McCartney Times

There aren’t many songs in the canon of The Beatles that evaded the wrath of John Lennon. The singer and band’s founder was notoriously difficult to please when it came to his own work and, by the time he began reviewing the record seriously, he was dissatisfied with a hefty chunk of the Fab Four’s material. One song, however, would not only evade his scathing silver tongue but also be embellished by it. For many, ‘Help!’ is now the definitive Lennon anthem.

“We think it’s one of the best we’ve written,” said John Lennon in 1965 as he contemplated on the band’s recent single, a commissioned track for their new film Help! Taking notes from the film’s title, there’s a good chance that this song could have easily passed fans by, but digging only a little deeper it quickly became prevalent that this was Lennon’s most personal song to date.

As ever with the Fab Four, a new film meant a new album and the Lennon-McCartney train looked like it showed no signs of slowing down. With a view of penning yet another smash hit, Lennon didn’t revert to the rock and roll tropes that had put him and the band over the top, and, instead, listened to the words of his newfound singing idol, Bob Dylan. The freewheelin’ troubadour had connected with The Beatles in 1964 and encouraged the group to ditch the toe-tapper and write directly from the heart.

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Source: The story behind John Lennon’s Beatles song ‘Help!’