Paperback Writer (Single) 1966

 
Paperback Writer 

- About six months after Rubber Soul, the band released their next stand-alone single.
- Written mostly by McCartney.
- Influenced by their contemporaries and rivals The Beach Boys.
- The first Beatles single to not be a love song of any kind.
- One of the last new songs the band would perform live before quitting their live shows. The band would mask the harder parts to sing (such as the harmonising refrain) by encouraging the audience to scream louder by doing a 'woo' or a head wobble just beforehand. 
- McCartney sings the lead vocals, with Lennon and Harrison harmonising. Ringo plays tambourine as well as his usual drum track.
- The recording features a bigger bass sound than previous Beatles sounds. McCartney achieved this by using a loudspeaker instead of a microphone to record from his bass amp.
- This was attempt by McCartney to write a melodic song based around a single chord. Most of the song is based around G as a result.
- Took two takes to record and runs for two minutes and fifteen seconds.

Rain
- The b-side to Paperback Writer.
- Written by Lennon.
- Both this song and Paperback Writer were written during the Revolver sessions but eventually not included on that album in favour of releasing them as a stand-alone single before the album's release.
- Lennon wrote the song after the band toured Australia. On their arrival into the country they were met with rain the likes of which they had never seen.
- Owing to the band's reluctance to continue performing live, a promotional video was made to this song and given to various TV stations around the world to play. This is pretty much the first time such a thing was done, making the Beatles the originator of the music video.
- Also owing to the fact that the band would no longer be playing their songs live, they started to become more enthusiastic about musical experimentation. The sound of Lennon's vocals were altered by recording them on a slowed-down tape recorder and then speeding the tape up to normal speed to match the tempo of the song. Similar things were done in the opposite direction to alter backing tracks as well.
- This song is the first recording to feature backwards vocals as well. Both Lennon and George Martin take credit for this innovation. 
- McCartney came up with the idea of slowing the song down to give it an Indian-like drone vibe. This shifts the key down from A into G.
- Arguably the band's first truly psychedelic song.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals, with McCartney and Harrison providing backing vocals. Ringo provides an additional tambourine track. 
- Ringo has often cited the drumming in this song as being his best work.
- In the video clip to the song, certain closeups show McCartney's lip to be scarred and his tooth chipped due to a recent moped accident. The persistant "Paul is Dead" malarkey takes some of it's folklore from here.
- Runs for three minutes and took eight takes to record.

Rubber Soul (Album) 1965

- The sixth studio album by the band, released in December 1965. This means that they'd released six albums in just two and a half years!
- Recorded in a four week block in order to make the Christmas sales season.
- First Beatles album to be recorded in one big ol' block, as opposed to dates here and there between shows and commitments. I think this shows, and for a lot of people Rubber Soul is the first true 'album' the Beatles released.
- This is the point when the band really starts to open out and the beginning point for what some would call their 'psychedelic' period. The band was moving away from their r+b, rock roots and more becoming more and more influenced by contemporary artists such as The Byrds, the Yardbirds, Bob Dylan and The Beach Boys.
- Eleven of the fourteen songs were Lennon/McCartney compositions. Two were written by Harrison (he would now usually get two song slots each album) and one was 'written' by Ringo (he shared writing credit with Lennon and McCartney).
- The cover was the first Beatles album cover not to feature their name. The image came about after the Beatles watched some slides of photos by photographer Bob Freeman. One such slide fell askew, giving the photo an elongated effect, and the band asked for a photo to be stretched purposely to match said accident.
- The American release of the album had it's tracks re-arranged and some replaced with older tracks to give the album a more overall 'folk' style, to match the current popularity of that genre in America at the time.
- This album marks the true start of the Beatles' psychedelic era (as evidenced by the warped photo that appears on the cover).
- Martin and the Beatles began experimenting more with a wider array of instruments, most notably with the sitar - perhaps one of the most influential things the band ever did in regards to the modern pop genre. Also, several recording breakthroughs were made in the course of making this album, most notably the recording of an instrument at half-speed and then speeding it up to match the tempo of the track (as it was near impossible to play said instrument, in this case the harpsicord, at the pop-tempo employed by Beatles tracks) Also, George Martin used electronic sound processing for the first time, giving certain tracks a very heavily compressed sound - leading to the psychedelic sound the band helped popularize.
- This album also saw the lyrics move beyond simple love songs and the band started incorporating more sophisticated storytelling techniques.
- The title 'Rubber Soul' is a kind of pun that McCartney came up with to describe 'English' soul music.
- The Beatles would take a three month break after the recording of this album (their first proper break in a few years).- Rubber Soul's influence was most keenly and immediately felt in the form of the Beach Boys' album Pet Sounds, which began a short sequence of one-upmanship between the two bands.

