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Help! (song)

"Help!"
Beatles help2.jpg
US picture sleeve
Single by The Beatles
from the album Help!
B-side "I'm Down"
Released 19 July 1965 (US)
23 July 1965 (UK)
Format 7"
Recorded 13 April 1965,
EMI Studios, London
Genre Folk rock
Length 2:18
Label Parlophone, Capitol Records
Writer(s) Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s) George Martin
The Beatles UK singles chronology
"Ticket to Ride"
(1965)
"Help!"
(1965)
"We Can Work It Out"/
"Day Tripper"
(1965)
The Beatles US singles chronology
"Ticket to Ride"
(1965)
"Help!"
(1965)
"Yesterday"
(1965)
Music sample
"Help!"
Song by Deep Purple from the album Shades of Deep Purple
Released July 1968
Recorded 11–13 May 1968
Pye Studios, London
Genre Psychedelic rock, hard rock
Length 6:01
Label Parlophone (UK (England))
Tetragrammaton (US)
Writer(s) Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s) Derek Lawrence
Shades of Deep Purple track listing
"Mandrake Root"
(5)
"Help!"
(6)
"Love Help Me"
(7)
"Help!"
Tina Turner - Help.jpg
Single by Tina Turner
from the album Private Dancer
B-side "Rock 'n' Roll Widow"
Released 25 February 1984
Format 7", 12" single
Recorded 1984
Genre
Length 4:30
Label Capitol
Writer(s) Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s) Wilton Felder, Ndugu Chancler, Joe Sample
Tina Turner singles chronology
"Let's Stay Together"
(1983)
"Help!"
(1984)
"What's Love Got to Do with It"
(1984)
"Help!"
Banana help.jpg
Single by Bananarama (with Lananeeneenoonoo)
from the album Greatest Hits Collection
Released February 1989
Format 7" single, 12" single, CD single
Recorded January 1989
Genre Pop
Length 2:23
Label London Records
Writer(s) Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)
Bananarama singles chronology
"Nathan Jones"
(1988)
"Help!"
(1989)
"Cruel Summer '89"
(1989)

"Help!" is a song by the Beatles that served as the title song for both the 1965 film and its soundtrack album. It was also released as a single, and was number one for three weeks in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

"Help!" was written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. During an interview with Playboy in 1980, Lennon recounted: "The whole Beatles thing was just beyond comprehension. I was subconsciously crying out for help".

It was ranked no. 29 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

The documentary series The Beatles Anthology revealed that Lennon wrote the lyrics of the song to express his stress after the Beatles' quick rise to success. "I was fat and depressed and I was crying out for 'Help'," Lennon told Playboy. Writer Ian MacDonald describes the song as the first crack in the protective shell Lennon had built around his emotions during the Beatles' rise to fame, and an important milestone in his songwriting style.

In the 1970 Rolling Stone "Lennon Remembers" interviews, Lennon said it was one of his favourites among the Beatles songs he wrote, but he wished they had recorded it at a slower tempo. In these interviews, Lennon said he felt that "Help!" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" were his most honest, genuine Beatles songs and not just songs "written to order". According to Lennon's cousin and boyhood friend Stanley Parkes, however, "Help!" was written after Lennon "came in from the studio one night. 'God,' he said, 'they've changed the title of the film: it's going to be called 'Help!' now. So I've had to write a new song with the title called 'Help!'."

According to McCartney, he was called in "to complete it", providing the "countermelody" arrangement, on 4 April 1965 at Lennon's house in Weybridge.


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Wikipedia

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