HELP! (ALBUM)

'''Help!''', is the fifth album by The Beatles, and the soundtrack album from their film of the same name, ''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 John Lennon being influenced by Bob Dylan and folk music, with Lennon's "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" in particular, indicating an obvious Dylan influence. In later years Lennon said that the title track of the album was a sincere cry for help, as the pressures of the Beatles' fame and his own unhappiness (what he later called his fat Elvis stage) began to build, and that he regretted turning it from a downbeat Dylanesque song to an upbeat, poppy song because of commercial pressures.
McCartney contributed "Yesterday", "Another Girl", "The Night Before", and "I've Just Seen a Face" (which appeared with "It's Only Love" on the U.S. version of ''Rubber Soul'').
George Harrison contributed "I Need You" and "You Like Me Too Much". These were Harrison's first song compositions to be included on a Beatles album since "Don't Bother Me", from 1963's ''With the Beatles''.

Contents

Album cover

CD release

Track listing

Side one

Side two

Rejected songs

American release

Track listing

Side one

Side two

Release history

External links

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 were not only re-arranged but reversed as well. 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"[1]
, it is believed that NUJV allegedly means "New Unknown John Vocalist", indicating that John Lennon had died and been replaced.^[1][2]
The following semaphore characters show the correct spelling of "HELP" as seen if facing the flagman:

H

E

L

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 1-59226-176-0)

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 because of a mix-up as to which tapes were to be sent to the pressing plant. As of 2006, these "mistakes" sell for a fair amount in the second-hand market, when properly identified.

Track listing

All songs by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, except where noted.

Side one

All songs on side one appear in the movie.
#"Help!" – 2:18
#"The Night Before" – 2:33
#"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" – 2:08
#"I Need You" (George Harrison) – 2:28
#"Another Girl" – 2:05
#"You're Going to Lose That Girl" – 2:17
#"Ticket to Ride" – 3:10

Side two

#"Act Naturally" (Johnny Russell, Vonnie Morrison) – 2:29
#"It's Only Love" – 1:54
#"You Like Me Too Much" (Harrison) – 2:35
#"Tell Me What You See" – 2:36
#"I've Just Seen a Face" – 2:04
#"Yesterday" – 2:03
#"Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (Larry Williams) – 2:53

Rejected songs

A few songs that were intended for the film were not used because of the Beatles' suggestions. Lennon and McCartney wrote "If You've Got Trouble" for Ringo Starr to sing, but he hated it. McCartney's "That Means a Lot" was not used because he thought it was not 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 for use in 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.

American release

The U.S. version of the album includes the songs in the film plus selections from the orchestral score composed by Ken Thorne and performed by the George Martin Orchestra, 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 a false rumour that semaphore 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 semaphore.

Track listing

All tracks written by Lennon-McCartney, except where noted.

Side one

#"Help!" (preceded by Ken Thorne's James Bond Theme instrumental arrangement)
#"The Night Before"
#"From Me to You Fantasy" (instrumental) (Lennon, McCartney; arrKen Thorne)
#"You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"
#"I Need You" (Harrison)
#"In The Tyrol" (instrumental) (Ken Thorne)

Side two

#"Another Girl"
#"Another Hard Day's Night" (instrumental)(Lennon/ McCartney; arranged by Ken Thorne)
#"Ticket to Ride"
#Medley: "The Bitter End" (Ken Thorne)/"You Can't Do That" (instrumental)(Lennon/McCartney, arranged by Ken Thorne)
#"You're Gonna Lose That Girl" (as titled by Capitol Records)
#"The Chase" (instrumental) (Ken Thorne)

Release history

Country	Date	Label	Format	Catalog
United Kingdom	6 August 1965	Parlophone	mono LP	PMC 1255
			stereo LP	PCS 3071
United States	13 August 1965	Capitol Records	mono LP	MAS 2386
			stereo LP	SMAS 2386
Worldwide reissue	15 April 1987	Apple, Parlophone, EMI	CD	CDP 7 46439 2
Japan	11 March 1998	Toshiba-EMI	CD	TOCP 51115
Japan	21 January 2004	Toshiba-EMI	Remastered LP	TOJP 60135
Worldwide reissue	11 April 2006	Apple/Capitol/EMI	CD reissue of U.S. LP	CDP 0946 3 57500 2 7

External links

★ Help! (the movie) on the IMDb

★ The Beatles' comments on each song

★ Recording data and notes on mono/stereo mixes and remixes

★ A discussion on semaphore

★ Yet more semaphore