1. Drive My Car
- Written mainly by McCartney, with some lyrical input from Lennon.
- McCartney had already wirtten the song on his own by the lyrics were derivative of older Beatles songs, so he and Lennon sat down to rewrite the words together.
- The song was used as an album opener because of it's lighthearted and upbeat nature... McCartney has tried to claim since that the words 'drive my car' were an "old blues euphemism for sex" but I think that's just him trying to sound cool.
- The doubling of bass and rhythm guitar was suggested by Harrison, giving the song a heavier bottom end than previous Beatles tracks. He also composed the guitar riff that plays throughout the verses (though, as usual, he didn't get any official songwriting credit for it).
- McCartney sings the lead vocals, and plays the piano and lead guitar (including the solo). Lennon only provided backing vocals and some cowbell, and Harrison played both the rhythm guitar and bass!
- Ringo added tambourine and cowbell alongside his drum track. Branching out Ringo!
- Runs for two and a half minutes.

2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
- Written by Lennon, with McCartney contributing the bridge section.
- The first notable western pop song to use sitar (other rock bands had used it previously in a background fashion but never in anything all that 'pop').
- The song's lyrics are characteristic of this album and the way it showcases more aggressive, antagonistic and female-sided relationship-based songs. The final line of Norwegian Wood even implies that the singer sets fire to the home of the girl in the song!
- Lennon later said he wrote the song about an affair he had whilst married to his first wife, Cynthia.
- The percussion featured on this recording is rather sparse, with Ringo playing a pair of finger-cymbals, some tambourine and the maracas.
- Harrison became intrigued by the sound of the sitar and Indian music in general whilst the band was filming the movie Help! and he saw that some background musicians were using one. He went and bought a sitar from a hock shop and decided to use it to give Norwegian Wood a different edge... he hadn't really learnt how to use it yet and just picked out notes to match the song's melody. He got lessons from Ravi Shankar afterwards and would continue to explore Indian sounds in other Beatles tracks from here on in.
- Lennon played both guitars on the recording - one a six string acoustic, the other a 12 string.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals, with McCartney providing harmony.
- The song is in triple time, which is rare amongst Beatles tracks, and earlier versions of it were played in a different key.
- Runs for just over 2 minutes.

3. You Won't See Me
- Written by Paul McCartney.
- The song was written in descending scales but also re-arranged at the last minute to reflect a more upbeat motown rhythm.
- One of McCartney's most bitter songs to date, the lyrics concern his troubles with the mrs (Jane Asher).
- At nearly three and a half minutes it was the longest song the band had ever recorded (so far), reflecting the growing trend towards longer songs at the time (in part encouraged by Bob Dylan's sometimes epic ballads).
- The song was never played live by the band, though McCartney did eventually play the song live in 2005.
- McCartney supplies the lead vocals, as well as piano and his usual bass. Lennon doesn't play any instruments on the recording other than a tambourine, though he did do harmony vocals along with Harrison.
- The hammond organ on this track is credited to Mal 'organ' Evans, who was one of the band's longstanding roadies. His contribution consists solely on one note held down towards the end of the song, lol. Guess they just wanted to get their mate's name in lights.
- The song's tempo slows down a little bit towards the end.
- Apparently it took two takes to record, but the arrangement was worked on in the studio for at least 14 hours before this.

4. Nowhere Man
- Written by Lennon, with a little bit of help from McCartney.
- Lennon sings the main vocals, with McCartney and Harrison doing backup.
- One of the earliest Beatles songs to not be about love/relationships in any form or shape.
- The lyrics were born out of Lennon's frustration. He had been trying to write the lyrics to the song for nearly 5 hours until he decided to use that as the germ of an idea, with himself being a nowhere man in a nowhere land, IE. He had nothing in terms of ideas for lyrics. He used this as a base to then explore his own lack of sense of direction at that point in his life. Fans at the time had a different perception of the song, with many seeing it as a payout on the older generation who didn't "get it".
- This song was used as the basis for a character in the 1968 animated Beatles film Yellow Submarine.
- Released as a single in the U.S. in February 1966, where it went to #1.
- Amazingly, both Lennon and the rest of the band didn't really think much of this song at the time of recording. It was written as filler!
- Took 4 takes to complete, and runs for two and a half minutes.

5. Think For Yourself
- Written by Harrison.
- Harrison's most accomplished song to date. At this point Harrison was starting to catch up to Lennon and McCartney. This would spell trouble for the division of what songs would get chosen for Beatles' albums in the near future.
- Harrison provides the lead vocals and guitar on the recording, with Lennon providing an organ track instead of any guitar. Lennon and McCartney both provide backing vocals. Ringo overdubbed some maracas and tambourine.
- Many thought this song was a jibe at Harrison's then current-girlfriend Pattie Boyd. The lyrics were, however, a more general warning against listening to lies. In later years Harrison said that he felt that the lyrics were probably inspired by the government but that he couldn't remember for sure (drugs, lol)
- Features the use of a fuzzbox on a bass, one of the first times this had been used in a pop recording, though McCartney also added a regular bass track to keep the melody intact.
- Runs for almost two and a half minutes and took only one take to complete.

