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Help! is the fifth UK and ninth US album by The Beatles, and the soundtrack from their film of the same name. Produced by George Martin for EMI's Parlophone Records, it contains (in its original British form) fourteen songs, of which seven appeared in the film Help!, these taking up the first side of the vinyl album in the same way as had the Hard Day's Night album and including the singles "Help!" and "Ticket to Ride". The second side contained seven new releases including the very successful "Yesterday".

The American release was a true soundtrack album, mixing the first seven songs with orchestral material from the film. The holding-over of the other songs, several of which were released on the US version of the next Beatles album, Rubber Soul, created an impression of the group's direction that differed strongly in the US from the UK.

In 2003, the album was ranked number 332 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

Music

The album shows The Beatles' music maturing, with an eclecticism that reached beyond the bounds of "pop" or "beat" music. The album features Paul McCartney's "Yesterday", arranged for guitar and string quartet and recorded without the other group members. John Lennon's "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" indicates the influence of Bob Dylan and includes classical flutes. While several compositions on 1964's Beatles for Sale, as well as "I'll Cry Instead" from A Hard Day's Night, had leaned in a country and western direction, McCartney's "I've Just Seen a Face" was almost pure country, taken at such a fast tempo that it might have been bluegrass if not for the absence of banjo and fiddle.

"Ticket to Ride", also released as a single, was felt by Lennon to be "heavy" in its sound compared to the group's previous output and daring in its reference to a boy and girl living together. McCartney called the arrangement "quite radical".

George Harrison contributed "I Need You" and "You Like Me Too Much", his first compositions to be included on a Beatles album since "Don't Bother Me", from 1963's With The Beatles.

The record contained two cover versions and a few tracks more closely related to the group's previous pop output, yet still marked a decisive step forward towards forthcoming achievements. The record sleeve-note shows Lennon and McCartney made more extensive and prominent use of keyboards, previously played unobtrusively by Martin, which would alter the group's future sound and the way they, particularly McCartney, went about the recording process. Four-track overdubbing technology encouraged this. Lennon, for his part, made much greater use of acoustic guitar, forsaking his famous Rickenbacker. All these developments can be traced on the previous Beatles for Sale, but were less obvious as this had been recorded more hastily, lacked chart hits and contained many old favourite cover versions.

In later years, Lennon said that the title track of the album was a sincere cry for help, as the pressures of The Beatles' fame and his own unhappiness (what he later called his "fat Elvis" period) began to build, and that he regretted turning it from a downbeat song in the style of Roy Orbison's "Only the Lonely" to an upbeat pop song as a result of commercial pressures.

Rejected songs

A few songs that were intended for the film were not used because of The Beatles' suggestions. Lennon and McCartney wrote "If You've Got Trouble" for Ringo Starr to sing, but the song was rejected and Starr sang "Act Naturally" instead. "That Means a Lot" was written for the film, but The Beatles were not satisfied with their performance of the song and they gave it to P.J. Proby who released it as a single. Lennon said "Yes It Is" was "me trying a rewrite of 'This Boy', but it didn't work"; it was released as the B-side of "Ticket to Ride". "You Like Me Too Much" and "Tell Me What You See" were rejected for use in the film by its director, Richard Lester, though they did appear on the album.

Much later, in June 1965, the song "Wait" was recorded for the album. However, "Wait" (with some newly added overdubs) ended up on Rubber Soul when another song was needed to complete that album.

Album cover

H	E	L	P
N	U	J	V

The album cover features the group with their arms positioned to spell out a word in flag semaphore. According to cover photographer Robert Freeman, "I had the idea of semaphore spelling out the letters HELP. But when we came to do the shot the arrangement of the arms with those letters didn't look good. So we decided to improvise and ended up with the best graphic positioning of the arms."

On the British Parlophone release, the letters formed by The Beatles appear to be 'NUJV', whilst the slightly re-arranged US release on Capitol Records appeared to feature the letters 'NVUJ'.

Compact Disc release

There have been three Compact Disc releases of Help!. The first was in 1987, when the Beatles' albums were first made available on CD. In 2009 remastered stereo and mono versions of the album were released.

The first CD release was on 30 April 1987, using the 14-song UK track lineup. Having been available only as an import in the US in the past, the original 14-track UK version replaced the original US version with its release on LP and cassette on 21 July 1987. As with the CD release of the 1965 Rubber Soul album, the Help! CD featured a contemporary stereo digital remix of the album prepared by Martin in 1986. Martin had expressed concern to EMI over the original 1965 stereo remix, claiming it sounded "very woolly, and not at all what I thought should be a good issue". Martin went back to the original four-tracks tapes and remixed them for stereo. One of the most notable changes is the echo added to "Dizzy Miss Lizzy", something that was not evident on the original mix of the LP. A few Canadian-origin CD editions of Rubber Soul and Help! use the original mix of the album, presumably in error.

