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Help
Song

Help

The Beatles
Album:
Help

Song Meaning of Help by The Beatles, and what it is about


“Most people think it’s just a fast rock & roll song,” Lennon said. “Subconsciously, I was crying out for help. I didn’t realize it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie.”


Overwhelmed by Beatlemania, Lennon was eating “like a pig,” drinking too much, and “smoking marijuana for breakfast” — only 24 years old, he was already expressing nostalgia for his lost youth.

“I don’t like the recording that much,” Lennon would later tell Rolling Stone. “We did it too fast, to try and be commercial.”


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


Credited to Lennon–McCartney, "Help!" was written by John Lennon with some help from Paul 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".


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.


According to Lennon's cousin and boyhood friend Stanley Parkes, "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!'.


Although Lennon was proud of "Help!" and the honesty it conveyed, he expressed regret that the Beatles had recorded it at such a fast tempo in the interests of giving the track more commercial appeal.


Help lyrics by The Beatles


Help! I need somebody

Help! Not just anybody

Help! You know I need someone

Help!

 

(When) When I was younger (When I was young) so much younger than today

(I never need) I never needed anybody's help in any way

(Now) But now these days are gone (These days are gone) and I'm not so self assured

(And now I find) Now I find I've changed my mind, I've opened up the doors

 

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down

And I do appreciate you being 'round

Help me get my feet back on the ground

Won't you please, please help me?

 

(Now) And now my life has changed (My life has changed) in oh so many ways

(My independence) My independence seems to vanish in the haze

(But) But ev'ry now (Every now and then) and then I feel so insecure

(I know that I) I know that I just need you like I've never done before

 

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down

And I do appreciate you being 'round

Help me get my feet back on the ground

Won't you please, please help me?

 

When I was younger, so much younger than today

I never needed anybody's help in any way

(Now) But now these days are gone (These days are gone) and I'm not so self assured

(And now I find) Now I find I've changed my mind, I've opened up the doors

 

Help me if you can, I'm feeling down

And I do appreciate you being 'round

Help me get my feet back on the ground

Won't you please, please help me?

 

Help me, help me

Ooh

Release Date

1965

Songwriter/s

Lennon, McCartney

Producer/s

George Martin

Label/s

EMI

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