6. The Word
- Written by Lennon.
- Lennon's first attempt to write an anthem-ish message song.
- McCartney and Lennon often liked to set themselves fun challenges, one such challenge that they visited and re-visited was the idea of basing a song around one note only (inspired by songs like Long Tall Sally, which they enjoyed playing). This song is an example of this, with the entire thing based almost entirely around D major.
- Apparently Lennon and McCartney smoked a lot of pot while writing this song (two things they didn't normally combine).
- Lennon sings the lead vocals, with McCartney and Harrison providing backing vocals. McCartney also plays the piano track in addition to his regular bass duties.
- George Martin plays the harmonium solo.
- Ringo provides a maracas track as well as his drum track.
- Runs for two minutes and forty seconds, and took 3 takes to record.

7. Michelle
- Written mainly by McCartney, this is the last track of Side A.
- McCartney first started composing in 1959 as a joke song inspired by lefty French students, with the lyrics made up mainly of french-sounding groans and moans.
- The original version (which was really just the song's intro) was in the key of C major. This was changed to F major for the recording.
- Lennon suggested to McCartney that he should rework it as a proper song for Rubber Soul.
- McCartney got some help from a friend of his, a french teacher named Jan Vaughn, to provide the french phrases used in the song.
- Lennon provided the "I love you, I love you, I love you" stuff in the bridge, he had heard someone emphasizing the you part in another song and suggested using something similar.
- George Martin claims to have written the guitar lead heard in the bridge and outro. He probably did, his influence on Beatles songs shouldn't be underestimated.
- McCartney sings the lead vocals, Lennon and Harrison do the back up.
- McCartney plays bass and guitar on this one, with Lennon providing rhythm guitar. In addition to this, Harrison provides two guitar tracks (one lead and one rhythm). Some fans and Beatleologists claim that McCartney may have actually played all the guitar tracks but that this was too early in the game for him to take all the credit officially.
- This song got nominated for a Grammy in 1967. The Beatles had been previously nominated in 1966 nine times but failed to win anything. Michelle won song of the year, and signaled the turning tide in how important everyone was starting to realise the band was.
- Took two takes to record, and goes for two minutes and forty seconds.

8. What Goes On
- Written by Lennon back when he used to play in the Quarrymen, in the late '50s.
- The band originally hoped to record it as a follow up to their Please Please Me single but they ran out of time.
- Lennon decided to resurrect it as a token song for Ringo to sing on Rubber Soul.
- McCartney and Ringo worked on the bridge/extended bits in the song. It wasn't much of an addition to the song (Ringo apparently wrote just five words) but Ringo was given his first songwriting credit for his troubles! (A man's gotta eat, right?)
- This is a very country-ish track (the country 'arrangement' of it was probably influenced by Ringo's love of country and western music). Harrison provides the lively lead guitar work, much in the same style he employed for the band's cover of Carl Perkins' Everybody's Trying to be My Baby.
- Ringo sings the lead vocals, with Lennon and McCartney doing harmony back up.
- Recorded in one take. During the same sessions an unused 6 and a half minute instrumental referred to as 12 Bar Original was recorded. It was later released as part of the mid-90s Anthology series.
- Released as the B-side on the Nowhere Man single in America.

9. Girl 
-Written by Lennon. McCartney claims to have helped co-write it, but after the Beatles broke up Lennon wasn't much of a fan of admitting which of his songs McCartney helped on, so it's a bit hard to tell.
- Apparently it was partially based on an instrumental song McCartney had written back in 1963, and Lennon resurrected it after being inspired by the Greek-o-mania that had come from the recent film Zorba the Greek.
- It's a bit of a sick joke that the country music shite-o-rama What Goes On sits between this track and Michelle in the album's track listing. It's like watching a movie marathon where the first movie is The Godfather, the second movie is Big Momma's House and the third movie is Citizen Kane.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals and plays an acoustic guitar track.
- The band gets away with quite a bit for a song released in the mid-60s. The backing vocal sung by McCartney and Harrison is 'tit-tit-tit-tit-tit-tit' and the sucking sound is allegedly meant to signify a mad toke on a reefer.
- Harrison plays a 12 string acoustic on the recording, as well as a regular acoustic track. He had originally added a fuzz-pedal lead bit but this was edited out.
- The last song recorded for the album Rubber Soul. It runs for two and a half minutes and took two takes to record.
- Capitol Records intended to release this as a single in 1977 to help promote their Beatles compilation Love Songs. It was canned at the last minute.
- Lennon 'sequelised' this song on a solo album in 1980 as Woman (the grown up version of 'Girl').

