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
