Help! (album)
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| Help! | ||
| ||
| Studio album by The Beatles | ||
| Released | August 6 1965 | |
| Recorded | Abbey Road Studios February 15-19, April 13, May 10, June 14-17, 1965 | |
| Genre | Rock and roll | |
| Length | 34:20 | |
| Label | Parlophone, Capitol, EMI | |
| Producer(s) | George Martin | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| The Beatles chronology | ||
| Beatles for Sale (1964, UK) ---- Beatles VI (1965, US) | Help! (1965) | Rubber Soul (1965)
|
Help! is the fifth album released by The Beatles, the soundtrack album from their film Help!.
Produced by George Martin for EMI Records, the album (in its original British form) contains seven songs that appeared in the movie of the same name, and seven that did not, including the most recorded song in history; the Paul McCartney ballad "Yesterday".
The critically acclaimed album also features two trans-atlantic Number One singles: "Ticket to Ride" and the title song. The album shows The Beatles, but mainly John Lennon, being influenced by Bob Dylan and folk music, with Lennon's "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" indicating an obvious Dylan influence. Lennon in later years stated that the title track of the album was a sincere cry for help, as the pressures of The Beatles' fame and his own unhappiness began to build, and that he regretted turning it from a downbeat Dylanesque song to an upbeat, poppy Beatles song because of commercial pressures. Lennon also sang the lead on "It's Only Love".
McCartney added "Yesterday", as well as "Another Girl", a fast-moving congo-esque beat pop song; "The Night Before", a standard rock & roll song; and "I've Just Seen a Face", a rollicking Dylanesque folk song often overlooked by Beatles fans (and which, along with "It's Only Love", was on the "Rubber Soul" album in the U.S.).
George Harrison contributed the low-key "I Need You" and the head-strong "You Like Me Too Much".
Contents |
[edit] Album cover
The album cover features the group spelling out a word in semaphore; the British Parlophone release featured the word 'NUJV', whilst the slightly re-arranged US release on Capitol Records appeared to feature the word 'NVUJ'. However, it may be argued that some of the members of the band have been not only re-arranged but reversed. One finds that, despite The Beatles' poor positioning, it spells out 'LPUS' — possibly meaning "Help us", "an LP by us" or "Long Play Us". Also, according to the parody of the Paul Is Dead myth known as "Everyone BUT Paul Is Dead", it is believed that NUJV allegedly means "New Unknown John Vocalist", indicating that John Lennon had died and been replaced. This is impossible though, since according to the Paul Is Dead hoax, Paul had died in 1966 and this album was released in 1965.[1]
The following semaphore characters show the correct spelling of "HELP" as seen if facing the flagman:
| Image:Semaphore Hotel.svg H | Image:Semaphore Echo.svg E | Image:Semaphore Lima.svg L | Image:Semaphore Papa.svg P |
However, research has shown that the cover photo does not spell any message at all in semaphore. The cover photographer, Robert Freeman, confirms this. Freeman wrote: ...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. (Freeman, Robert The Beatles: A Private View, Barnes & Noble, NY, p. 62 ISBN 1592261760)
[edit] CD release
The album was released on CD in 1987, using the 14-song UK track lineup. 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 George Martin. This remix is a bit controversial among Beatle fans — many purists prefer the 1965 mix. Strangely, a few Canadian-origin CD editions of Rubber Soul and Help! accidentally use the original mix of the album, presumably due to a mix-up as to which tapes were sent to the pressing plant. As of 2006, these "mistakes" sell for a fair amount in the second-hand market, when properly identified.
In 2003, the album was ranked number 332 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
[edit] Track listing
- Songs listed on side one appear in the movie:
- All songs by Lennon-McCartney, except where noted.
[edit] Side one
- "Help!" SAMPLE (148k)
- "The Night Before"
- "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" SAMPLE (153k)
- "I Need You" (George Harrison)
- "Another Girl"
- "You're Going to Lose That Girl"
- "Ticket to Ride"
[edit] Side two
- "Act Naturally" (Vonnie Morrison/Johnny Russell)
- "It's Only Love"
- "You Like Me Too Much" (George Harrison)
- "Tell Me What You See"
- "I've Just Seen a Face"
- "Yesterday" SAMPLE (126k)
- "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (Larry Williams)
[edit] Rejected songs
There were a few songs which were intended for the film, but were not used due to the Beatles' suggestions. John and Paul wrote "If You've Got Trouble" for Ringo to sing, but he hated it. Paul's "That Means A Lot" was not used because he thought it was never recorded perfectly. John had the same opinion about his "Yes It Is", but the song ended up as the B-side of "Ticket To Ride". "You Like Me Too Much" and "Tell Me What You See" were rejected from the film by Richard Lester, though they did appear on the album.
Much later, in June 1965, the song "Wait" was recorded for the album. However, all four Beatles thought the song was rather dull. "Wait" ended up on the album Rubber Soul when there were not enough songs to be put on the album for a Christmas release.
[edit] American release
The US version of the album includes the songs in the film plus selections from the orchestral score composed by Ken Thorne which contains one of the first uses of the Indian sitar on a pop album. This album is available on CD as part of The Capitol Albums, Volume 2 box set. There was an incorrect rumour that semophore cover on the American version spells "H-P-E-L" and the UK version spelled it correctly. Both of these are untrue. Neither version spells anything in semophore.
[edit] Track listing (US release)
- All tracks written by Lennon-McCartney, except where noted.
[edit] Side one
- "Help!" (preceded by Ken Thorne's James Bond-ish instrumental intro)
- "The Night Before"
- "From Me To You Fantasy" (instrumental) (Ken Thorne)
- "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away"
- "I Need You" (Harrison)
- "In The Tyrol" (instrumental) (Ken Thorne)
[edit] Side two
- "Another Girl"
- "Another Hard Day's Night" (instrumental)(Ken Thorne)
- "Ticket To Ride"
- Medley: "The Bitter End" (Ken Thorne)/"You Can't Do That" (instrumental)(John Lennon/Paul McCartney, arranged by Ken Thorne)
- "You're Gonna Lose That Girl" (as titled by Capitol Records)
- "The Chase" (instrumental) (Ken Thorne)
[edit] Release history
| Country | Date | Label | Format | Catalog |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| United Kingdom | August 6 1965 | Parlophone | mono LP | PMC 1255 |
| stereo LP | PCS 3071 | |||
| United States | August 13 1965 | Capitol Records | mono LP | MAS 2386 |
| stereo LP | SMAS 2386 | |||
| Worldwide reissue | April 15 1987 | Apple, Parlophone, EMI | CD | CDP 7 46439 2 |
| Japan | March 11 1998 | Toshiba-EMI | CD | TOCP 51115 |
| Japan | January 21 2004 | Toshiba-EMI | Remastered LP | TOJP 60135 |
| Worldwide reissue | April 11 2006 | Apple/Capitol/EMI | CD reissue of U.S. LP | CDP 0946 3 57500 2 7 |
[edit] External links
- Help! (the movie) on the IMDb
- Beatles comments on each song
- Recording data and notes on mono/stereo mixes and remixes
- A discussion on semaphore
- Yet more semaphore
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