10. I'm Looking Through You 
- Written entirely by McCartney.
- Another McCartney song about his break up with Jane Asher.
- Lennon plays an acoustic guitar on the recording, and McCartney also provides an acoustic guitar track alongside his bass.
- Ringo at his most multi-instrumental! Ringo provides the drum track, tambourine, a 'matchbox' track (where Ringo taps on a miked-up box of matches) and the organ (you know, that bit which goes 'DAH DAH' on the same note). 
- I'm not sure about the vocals, it sounds like it might just be McCartney doing both lead and backups.
- The band recorded three different versions of this song before settling on the one that would be included on the album. One of the alternate versions would eventually show up on the Anthology albums, featuring a different rhythm and missing some of it's parts.
- The version included on the U.S. release features a false guitar start.
- Runs for two and a half minutes, and once the arrangement was settled it took only one take to record.

11. In My Life
- Primarily written by John Lennon, though McCartney contributed to it (what and how much he contributed has remained in dispute).
- Lennon said that McCartney wrote the bridge section of the song, whereas McCartney claims to have written all the actual music and melody (with Lennon supplying the lyrics). After the Beatles finished, this and Eleanor Rigby are the two main songs that they would disagree so strongly about in reference to who wrote them.
- Rolling Stone magazine placed it 23rd in their 500 greatest songs of all time list, and Mojo magazine placed it 1st.
- Written somewhere around late 1964. Lennon wrote the lyrics in response to a journalist's suggestion that he write songs about his childhood. Lennon was less than happy with the result, and felt the whole concept rather boring, so he enlisted the help of McCartney about a year later to re-write it. The line that refers to friends who are dead is said to directly mean Stu Sutcliffe, the Beatles' first bassist.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals and plays a guitar on the track, and McCartney and Harrison provide harmony vocals. Harrison also did two seperate guitar tracks (one lead and one rhythm). Ringo plays the tambourine in addition to his drum track.
- Lennon asked George Martin to play a baroque-sounding piano piece for the instrumental-bridge section of the song. Martin wrote a suitably classical sounding piece for the section but when he went to record it he found that the song's tempo was too fast for him to physically play it. So (and this is the groundbreaking part) Martin recorded the solo at half-speed and simply speeded it up, which also gave the piano a decidedly un-piano sound (it sounds very much like a harpsichord). Subsequently, of the many cover versions performed of this song, very few of them feature this solo.
- Runs for nearly two and a half minutes and took three takes to record.
- George Harrison played the song on his 1974 Dark Horse tour, which Lennon disapproved of.

12. Wait
- Co-written by Lennon and McCartney, Lennon wrote the verses and McCartney the bridges.
- Both Lennon and McCartney sing the lead vocals together for most of the song, with McCartney singing on his own for just the bridge.
- Harrison provides two seperate guitar tracks (one for lead and one for rhythm). Ringo also provides a bit extra with tambourine and some maracas.
- Originally recorded for Help! but left off the album because the band felt it was below-par.
- In order to fill out Rubber Soul quickly enough to get it released before Christmas the band decided to pull this song out of the archive and re-dubbed certain parts to bring it in line with the overall feel of the new album.
- Runs for just over two minutes and took four takes to complete.

13. If I Needed Someone
- Written by Harrison.
- Harrison was influenced by the Byrds, who had in turn been influenced by his own use of the electric 12-string guitar on A Hard Day's Night. Harrison based this song around a riff he had adapted from a Byrds song, and sent a tape of it to the Byrds prior to release.
- Music nerds: this song is in the key of A Mixolydian. Meaning it is basically in a major scale, only the starting note is moved down a semitone.
- Harrison sings the lead vocals, though McCartney and Lennon harmonise with him quite heavily throughout. Harrison also double-tracked his vocals for his solo vocals in the bridge section.
- The first Beatles song to make use of a capo.
- This is the only Harrison-composed song to ever be played by the band whilst they were on tour.
- Harrison played it live with Eric Clapton in 1992.
- The Hollies recorded their own version of this song in 1966 (making this one of the first Harrison-penned songs to be recorded by another group). The single wasn't much of a success for the Hollies, and a slanging match erupted between the Beatles and the Hollies in the press afterwards.
- Runs for two minutes and nineteen seconds, and took one take to record.

14. Run for Your Life
- Written by Lennon.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals and contibutes both electric and acoustic guitar tracks.
- McCartney and Harrison sing backing vocals, and Harrison plays both lead and rhythm tracks.
- Ringo supplies a tambourine track in addition to his drumming.
- Features rather aggressive lyrics for a Beatles song, with Lennon taking inspiration from the line 'I'd rather see you dead then be with another man' from an earlier Elvis song.
- Lennon later remarked in interviews that this was the Beatles song he most regretted writing, and he often named it as amongst his worst songs.
- George Harrison reportedly liked it the most out of all the songs on this album.
- Runs for two minutes and 17 seconds, and took five takes to record.

