Help! (song)
July 1965
Help! (German: 'Help' ) is a song by British rock band The Beatles in 1965, it is the title track of the second feature film of the group Hi- Hi- help.! and was released as a single and on the soundtrack album to the film. Was composed the song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney under the Copyright common Lennon / McCartney. The single was most successful in the charts, reaching among others in the U.S. and in the UK the first place. In Germany, a second rank was the highest placing.
Formation
Help! was created under the pressure of having to compose a theme song for the second feature film of the Beatles. While director Richard Lester was able to draw on previously produced songs for the rest of the soundtrack, help came! the last song for the film. This was because the working title for the film long time Eight Arms to Hold You was. Neither Lennon nor McCartney fell to a an appropriate song. Only when Lester returned to its original music tracks for the film Help, jumped over the spark and shortly after Lennon had the right idea for the piece.
Paul McCartney later recalled the elaboration in Lennon's house in Weybridge, which he attributed to the basic idea of his partner and his own share, 30 percent quantified, which consisted mainly in the composition of the second vote. John Lennon was one of the piece to his favorites. In an interview with the music magazine Rolling Stone in 1970 he called for the reason that the song is "really", the text was still as good as the time when he wrote it.
"That was just only me, Help! sang, and I meant it like that. "
In his last major interview from 1980, Lennon took up this idea again and supplemented it with the knowledge that he had at that time unconsciously actually called for help. The text reflects the uncertainty in which Lennon was back then. In the interview, Lennon described this time as his " Fat Elvis period".
" Look at the film. He is [ ... ] I am very fat, very insecure and totally in the bucket. And I'm singing about the times when I was so much younger and all that, imagine in retrospect, how easy it was. "
The recording
The recordings for Help! found on 13 April 1965 in Studio 2 of Abbey Road Studios in London under the direction of George Martin. Responsible engineer was Norman Smith. We used a 4-track recorder. John Lennon sang the lead vocals and played a twelve-string acoustic guitar, Paul McCartney played bass guitar, George Harrison played lead guitar and Ringo Starr played the drums. Who played the tambourine, is debatable. McCartney and Harrison sang the second voice.
Overall, the group needed twelve takes to record the song. The first eight were required to take the basic framework, while the other four takes several overdubs, including a second voice of Lennon and the backing vocals of McCartney and Harrison were taken. Since Harrison playing a guitar passage had difficulties, but none of the four tracks was more free to take them up separately, a dubbing of the original four tracks on a fresh tape found by means of the so-called " Bouncing " instead, the previously two separate vocal tracks on a new track were mixed together. The instruments were on two separate tracks, one track which was won, could upload his lead guitar on the Harrison.
On April 18, 1965 George Martin produced the mono mixes of the song. The stereo mix was followed on 18 June 1965. For the stereo version while another vocal track was used. The difference is in a text change - Lennon sings in the stereo version " but" instead of " and " ( listen at 0:21 min playing time ) - and a change in phrasing the words "changed my mind" ( heard at 0:27 minutes playing time ). In the U.S., working at Capitol Records Music producer Dave Dexter added the piece to an intro, the James Bond Theme. In this version, it was released on the American albums.
Publications
Help! was published on 19 July 1965 in the United States and on 23 July 1965 in the UK as a single. On the flip side, the Lennon / McCartney composition I'm Down was. In August 1965, the song appeared on the soundtrack album Help!. Another time it was released in December 1966 on the compilation A Collection of Oldies ... but Goldies. The piece was during the North American tour 1965 live repertoire of the Beatles and a live version from the concert of the 29th August 1965 at the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, appeared in 1977 on the album The Beatles at the Hollywood Bowl. Another live recording from the performance at the ABC Theatre in Blackpool on August 1, 1965 is on Anthology 2
Cover versions
As with many pieces of the Beatles were also of Help! numerous cover versions recorded. So the band Deep Purple, published in 1968 a version on their debut album Shades of Deep Purple. Tina Turner In 1984 a version for her album Private Dancer on. The British girl band Bananarama took in 1989 together with Lananeeneenoonoo for a charity project to a version that was able to successfully place in the charts. Neil Innes wrote for the Rutles, a parody titled Ouch!, Which is based in melody and arrangement strongly to the original.