Help! (Song)

Help!
The Beatles
publication	July 1965
length	2 min 23 s
Genre (s)	Folk rock
Author (s)	Lennon / McCartney
album	Help!

Help! ( English help! ) is a song by the British rock band The Beatles from 1965. It is the title track of the second feature film by the group Hi-Hi-Hilfe! and was released as a single and on the film's soundtrack albums. The song was composed by John Lennon and Paul McCartney under the joint copyright Lennon / McCartney . The single was successful in the charts worldwide and reached number one in the USA and Great Britain , among others . In Germany, a second place was the highest ranking.

Emergence

Help! came under pressure to compose a theme song for the second Beatles feature film. While director Richard Lester had previously produced songs for the rest of the soundtrack , Help! as the last song for the film. This was because the working title for the film was Eight Arms to Hold You for a long time . Neither Lennon nor McCartney could think of a suitable song. It wasn't until Lester came back to his original dream title Help for the film that the spark jumped over and shortly afterwards Lennon had the right idea for the play.

Paul McCartney later remembered the elaboration in Lennon's house in Weybridge , where he attributed the basic idea to his partner and put his own share at 30 percent, which mainly consisted of the composition of the second voice. John Lennon counted the piece as one of his favorites. In an interview with the music magazine Rolling Stone in 1970, he gave the reason that the song was "real", the lyrics were still as good as when he wrote them.

“It was just me, the help! sang, and that's exactly how I meant it. "

- John Lennon

In his last major interview in 1980, Lennon took up this thought again and added the knowledge that he had actually unconsciously called for help at the time. The text reflects the uncertainty Lennon found himself in at the time. In the interview, Lennon described this time as his “Fat Elvis period”.

“Look at the film. He is [...] I'm very fat, very insecure and totally in the bucket. And I sing about the times when I was so much younger and all that, looking back, I realize how easy it used to be. "

- John Lennon

The recording

The recordings for Help! took place on April 13, 1965 in Studio 2 of Abbey Road Studios in London under the direction of George Martin . The sound engineer in charge was Norman Smith . A 4-track recorder was used . John Lennon sang the lead and played a twelve-string acoustic guitar, Paul McCartney played electric bass , George Harrison played lead guitar, and Ringo Starr played drums . Who played the tambourine is disputed. McCartney and Harrison sang the second voice together.

In total, it took the group twelve takes to record the song. The first eight were required to record the skeleton, during the other four takes, various overdubs were recorded , including a second voice from Lennon and the backing vocals from McCartney and Harrison. Since Harrison had difficulties playing a guitar passage, but none of the four tracks were free to record them separately, the original four tracks were transferred to a fresh tape by means of so-called "bouncing", with the previously two separate vocal tracks on one new track were mixed together. The instruments remained on two separate tracks, which gave a track on which Harrison could play his lead guitar.

On April 18, 1965, George Martin made the mono mixes of the piece. The stereo mix followed on June 18, 1965. A different vocal track was used for the stereo version. The difference is a change in the text - Lennon sings "but" instead of "and" in the stereo version (heard at 0:21 min playing time) - and a different phrasing of the words "changed my mind" (heard at 0:27 min playing time) ). In the USA , music producer Dave Dexter, who works for Capitol Records , added an intro to the piece, the James Bond theme. In this version it was released on the American albums.

Publications

Help! was released as a single on July 19, 1965 in the US and on July 23, 1965 in the UK . On the B-side was the Lennon / McCartney composition I'm Down . In August 1965 the song appeared on the soundtrack album Help! . It was released again in December 1966 on the compilation A Collection of Beatles Oldies . The piece was part of the Beatles' live repertoire during the 1965 North American tour and a live version of the August 29, 1965 concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood appeared on the 1977 album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl. Another live recording of the performance at the ABC Theater in Blackpool on August 1, 1965 is on Anthology 2 .

Cover versions

As with many pieces by the Beatles, Help! numerous cover versions recorded. In 1968 the band Deep Purple released a version on their debut album Shades of Deep Purple . Tina Turner recorded a version for her album Private Dancer in 1984 . The British girl band Bananarama recorded a version together with Lananeeneenoonoo in 1989 for a charity project, which was successfully placed in the charts. Neil Innes wrote a parody for the Rutles with the title Ouch !, the melody and arrangement of which is heavily based on the original. In the hospital series Bettys Diagnose , which has been broadcast on ZDF since 2015 , a cover version in over one hundred episodes serves as the theme song.

Web links

• Help! at www.beatlesbible.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Barry Miles: Paul McCartney. Many Years From Now. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1998, p. 239.
2. ^ Companion book DVD The Beatles - Help! - Limited edition.
3. ↑ Jann S. Wenner: John Lennon and the Beatles. Hannibal, Höfen 2002, ISBN 978-3-85445-204-1 , p. 120.
4. ↑ David Sheff: The Ballad of John and Yoko. The last big interview. Hannibal, Höfen 2002, ISBN 978-3-85445-202-7 , p. 183.
5. ↑ Booklet for the remastered CD Help! (Stereo version, 2009).
6. ^ Walter Everett: The Beatles as Musicians. The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001, ISBN 978-0-19-514105-4 , p. 297.
7. ^ Walter Everett: The Beatles as Musicians. The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2001, ISBN 978-0-19-514105-4 , pp. 406 f.