The 2009 remastered stereo CD was released on 9 September. It was "created from the original stereo digital master tapes from Martin's CD mixes made in 1986". The disc in the mono box set contains the 1965 mono mix as well as the 1965 stereo mix.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Lennon/McCartney, except where noted

United States release

The US version, the band's eighth Capitol Records release and tenth overall, includes the songs in the film plus selections from the orchestral score composed by Ken Thorne and performed by the George Martin Orchestra, which contains one of the first uses of the Indian sitar on a pop album. "Ticket to Ride" is the only song on the US release in duophonic stereo (also known as "fake stereo") reprocessed from the mono mix. This album is available on CD as part of The Capitol Albums, Volume 2 box set.

Revised track listing

All songs written by Lennon/McCartney, except where noted.

Side one

1. "Help!" (preceded by Ken Thorne's James Bond Theme instrumental arrangement) – 2:39
2. "The Night Before" – 2:36
3. "From Me to You Fantasy" (instrumental) (Lennon/McCartney; arranged by Thorne) – 2:08
4. "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" – 2:12
5. "I Need You" (Harrison) – 2:31
6. "In the Tyrol" (instrumental) (Ken Thorne) – 2:26

Side two

1. "Another Girl" – 2:08
2. "Another Hard Day's Night" (instrumental) (Lennon/McCartney; arranged by Thorne) – 2:31
3. "Ticket to Ride" – 3:07
4. Medley: "The Bitter End" (Ken Thorne)/"You Can't Do That" (instrumental) (Lennon/McCartney; arranged by Thorne) – 2:26
5. "You're Gonna Lose That Girl" – 2:19
6. "The Chase" (instrumental) (Ken Thorne) – 2:31

Personnel

According to Mark Lewisohn and Alan W. Pollack.

• John Lennon – lead, harmony and background vocals; rhythm and acoustic guitars; electric piano and Hammond organ; percussion
• Paul McCartney – lead, harmony and background vocals; lead, acoustic and bass guitars; electric and acoustic piano; guiro
• George Harrison – lead and background vocals; lead, rhythm and acoustic guitars; percussion
• Ringo Starr – lead vocals and backing vocals; drums and percussion

Additional musicians

• George Martin – piano and production
• John Scott – flutes on "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"
• String quartet on "Yesterday", arranged by Martin in association with McCartney.

Surround versions

The songs included in the soundtrack of the film Help! were mixed into 5.1 surround for the film’s 2007 DVD release, that is, tracks 1—7, accounting for half of the original album’s songs.

Release history

Notes

1. Rolling Stone 2003.
2. Unterberger 2009.
3. Beatles Interview Database 2009.
4. Lewisohn 1988, pp. 55, 60.
5. Lewisohn 1988, pp. 56–57.
6. Sheff 2000, p. 196.
7. Freeman, p. 62.
8. Kozinn 1987.
9. Apple Records 2009.
10. ^ Ruhlmann 2009.
11. Lewisohn 1988.
12. Lewisohn 1996.
13. Pollack 2009.

References

• Help! (Media notes). Apple Records. 2009. {{cite AV media notes}}: |format= requires |url= (help); Unknown parameter |bandname= ignored (help)
• "Help". Beatles Interview Database. 2009. Retrieved 21 November 2009.
• Freeman, Robert. The Beatles: A Private View. NY: Barnes & Noble. ISBN 1-59226-176-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kozinn, Allan (8 March 1987). "Interview with George Martin". The New York Times. Retrieved 18 November 2009. {{cite news}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lewisohn, Mark (1996). The Complete Beatles Chronicle. Chancellor Press. ISBN 0-7607-0327-2. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Pollack, Alan W. (2009). ""Notes on... series"". Retrieved 21 November 2009. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time". Rolling Stone. 1 November 2003. Retrieved 19 November 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
• Ruhlmann, William (2009). "Review of Help! (US)". Allmusic. Retrieved 21 November 2009. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Sheff, David (2000). All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-25464-4. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Unterberger, Richie (2009). "Review of "I've Just Seen a Face"". Allmusic. Retrieved 21 November 2009. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

External links

• Help! (the movie) on the IMDb
• The Beatles' comments on each song
• Recording data and notes on mono/stereo mixes and remixes
• A discussion on semaphore
• Yet more semaphore
• Discussion of Canadian CD copies of Help! and Rubber Soul

• 1965 albums
• Albums produced by George Martin
• Capitol Records albums
• EMI Records albums
• English-language albums
• Parlophone albums
• The Beatles albums