Help! (1965)

Help! is the fifth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles and the soundtrack to the film Help!. It was released on 6 August 1965 by Parlophone. Seven of the fourteen songs, including the singles "Help!" and "Ticket to Ride", appeared in the film and take up the first side of the vinyl album. The second side includes "Yesterday", the most-covered song ever written. The album was met with favourable critical reviews and topped the Australian, German, British and American charts.

During the recording sessions for the album, the Beatles continued to explore the studio's multitracking capabilities to layer their sound. "Yesterday" features a string quartet, the band's first use of Baroque sensibilities, and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" includes a flute section. The North American release is a true soundtrack album, combining the first seven songs with instrumental music from the film. The omitted tracks are instead spread across the Capitol Records LPs Beatles VI, Rubber Soul and Yesterday and Today.

In the US, Help! marked the start of artistic recognition for the Beatles from mainstream critics, including comparisons to the European art music tradition. It was nominated in the category of Album of the Year at the 1966 Grammys Awards, marking the first time that a rock band had been recognised in this category. In 2000, it was voted 119th in the third edition of Colin Larkin's book All Time Top 1000 Albums. In 2020, it was ranked 266th on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time". In September 2013, after the British Phonographic Industry changed its sales award rules, Help! was certified platinum for recorded sales since 1994.

Background

In 1964, the Beatles appeared in their first feature film, A Hard Day's Night. Despite initial scepticism, reviews were near universal in their acclaim, elevating the Beatles' prestige as artists. Intending to make one film a year, work began on a second Beatles picture for a 1965 release. It would once again be directed by Richard Lester and produced by Walter Shenson, but written by Marc Behm and Charles Wood instead of Alun Owen. It was given the working title Eight Arms to Hold You, one of Ringo Starr's "Ringoisms"; the name stuck until early April, long enough to even appear on the US "Ticket to Ride" single, but John Lennon and Paul McCartney presumed it would be too difficult to write a compelling song with that title, so Help! was chosen instead.

According to McCartney, most of the songwriting for Help! was done at Kenwood, Lennon's house in Weybridge. McCartney also wrote some songs, e.g. "Yesterday" and "I've Just Seen a Face", at his girlfriend Jane Asher's family home, 57 Wimpole Street in London. At this time, the Beatles were heavily influenced by Bob Dylan, especially Lennon, who later referred to it as his "Dylan period". Mark Hertsgaard writes that while Dylan's influence was "evident" on Beatles for Sale, Help! is where it became "fully realized". Additionally, Help! is the first Beatles album on which drugs made a significant impact. Dylan in 1964 had introduced them to cannabis, which they smoked habitually while filming Help!, and they first encountered LSD in spring 1965. According to Alexis Petridis, drugs motivated the Beatles on Help! to take their songwriting to "new emotional depths", such as on "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" and "Ticket to Ride".