This week marked the 60th anniversary of the Beatles’ iconic record, Help!, one that spawned hits including the title track of the same name, Ticket to Ride and Yesterday.
Released on August 6, 1965 by Parlophone, the Fab Four’s fifth studio album has gone on to sell more than 11 million copies worldwide. Despite this, however, some fans of the band still feel the album is “overlooked” somewhat.
Discussing Help! on Reddit, one Beatles fanatic declared: “I think Help is overlooked as as a major transitional album for the Beatles. Rubber Soul [following release] is always designated as the Beatles’ great leap forward, and rightly so in many respects.
“But I think that huge transition in sound and style started pretty noticeably on Help, especially the Lennon songs. The lyrics of the title track, Ticket to Ride, You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away, etc.”
The summer of 1965 also saw the release of the Beatles’ Help! feature film, a musical comedy adventure that followed their silver screen debut, A Hard Day’s Night. The Reddit user continued, meanwhile: “You can start hear to Paul’s growth too from ‘hey this guy is a great musician’ to ‘this guys is one of the best musicians in the world’. George expands his style a lot too.”
And they closed by summarising: “Just a great album, that I wouldn’t necessarily put up in the rarified air of their great greats, but still under-appreciated and an album of huge growth.”
Writing in response, another Beatles fan was in agreement, penning: “For me, this too is THE transition album. Here we see the remnants of the ‘early’ Beatles period fading while their more experimental sounds are emerging.”
A second person to express their opinion also concurred, adding: “A whole lot of growing up took place in that album. John realised he could write poetic pop. Paul realized he was Mozart reincarnated. George realised he could write good songs. Ringo realised he could be as weird as he liked on the drums.”
A third commented: “I completely agree with you, I say this to people all the time when discussing the Beatles. Help!, to me, is a turning point album for the band. It’s excellent.”
Whilst a fourth Beatles fan said: “Yep, totally agree in that this is the first album that really feels like a notable shift in their music. I think you start to see the earliest roots of it in A Hard Day’s Night, and Rubber Soul marks the ‘point of no return’, but in terms of a transitionary album I’ve always seen Help as filling that role.”
Speaking to Playboy in 1980 shortly before his death, John Lennon said spoke of Help!’s release amid his “depression” surrounding the direction the Beatles were taking. Having undergone therapy which helped him to come to this realisation, he said: “I was fat and depressed and I was crying out for ‘Help.'”
Bob Spitz, who wrote a biography of the band, added: “John ploughed the tremendous emotional upheaval into his songs. He said ‘Help!’ grew out of one of the ‘deep depressions’ he went through, during which he fought the desire ‘to jump out the window’. Clearly, he wasn’t speaking literally; the people closest to John never recall any suicidal tendencies.”