"Help!" | |||||||||||||||||
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US picture sleeve
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Single by The Beatles | |||||||||||||||||
from the album Help! | |||||||||||||||||
B-side | "I'm Down" | ||||||||||||||||
Released | 19 July 1965 (US) 23 July 1965 (UK) |
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Format | 7" | ||||||||||||||||
Recorded | 13 April 1965, EMI Studios, London |
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Genre | Folk rock | ||||||||||||||||
Length | 2:18 | ||||||||||||||||
Label | Parlophone, Capitol Records | ||||||||||||||||
Writer(s) | Lennon–McCartney | ||||||||||||||||
Producer(s) | George Martin | ||||||||||||||||
The Beatles UK singles chronology | |||||||||||||||||
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"Help!" | ||||
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Song by Deep Purple from the album Shades of Deep Purple | ||||
Released | July 1968 | |||
Recorded | 11–13 May 1968 Pye Studios, London |
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Genre | Psychedelic rock, hard rock | |||
Length | 6:01 | |||
Label |
Parlophone (UK (England)) Tetragrammaton (US) |
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Writer(s) | Lennon–McCartney | |||
Producer(s) | Derek Lawrence | |||
Shades of Deep Purple track listing | ||||
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"Help!" | ||||
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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 | ||||
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"Help!" | |||||||||||
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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) | |||||||||||
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"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 that the song 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.