We Can Work It Out (single) 1965

1. We Can Work It Out
- 5 months after the release of Help! and it's related singles, came this single and the album Rubber Soul (both released on the same day in early December 1965).
- this song is one of the few post-1963 Beatles songs to be co-written 50/50 between McCartney and Lennon.
- this single was the first single to ever be designated as a 'double A-side'. McCartney wanted We Can Work It Out to be the A-side, whilst Lennon favoured Day Tripper. Radio stations had a field day marketing it as the first double a-side and it became one of the band's fastest selling singles.
- McCartney did the verses, writing about his experiences with his then-wife Jane Asher, and Lennon contributed the bridge section.
- George Harrison suggested the waltz-timing for the bridge, making this the first Beatles song to switch time signatures mid-song.
- the band spent 11 hours non-stop working on this song, the longest they had spent in one sitting on a single track to date.
- McCartney sings the lead vocals, which he double-tracked in two different sessions.
- Lennon plays the harmonium on the recording, as well as acoustic guitar. Ringo provides some tambourine along with his usual drums.
- A video of the Beatles performing this song (with no audience) was specially recorded for promotional purposes, making it the first music video.
- Runs for just over two minutes, and took two takes to record.

2. Day Tripper
- Lennon wrote this song under pressure to deliver another commercial hit single. He wrote the famous guitar riff that opens the song and majority of the lyrics, whilst McCartney contributed some of the bridging chords.
- the song is written to make the listener think it is a standard 12-bars blues-type deal but then prematurely flips back into where it began... this kind of gimmick-ish self-awareness and playing with conventions would start to characterize the band's songs during the mid-60s and was reflective of their sense of humour (and some might say cockiness) in regards to music.
- Lennon implied in later years that the song's lyrics were a swipe at McCartney's hesitance to take LSD.
- Lennon later felt that the recording for this song was a bit rushed.
- McCartney sings the lead vocals despite Lennon being the primary composer. Both Lennon and Harrison provide backing vocals.
- Ringo overdubbed some tambourine.
- Much like We Can Work It Out, a special promo video was shot for this song.
- Runs for about two minutes and fifty seconds, and took 3 takes to finish.

Help (Album) 1965

- The fifth studio album by the band, released in August 1965.
- It was released to coincide with the film Help! It features seven tracks from this movie, plus seven other songs. Only two songs overall were covers.
- Harrison got two of his original compositions included on the album, the first McCartney and Lennon allowed such a thing since the band's second album back in 1963.
- The cover was meant to show the band spelling out 'help' in flag-signage, but it didn't look aesthetically pleasing to the photographer so they instead spell out something like 'NUJV'.
- Two of the songs featured on the album were intended to be featured in the film alongside the other seven songs, but the director rejected them. These were You Like Me Too Much and Tell Me What You See.
- Two other tracks were recorded for the album but ultimately ditched because the band weren't happy with them. These were If You've Got Trouble (ultimately replaced by Act Naturally) and That Means a Lot (which the band decided to give to P. J. Proby to release as a single). Both of these songs ended up on the Anthology compilations a couple of decades later.
- Other songs written for the album but rejected include: Yes It Is (which ended up as a pre-album B-side) and Wait (which later turned up on the Rubber Soul album).
- The U.S. release of the album only featured the seven songs that were in the movie, alongside a bunch of instrumental tracks from the film composed by Ken Thorne and conducted by George Martin.
- This was the last Beatles album to feature any covers until Let It Be (and even that doesn't really count).

1. Help
- Released as a single prior to the album's release. See full song info here.

2. The Night Before
- Written by McCartney.
- It's kind of a mix between a very 60s-sounding pop song and a more traditional blues arrangement.
- McCartney sings the lead vocal, and Lennon plays an electric piano instead of guitar. Harrison and Lennon provide harmony vocals in the verse and chorus.
- This is probably the first recording where Lennon doesn't play guitar.
- The guitar solo is actually played by McCartney, and achieved by overdubbing two guitar leads over each other.
- Took just two takes to complete and runs for two and a half minutes.

