Now to The Beatles and the album.
The Beatles were an English rock band formed in Liverpool in 1960. Initially, The Beatles comprised of band members John Lennon (rhythm guitar, vocals), Paul McCartney (bass guitar, vocals), George Harrison (lead guitar, vocals), Stuart Sutcliffe (bass) and Pete Best (drums). Sutcliffe left the group in 1961 and Best was replaced by Ringo Starr the following year.
The Beatles achieved success in the United Kingdom in late 1962 with their first single, "Love Me Do". Their next single, "Please Please Me" received better recognition and was released as an album in March 1963 with ten tracks. It reached number one on the British charts. In April the same year, they released their third single, "From Me to You", and it too was a chart-topping hit. Thus began an almost unbroken run of seventeen British number one singles for the band, including all but one of those released over the next six years. On its release in August, the band's fourth single, "She Loves You", achieved the fastest sales of any record in the UK up to that time, selling three-quarters of a million copies in less than four weeks.
The year 1964 saw the release of The Beatles’ first movie, “A Hard Day’s Night” (directed by Richard Lester) and it was an international success. The success led to United Artist doing another movie deal with The Beatles and with Richard Lester once again directing. Help! was The Beatles’ second movie and is a spoof from the Bond spy movies. Lennon sang and wrote majority of the songs in the album, including the two hit singles "Help!" and "Ticket to Ride". The accompanying album, the group's fifth studio LP, again contained a mix of original material and covers. Help! saw the band making increased use of vocal overdubs and incorporating classical instruments into their arrangements, notably the string quartet on the pop ballad "Yesterday". Composed by McCartney, "Yesterday" would inspire the most recorded cover versions of any song ever written.
Produced by George Martin for EMI's Parlophone Records, Help! the album contains fourteen songs, seven of which appeared in the film Help!. These songs are on the first side of the album and included the singles "Help!" and "Ticket to Ride". The second side contained seven other releases including the most covered song ever written, "Yesterday".
In 2003, the album was ranked number 332 on the Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.
My verdict: Five stars
The Beatles: HELP! 1965
Side One – Songs from the film “HELP!”
1. Help
2. The Night Before
3. You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
4. I Need You
5. Another Girl
6. You’re Going To Lose That Girl
7. Ticket To Ride
Side Two
1. Act Naturally
2. It’s Only Love
3. You Like Me Too Much
4. Tell Me What You See
5. I’ve Just Seen A Face
6. Yesterday
7. Dizzy Miss Lizzy
8 comments:
Get it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/tyzm1twgded/The Beatles - Help! OST 1965.rar
Thanks Veen for the great info on The Beatles. They were a rage in Bombay (Mumbai) too because a person like me who had no inkling of the western music also got into the stream and had to learn a few of their songs to keep up with my company of teenagers.
My most favourites Beatles numbers are: WELL SHE WAS SEVENTEEN; I SAW HER STANDING THERE; IT'S BEEN A HARD DAY'S NIGHT; I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND; and of course, the title track of HELP.
Though the two movies you mention were released in Bombay, I don't remember having watched them. Though I do remember that HELP was first released at the Rex movie-hall in Bombay. Incidentally, the Hindi movie JANWAR (1965)had a beautiful Rafi-Asha duet: DEKHO AB TOH KIS KO NAHIN HAI KHABAR that was based on I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND.
Veen, that's a very significant observation that you have made about someone wanting to get rid of old collection of the deceased person. This is more true of India. Many an old collection of rare music records were found in the Chor Bazaar (lit. "Thieves Market" where discarded things can be bought for a song) of Mumbai.
Thanks, Veen for the nice write-up and congratulations on your good fortune on getting this album.
Although not as good as "A Hard Days Night," Help is a fine film and an excellent album. I love the hits: Help, Ticket To Ride, and Yesterday. But, I also love John's bluesy "You're Going To Lose That Girl" and Paul's "I've Just Seen a Face which has a nice country feel to it.
The background score for the film used Indian music and instruments and introduced the Beatles, and particularly George Harrison, to Indian music and culture. George played the sitar on John's "Norwegian Wood" on their next album and later became a student of Ravi Shankar. Later, George wrote "Love You To" for the "Revolver" album in an Indian classical style while using the sitar, tablas and tambura. On George's "Within You, Without You," and "The Inner Light" no western instruments were used at all. In 1968 they went to India to study transcendental mediation with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
As Nasir pointed out, Shankar- Jaikishan's "Dekho Ab Toh" was based on "I Want To Hold Your Hand." Years later, they went back to the Beatles for inspiration from " A Little Help From My Friends" when they wrote "Dil Use Do Jo Jaan De De" for Andaz. Inspiration wasn't all one way, however. Some would say that George's "Within You, Without You has the feel of Naushad's "Ek Shahinshah Ne Banavake" from Leader.
Thanks again for posting the vinyl rip of Help. :)
Thanks Mister Naidu for the informative piece that DIL USSE DOH JO JAA.N DE DE is also inspired from a Beatles number, viz., A little help from my friends.
Nasir Saab and Mr Naidu: What great 'khazana' of information are you two! None of this info would be available on the net or in books and I am greatful to have befriended two great people like yourselves.
I thank my father for introducing me to the Beatles (and other stars such as Elvis, Everly Bros, Pat Boone to name a few). And Nasir Saab, I share your favourites too but I have to include YESTERDAY, LET IT BE, HEY JUDE, LOVE LOVE ME DO and WHEN I AM 64 to the list.
I wish I could go to this Chor Bazaar. I am sure it would make me 'pagal' seeing all the lovely and rare records.
Mr Naidu, I have read that The Beatles were very influenced by indian musical intruments, having gone to India not only for musical inspiration but also for spiritual inspiration which was the rage of that time and which brought about the birth of the superhit movies of that era such as PURAB AUR PARCHIM and HARE RAMA HARE KRISHNA. Funny you should mention the REVOLVER album - it is another Beatles album that I received from the dear old lady. I will post this album in the near future.
I knew that DEKHO AB TOH KIS KO NAHIN HAI KHABAR was based on I WANNA HOLD YOUR HAND. But I was not aware of the similarities between WITHIN YOU WITHOUT YOU and EK SHAHINSHAH (from Leader); and A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS and DIL USSE DOH JO JAA.N DE DE (From Andaz). I am going to check it out now.
Once gain, thanks gents for all the info. Most appreciate it.
Veen
Nasir, your welcome. And thank you for the information that you've provided on Bollywood in past posts.
Thanks for the nice words, Veen. I love the Beatles and am happy to give my opinions on them when I get the chance. Their music is timeless and is still being played and appreciated even after 40 plus years! The "Revolver" album you have is considered by many to be their best album and is a precursor to their classic "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."
Looking forward to when you get around to posting it. :)
It is possible that my own affinity for Indian music really started with The Beatles, especially George Harrison. When I was a child during the late 1960s and early '70s (living in New York City, U.S.), I was actually a fan of George Harrison. (I wouldn't admit this later in the '70s, when I became a punk rocker, but I liked George even more than John.)
Oh, and hello, Mister Naidu... You list a good song to illustrate how The Beatles used Indian influences on Revolver. Another song worth mentioning is "Tomorrow Never Knows." In the early '80s, there was also a very goood cover of this song done by Sheila Chandra and her first band, Monsoon. If anybody would like to check out both versions, here are two YouTube links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a3NcwfOBzQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkJvtIHMp9U
Hi Richard, thanks for the info and Youtube links. Awesome!
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