Instead" is rooted in country & western, a genre that the Beatles, and especially Ringo Starr, enjoyed playing

ABBA was a Swedish pop/rock/disco group formed in Stockholm in 1972, comprising Agnetha Fältskog, Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. ABBA is an acronym of the first letters of the band members' first names and is sometimes stylized as the registered trademark ᗅᗺᗷᗅ. They became one of the most commercially successful acts in the history of pop music, topping the charts worldwide from 1972 to 1982. They are also known for winning the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest, giving Sweden its first victory in the history of the contest and being the most successful group ever to take part in the contest

When released, the album was not as well-received as his previous two albums (Let's Get Small, A Wild and Crazy Guy). However, at this point in his career, Martin was in the midst of writing the screenplay for his first starring role in the motion picture, The Jerk. As a result, he spent less of his time working on material for his stand-up career and the album was his first to not make the Top 10 on Billboard's Pop Albums Chart, peaking only at #25. The album was also his first to not go Platinum; it was, however, certified Gold.

One track was simply a humorous reading of a short story from his book Cruel Shoes accompanied by a banjo solo in the background. The track "Drop Thumb Medley" is an instrumental banjo performance.

This album was nominated in 1979 for a Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album.

Martin also starred in a television special of the same name for NBC in 1980.

Jason Elias at Allmusic praised the song, believing that unlike some of Wonder's similar material, "Lately" in particular hit all the perfect emotional and musical notes. Of the song's emotional power itself Elias stated, "it's enough to make a listener fall prey to an old-fashioned cry."   It tells of the woman who cheats on her husband.

"Lately" was notably covered by R&B group Jodeci for the Uptown MTV Unplugged release in 1993. The group's version of the song was released as a promotional single, claiming the number one spot on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Singles & Tracks charts as the group's fourth R&B number one hit. It was also Jodeci's highest peaking pop hit, reaching number four on the Billboard Hot 100.

The song was also covered by English pop group S Club 7 and released as a bonus track on their album 7, released in 2000, as well as by Will Martin on his album Inspirations, 2010.South Korean ballad singer Sung Si Kyung has covered "Lately" at several of his concerts. The cover is also featured in his special album "Try to Remember." On American Idol, the song was performed by Season 10's finalist Stefano Langone and by Season 11's finalist Colton Dixon.

Spirit was an American jazz/hard rock/progressive rock/psychedelic band founded in 1967, based in Los Angeles, California.  The original lineup of the group evolved from an earlier Los Angeles band, The Red Roosters, which included Randy California (guitars, vocals), Mark Andes (bass) and Jay Ferguson (vocals, percussion). With the addition of California's stepfather Ed Cassidy (drums), and keyboard player John Locke the new band was originally named the Spirits Rebellious (after a book by Khalil Gibran) but was soon shortened simply to Spirit. In 1966 Randy California had also played with Jimi Hendrix (then known as Jimmy James) in his band, The Blue Flame

The song's accompanying music video was directed by Elliot Lester and features some of Cyrus' home videos; it received a CMT Music Award nomination at the 2008 CMT Music Awards. The song eventually became re-released as a duet with his daughter, pop star Miley Cyrus, in October 2007. At the time of the single's release, she was 14 and enjoying the success of her debut album Meet Miley Cyrus. The duet version became Miley's debut in country music and received better commercial outcomes. It reached its highest international peak in the Billboard Hot 100 at number 37 and became Cyrus' first international chart entry since "Could've Been Me" (1992). Cyrus, with and without his daughter, performed the song at several venues, most notably Miley's first headlining concert tour, the Best of Both Worlds Tour.

Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool. Cool replaced former drummer John Kiffmeyer in 1990, prior to the recording of the band's second studio album, Kerplunk, and has been a member of the band since.

Green Day was originally part of the punk scene at 924 Gilman Street in Berkeley, California. The band's early releases were from the independent record label Lookout! Records. In 1994, its major label debut Dookie released through Reprise Records became a breakout success and eventually sold over 10 million copies in the U.S.Green Day was widely credited, alongside fellow California punk bands Sublime, The Offspring and Rancid, with popularizing and reviving mainstream interest in punk rock in the United States. Green Day's three follow-up albums, Insomniac, Nimrod, and Warning did not achieve the massive success of Dookie, though they were still successful, with Insomniac and Nimrod reaching double platinum and Warning reaching gold status. The band's rock opera, American Idiot (2004), reignited the band's popularity with a younger generation, selling five million copies in the United States. The band's eighth studio album, 21st Century Breakdown, was released in 2009 which achieved the band's best chart performance to date. The band will begin to release a trilogy of albums over the course of five months starting in September 2012. The three albums will be called ¡Uno!, ¡Dos!, and ¡Tré!, and will be released September 25, 2012, November 13, 2012, and January 15, 2013 respectively

"Big Girls Don't Cry" was a commercial success domestically, attaining the top position on the Billboard Hot 100. It became her third single to do so and earned her the accolade of being the first artist with three number one singles from one album since 2000 with Christina Aguilera's first three number one singles. "Big Girls Don't Cry" also became Fergie's highest selling single in the country with 3.5 million units sold and her longest charting with nearly fifty weeks logged on the Hot 100 between May 2007 and March 2008. The song peaked at number one in Canada and was present for fifty-three weeks on the chart. The song also reached number one in various international territories including Denmark, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway and Australia, where it spent nine weeks at the top position. Besides France and Hungary, "Big Girls Don't Cry" reached the top ten in all other international markets like the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

"Poker Face" was well received by most critics, who praised the robotic hook and the chorus. The song attained worldwide success, topping the charts in twenty countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many European countries. "Poker Face" is also the most downloaded song in the British chart history. It is among the best-selling singles of all time, having sold over 10.7 million copies. The accompanying music video for the song portrays Gaga singing it in various costumes and playing strip poker in a getaway villa.