3. You've Got to Hide Your Love Away
- Written by Lennon, who also provides the lead vocals.
- A very Dylanesque track, it features little more than acoustic guitar and some sparse percussion. Lennon even apes Dylan's gruff way of singing. Lennon would revisit this folksy style of song throughout the rest of the band's career.
- The line 'two foot small' was meant to be 'two foot tall' but Lennon muddled up the words. He decided to leave the mistake-version in for 'the pseuds' (I assume this means 'pseudo-intellectuals', a long time bugbear of Lennon's).
- Folklore has it that this song is about Brian Epstein, the band's gay manager (this doesn't mean he managed their gay tendencies, it means he himself was gay). Lennon acknowledged that the song was a shift towards a more personal style of lyric-writing but actually confirmed what it was about (it may have been just as easily about an extra-marital affair Lennon was having another woman while married to his first wife Cynthia).
- Lennon plays a 12-string acoustic guitar, and Ringo plays tambourine, a shaker and some maracas. A guy named John Scott was brought in to play the flute for the bridge section (which is actually two different kinds of flutes put together in the recording). Both McCartney and Harrison also play acoustic guitar in the track.
- One of the first Beatles songs not to feature any bass at all. Very few other Beatles songs would do the same.
- You can barely hear but Harrison is actually singing a harmony in the chorus.
- Runs for just two minutes and took 9 takes.

4. I Need You
- Written by Harrison, who also sings the lead vocals.
- Thought to be about Pattie Boyd (the first of several songs she inspired!)
- Harrison uses a volume/tone pedal to help colour the song up a bit. Along with his more successful use of it on Yes It Is, it's considered to be one of the first times such a thing was used in a recording.
- Lennon plays an acoustic guitar instead of an electric in the recording, and both he and McCartney provide backing vocals.
- A rather melancholy song, and quite a dud.
- Runs for 2 and a half minutes, and took five takes to record.

5. Another Girl
- Written by McCartney, he wrote the lyrics whilst on holidays in Tunisia.
- The lyrics reflect McCartney's increasing distance from his girlfriend at the time, Jane Asher.
- Around this time the band put lesser songs along these lines to a 'test'... meaning that all 4 members of the band had to seriously like it for it to be included on an album.
- Harrison did about 10 rejected takes of lead guitar with his new tone pedal before McCartney decided to do the lead himself. This marked the beginning of a trend where McCartney would sometimes take lead guitar duties, which must've annoyed Harrison a bit.
- Aside from the lead guitar overdub, most of the song was completed in just one take. The song itself runs for two minutes.
- Lennon plays acoustic guitar, and both he and Harrison provide backing vocals.

6. You're Going to Lose That Girl
- Written by Lennon.
- Features an unusual and effective key change between two parts of the song.
- The lyrics reflect the third-person technique used previously in She Loves You.
- McCartney plays piano on the recording, and Ringo dubs in some bongo action. Lennon's guitar track is acoustic, and both McCartney and Harrison provide backing vocals.
- The recording was actually a bit rushed as the band was due to start filming the Help film, which accounts for the way the backing vocals sometimes warble from an offkey note into the right one, and why McCartney's piano-playing hits an occasional bum note.
- Harrison later re-recorded his guitar solo but it was never used.
- The record company planned to release this as a B-side to the special single release of the song Girl to help promote the 1977 Beatles compilation Love Songs. It was canned at the last minute.
- Runs for two minutes and twenty seconds, and took three takes to complete.

7. Ticket to Ride
- Released as a single prior to the album's release. See full song info here.

8. Act Naturally
- The first track on Side B of the album.
- This is a country song that was originally written by Johnny Russell in 1961, and recorded by Buck Owens as a hit in 1963.
- It was tradition to give Ringo a song on each album to sing... he originally sang the Beatles' original If You've Got Trouble but the rest of the band decided to drop this song altogether as it was a real piece of crap (even Ringo didn't like it!). As Ringo was a big fan of country music Act Naturally was chosen as a quick replacement.
- Only McCarney provides backing vocals.
- The band mucked about with the arrangement (hence the multiple takes) before deciding to keep it like Buck Owens' rockabilly version.
- This song was also released as the B-side for the U.S. single Yesterday. HOWEVER when this single was re-released in 1971, Act Naturally was actually included as the A-side as the American record company had always considered it better than Yesterday!
- At one point the band was allegedly going to record a song written by their recording engineer, Norman Smith. He was apparently offered 15 000 pounds for the band to buy the song outright but when McCartney and Lennon realised they had yet to record a song for Ringo to sing on Help! the plan was scrapped altogether. Poor Norman!
- In 1989 Ringo and Buck Owens teamed up to do a duet version of this song as a single.
- I really, really, really hate this song. And yet it's still better than If You've Got Trouble.
- Took 13 takes, and comes in at two and a half minutes.

9. It's Only Love
- Written mainly by Lennon, with some input from McCartney.
- Lennon didn't think very highly of it afterwards, he liked the melody but thought the lyrics were too run-of-the-mill.
- The song's working title was That's a Nice Cap.
- Lennon sings the lead vocal and plays a 12-string acoustic guitar, with Harrison playing not one but two guitar tracks. There are no backing vocals.
- The guitar solo is played through the speaker of a Hammond organ, which is what accounts for the unusually bright sound.
- Ringo had trouble with the drums for this song, which is why it took a few takes. He overdubbed some tambourine afterwards, perhaps hoping to make it sound stronger.
- Runs just under two minutes, and took six takes.

