HELP!

TRACKS

Help!
The Night Before
You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
I Need You
Another Girl
You're Going to Lose That Girl
Ticket to Ride
Act Naturally
It's Only Love
You Like Me Too Much
Tell Me What You See
I've Just Seen a Face
Yesterday
Dizzy Miss Lizzie

ALBUM INFORMATION:

Half of Help! is composed of songs from The Beatles' second film, while the other half consists of tracks recorded a couple of months later.  .  The album is basically a transitioned one, with elements of both the group's raucous past and experimental future.  It is heavily influenced by the then-pervasive-folk-rock sound, particularly as embodied by Bob Dylan.

The introspective glimpses provided by the previous Beatles For Sale grew deeper in Help!  According to author, John Lennon, the title song is an honest cry for help.  "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" invokes a melancholy mood.  While not autobiographical, Paul McCartney's "Yesterday" fits in with the album's tamer tone.

CHART ACTION:

Released August 13, 1965, the original American LP was significantly different from the UK release.  It featured only the seven Beatles songs from  the film and 6 orchestral cuts from the soundtrack.

THE HATED US REPACKAGING:

McCartney was frustrated by the group's lack of control over the American repackaging of their British releases.  On a trip to California, they came across a US version of Help!  Hearing it for the first time, they discovered that parts of Ken Thorne's film score had been added to the album, despite the Beatles' decision to keep it off the British release.

HARRISON, on the US repackagings,  "...They'd make new packages like Yesterday and Today, just awful packages."

Despite the repackaging, the US album immediately qualified as a gold album because of advance orders of a million copies--the first time this occurred in the recording industry.  Help! reached number one on the album chart.  In 1982 world sales were estimated to have been 2.3 million.

RECORDED:

Most of the songs were recorded during two time periods.  February 15 to 19th and June 14-17th.  Exceptions are noted within individual song entries.

During the recording of instrumentals for the movie soundtrack, a 21 string sitar was used to create exotic effects.  Harrison was fascinated with the instrument, bought one for himself, and studied Indian music and later, religion.  This had a major effect on the Beatles' music and activities months later.

McCartney was heard on lead guitar for the first time on this album.  He played it on 2 songs, " Another Girl", and "Ticket to Ride".

While in the studios on February 18, the Beatles' song publishing company, Northern Songs Ltd., went public.  The action, taken for tax reasons, would later prevent Lennon and McCartney from controlling the rights to their songs.

ALBUM PACKAGE:

On the cover, the Beatles signal "Help Us" in semaphore, but the photo was reversed.  Holding the cover up to a mirror reveals LPUS-"Help Us!"

MISCELLANEOUS

The movie, 'Help!" was filmed February 22-May 12, 1965.  The Beatles generally didn't like the finished film.  McCartney said "it was a bit wrong for us."  We were sort of guest stars.  Lennon went so far as to call it "crap."  and director Richard Lester "forgot about who and what we were/  And that's why the film didn't work.  It was like having a movie about frogs."  ( I happen to disagree with Lennon....this is my personal favorite Beatles film)

The songs that were included in the film make up the first half of the album up and including "Ticket to Ride."

GET BACK