Gaga performed the song for the eighth season of the television show American Idol as well as the Fame Ball and Monster Ball tours. The live performances included an electronic version and an acoustic version, which she played on the piano. It was nominated for both Song of the Year and Record of the Year at the 52nd Grammy Awards, and won the Grammy Award for Best Dance Recording. Rolling Stone ranked it number ninety-six on their list of 100 Best Songs of the 2000s decade. In October 2011, NME placed it at number 103 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years

Columbia Records released "Crazy in Love" on May 20, 2003, as the album's lead single. Critics praised the horn sample, the guest appearance of Jay-Z, and the assertiveness with which Knowles sings the lyrics. "Crazy in Love" ranks 118th on Rolling Stone's 2010 list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. VH1 placed the song at number one on its 100 Greatest Songs of the 2000s list. At the 46th Grammy Awards, it won Grammys for Best R&B Song and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration. "Crazy in Love" was Knowles' first number one single as a solo artist in the United States, peaking on the Billboard Hot 100 chart for eight consecutive weeks. It also topped UK Singles Chart, and reached the top ten on the singles charts in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden as well as Switzerland and achieved multi-platinum certifications in most of these countries.

The single reached the top of the British charts on 12 December of that year, displacing The Rolling Stones' "Little Red Rooster", and remained there for five weeks, and the top of the Billboard Hot 100 in late 1964. The B-side was the #4 hit "She's a Woman".

"I Feel Fine" was the last of six Hot 100 #1 hits in a calendar year, a record at the time, and also the first of six Hot 100 #1 chart toppers in a row (not counting the EP "4 - By The Beatles") by one act, also a record at the time. The subsequent singles were "Eight Days a Week", "Ticket to Ride", "Help!", "Yesterday" and "We Can Work It Out". The latter record was equalled by The Bee Gees in 1979 and surpassed by Whitney Houston in 1988. "I Feel Fine" was also the first Beatles single to be released almost concurrently in the US and the UK.

Lennon wrote the guitar riff while in the studio recording "Eight Days a Week". "I wrote 'I Feel Fine' around that riff going on in the background", he recalled. "I told them I'd write a song specially for the riff. So they said, 'Yes. You go away and do that', knowing that we'd almost finished the album Beatles for Sale. Anyway, going into the studio one morning, I said to Ringo, 'I've written this song but it's lousy'. But we tried it, complete with riff, and it sounded like an A side, so we decided to release it just like that."

The album contained the singles "Take a Chance on Me", "The Name of the Game", "Eagle" and "Thank You for the Music" which has been called ABBA's "goodbye" song even though it was released five years before the band officially broke up. It also features the song "Hole In Your Soul", which was performed as the last song at many ABBA concerts, including their final 1979 tour, and two other songs, "One Man, One Woman" and "I'm a Marionette".

The album offers three songs from ABBA's mini-musical "The Girl With The Golden Hair". These songs are "Thank You for the Music", "I Wonder (Departure)" and "I'm a Marionette".

ABBA: The Album was first released on CD in 1984. The album has been reissued in digitally remastered form by PolyGram/Universal Music four times; first in 1997, then in 2001, in 2005 as part of The Complete Studio Recordings box set and again in 2007 as a two disc 'Deluxe Edition'.

Due to the Cold War, Western music was actively discouraged throughout Eastern Europe at the time. Despite this ABBA: The Album sold an unprecedented one million copies in Poland in 1977, exhausting the country's entire allocation of foreign currency. In Russia, only 200,000 copies were permitted to be pressed. However, demand within the USSR indicated they could have sold 40 million copies

The last song recorded before breaking off to make the film, the song was composed at Lennon's house in Weybridge. In the lyrics the singer tells his "friend" that, if he does not value his girl, the singer will "make a point of taking her away" from him. To the Beatles' familiar twist beat and using variations of familiar doo-wop chords, Lennon's lead singing is set in a call-and-response with the enthusiastic answering harmonies of McCartney and George Harrison, offering a last glimpse of the early Beatles' musical home turf.

The song's bridge has a key change similar to that of the record's previous track "Another Girl", moving up a minor third to G major, the relative major of the tonic minor. In this case the bridge emerges a measure early, diving a semitone down to meet the verse.

To fatten the sound McCartney overdubbed a background piano (a job that once would have been done by producer George Martin "live" on the backing track) and Ringo Starr added bongoes, the addition of Latin-American percussion being another way the Beatles often exploited their new-found access to four-track recording.