10. You Like Me Too Much
- Written by Harrison, another song about Pattie Boyd. It's likely that Lennon helped him with structuring it.
- Harrison sings the lead vocals.
- Features Lennon playing electric piano, and both McCartney and George Martin play two seperate parts on a normal piano at the same time. Ringo gets to add in some tambourine as well as his drum track.
- Lennon also plays acoustic guitar but as usual for songs not written by himself or McCartney he was reluctant to provide any backing vocals, so McCartney sings harmony alongside a second vocal track from Harrison.
- The piano and bass were dubbed into the song seperately to the rest of the instruments, the piano bit in question is the boogie-woogie intro and outro.
- Runs for two and a half minutes and took 8 takes.

11. Tell Me What You See
- Written mainly by McCartney, though it has the fairly dubious distinction of being one of the few Beatles song he has very little memory of.
- The electric piano on this track is played by McCartney. He also provided some extra instrumentation in the form of the guiro, an Afro-Cuban percussion instrument. Ringo also overdubbed some tambourine and claves.
- The guitar played in this recording is a typical electric guitar but played in a more acoustic-style of strumming to suit the song's folkish style.
- Runs for two and a half minutes, and took four takes.

12. I've Just Seen a Face
- Written by McCartney, another folk-ish styled track for the album (and almost Simon and Garfunkelesque).
- Was tentatively titled Aunty Jin's Theme after McCartney's aunt.
- Lennon, McCartney and Harrison all play acoustic guitar on this track. Like You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, it's one of the few Beatles songs to not feature any bass.
- McCartney sings both the lead vocal and the backing harmony vocal, probably because the backing vocals were too high for Lennon to hit.
- Ringo uses the brushes on his snare for this track and also overdubbed some maracas.
- McCartney still continues to play this song in his live set.
- Runs for two minutes, and took six takes.

13. Yesterday
- Written by McCartney.
- McCartney famously claims to have composed this in a dream and then eagerly recorded it after waking up so that he wouldn't forget it. This was most likely in 1964.
- The song was written in pieces a long time before finally turning up in a recording... McCartney was afraid he had unknowingly plagiarised an already existing song (due to the manner he had written it) and so he showed it to everyone he could in order to check it wasn't something that already existed before he felt comfortable enough to think it was his own song.
- After this it still took some time for the song to appear, most likely because George Martin and McCartney disagreed about the arrangement of the track or perhaps because...
- ...the rest of the band didn't really like the song. They felt it was too different to everything else they had been recording and they vetoed it being released as a single in the U.K.
- The record company considered releasing it as a solo Paul McCartney single after this but McCartney decided it wasn't worth causing trouble in the band over.
- The song was ultimately released as a single, but only in the U.S.
- A string quartet (two violins, a viola and a cello) features in the recording along with McCartney and his acoustic guitar, but none of the other Beatles contribute anything to the track.
- McCartney was initially afraid that George Martin's idea for the arrangement (just acoustic guitar and strings) might be a bit too easy listening. Martin also had to talk him into using the one-word title Yesterday, as McCartney at that point felt one-word titles were a bit cheesy.
- A full band version was attempted but it didn't really go ahead. Some concerts in Japan apparently featured the entire band playing it together.
- The working title for this song, for a long time, was Scrambled Eggs... this was because of the nonsensical working lyrics McCartney originally used before finishing the song.
- It was offered to Chris Farlowe to record and release as a single but he turned it down because it was too soft.
- Although it wasn't released as as single, it did see release as the title track of a UK-released EP in 1966 along with Act Naturally, You Like Me Too Much and It's Only Love. A tenth anniversary single was also rfeleased in 1976 with I Should've Known Better as the B-side.
- The song is the most covered song ever, with over 3000 known cover versions released since 1965!
- Runs for just two minutes and took two takes to complete.

14. Dizzy Miss Lizzy
- A cover; originally by Larry Williams, who released it as a single in 1958.
- Was originally recorded with the intention of putting it on a compilation album for release in the U.S. McCartney was so happy with how it turned out that they ended up putting it on the Help! album instead.
- The lead vocals are sung by Lennon. McCartney supplies an electric piano track in addition to his bass.
- Brian Epstein originally suggested it as a possible cover. Ringo later brought the idea up again, leading to this recording.
- The Beatles extended the song a bit longer than the original version by adding an extra verse, most likely something they may have done while playing it in their Hamburg days.
- Lennon later played it live on his own after the band broke up.
- Runs for nearly 3 minutes, and took 7 takes.

Help (Single) 1965

1. Help
- Title track and pre-single for the band's forthcoming album of the same name, and also the name of their forthcoming second film.
- Released in July 1965.
- Written mostly by Lennon, with McCartney helping with a few odds and ends.
- The lyrics reflect Lennon's difficulty with coping with the success of the band and his own general insecurities.
- One of Lennon's favourite Beatles tracks that he wrote, mainly because he felt it came more from the heart than a lot of others he had written. He also liked it because it wasn't written for any purpose other than as an outlet for his feelings.
- In later years Lennon said he regretted not recording it at a slower tempo. He tried to record it at a slower tempo at the time but George Martin and the rest of the band felt it needed to be faster since it was slated as the next single.
- The single version and the album version have slightly different lyrics, and the American version starts with an instrumental intro.
- Lennon plays a 12-string acoustic guitar on the recording and does the lead vocals. McCartney and Harrison provide backing vocals, and Ringo plays a tambourine track as well as his usual drum stuff.
- Took 12 takes and runs for two and a half minutes.

2. I'm Down
- B-side to Help!
- Written by McCartney.
- One of the more energetic Beatles song, very much influenced by 50s R+B artists like Little Richard.
- An alternate take exists where the song is played at a slower tempo and without the backing vocals.
- The lyrics are very much a tongue-in-cheek swipe at Lennon's lyrics for Help! from McCartney. It's somewhat fitting that they should appear on the same single together.
- The band often closed their live set with this song throughout 1965, and McCartney purposely wrote this song for such a purpose (they had previously often closed their set with Long Tall Sally, which has a similar structure/feel).
- McCartney sings the lead vocals, with Lennon and Harrison providing the backing vocals. Lennon also plays the organ on the recording (the first time he would do so), and Ringo plays some bongos.
- Took 7 takes and runs for two and a half minutes.

Bad Boy (US-only track) 1965

#. Bad Boy
- Features on the US-only album Beatles VI, released in June 1965.
- Was eventually released onto the UK market as part of a compilation album a year and a half later (December 1966).
- Originally written, performed and released by Larry Williams as a single in 1959.
- The band recorded the song on Williams' birthday, the 10th of May.
- Lennon sings the lead vocals.
- Recorded in the same session as Dizzy Miss Lizzy during the making of the Help! album. Both were intended as US-only tracks, but Dizzy Miss Lizzy ended up getting included on Help! due to a shortage of material.
- This is one of the only official Beatles studio recordings that isn't found on one of their official UK albums, singles or EPs.

Ticket to Ride (Single) 1965

1. Ticket to Ride
- Released in April 1965, and later featured in the Help! film (originally titled Eight Arms to Hold You) and on the album of the same name.
- Written by Lennon, this remained one of the Beatles tracks that he was most proud of (especially the double-time ending).
- McCartney claims to have written about 40% of it but Lennon disputed this and responded that McCartney was only responsible for the way Ringo plays the drums in it.
- Popular myth/folklore has it that the song was originally titled Ticket to Rye (as in the train station Rye) and that the title was changed so as not to confuse American fans. I doubt that's true, but it's pretty funny either way.
- This song was 'heavier' sounding than any other Beatles songs before it, especially in terms of the drums and the drone-style bass.
- This may be due to the fact that it was the first time the band layed down all the rhythm tracks before building on top of it with melody and vocals. A lot of Beatles fans see this song as the first in their 'middle period'.
- Lennon plays a 12-string acoustic guitar on the recording, and McCartney contributes both guitar and bass tracks. Harrison doesn't play guitar at all on the recording, instead just singing some harmony vocals.
- Ringo provides handclaps and tambourine alongside his drum track. Multi-talented!
- Some footage of the band performing this song only survives thanks to the fact that it was included in it's entirety as part of a Doctor Who episode broadcast in 1965. In the episode the Beatles were originally due to appear as old man-versions of themselves, suggesting that they were going to be around for a long, long time. Brian Epstein vetoed the idea as 'silly' and this archival footage was used instead.
- Later, in the 70s, Lennon claimed that this was the first heavy metal song of all time and that he, by association, invented heavy metal. One of his more arrogant and ridiculous claims.
- Runs for three minutes, and took 2 takes. This was the longest running Beatles song to date.

2. Yes It Is
- B-side to the Ticket to Ride single.
- Written by Lennon, and possibly about his deceased mother.
- Took many takes to complete, and is the song the band spent the longest amount of time to record throughout all of 1965.
- Of the songs Lennon wrote for the Beatles, this was one of his least favourite.
- Harrison makes interesting use of a volume pedal to get some weird-ish almost violin-like sounds out of his guitar.
- Yes It Is features a higher level of harmonising from Lennon, McCartney and Harrison than usual. Harrison's vocal contributions in particular would become more frequent from this point on.
- Ringo adds a tambourine track alongside his drums.
- Runs for two minutes anf forty seconds, and took 14 takes.