Help!

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Editorial reviews

Album Description
Help was the last Beatles album to feature a cover version (Larry Williams's "Dizzy Miss Lizzie"), and is considered a turning point in the quality of their songwriting. Like the previous album's "Im a Loser," "You've Got To Hide Your Love Away" was Lennon's nod to the influence of Bob Dylan. McCartney's gift for melody was obvious in "I've Just Seen A Face." And Harrison's songwriting contributions grew to two tracks. Instrumentally, "Ticket To Ride"'s off-beat rhythm was Ringo's masterpiece, while the string quartet in the huge hit "Yesterday" was unusual for a rock band at that time; it was the start of a stellar series of McCartney ballads with strings ("Eleanor Rigby," "She's Leaving Home"). EMI. 2005.

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Amazon.com
How John Lennon's confessional song became the title for a silly James Bond spoof I really don't know. The funny thing is, it works both ways--as a young man's personal statement about learning to open up to others, and as the frantic theme for an exotic espionage chase comedy starring those lovable mop-tops (this time in color). Like A Hard Day's Night, only the first "side" of this album actually contains songs from the movie--the biggest hits being the eponymous cry for assistance and "Ticket to Ride." But part 2 has a few nice tunes as well, like "It's Only Love," "I've Just Seen a Face," and a little ditty called "Yesterday." And I always love it when they do an all-out screamer like "Dizzy Miss Lizzy," which sounds like John's raucous answer to Paul's "Kansas City/Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey" vocal on Beatles for Sale. Of course, it's essential--as are all the Beatles' soundtracks (all the Beatles' albums), with the possible exception of Yellow Submarine. --Jim Emerson

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Customer reviews

review by: costellofanpat date: 2009-01-04 rating:
Dylan's Influence Shines Through
It is easy to see how the four lads were influenced by their association with Bob Dylan on this disk. Songs like "It's Only Love", "Ticket to Ride", "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" all have very strong acoustic backing tracks, and the title song is still a winner. I particularly like the sound of the Richenbacker 12 strings and the technique used by Harrison and George Martin on "I Need You". Not necessarily their best, but still wonderful.

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review by: date: 2008-09-16 rating:
Help! Needs shipping help!
Amazon shipped the CD in a small bubble rapped/lined envelope. The jeweled box was poured out of that envelope, even the art work was cut up but the CD was unhurt! AMAZING!

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review by: The Old Grottomaster date: 2008-07-24 rating:
What a terrific nostalgic sojourn!
The music on this Classic Rock CD represents the latter end of The Beatles' "early period" (of their three musical eras). It's one of the better albums they ever produced.

This music is mostly of the happy sort, upbeat, and easy to listen to. But don't let that fool you into thinking that these compositions are not intricate and innovative as well. These songs broke a LOT of new ground when they hit AM radio at the time of their initial release.

I acquired this album (33 1/3 LP) when it first emerged in the record stores and always maintained a copy in the latest technology available... LP, 8-track (yikes!), cassette, and now CD. It never seemed to loose appeal for me even as newer [in retrospect] Classic Rock tunes evolved throughout the '60s and into the early '70s. My favorite cuts are "Help!" and "The Night Before". Of course, "Yesterday" was probably the biggest hit of them all and I liked that one as well. "Act Naturally" is a tongue-in-cheek, comic relief rendering (sorry, Buck Owens!) by the always-loveable Ringo Starr.

These songs are taken from The Beatles' film "Help!" which I never actually saw until years after hearing the film's soundtrack. It's sort of a funny, goofy flick that I enjoyed when I finally did get to view it but, commercially, I don't think it garnered much Kudos beyond the fans of The Beatles.

If you're a Classic Rock enthusiast, (present at Woodstock or not!), you won't get hurt on this one -- the tunes are as superb today as they were in 1965.

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review by: CDMan date: 2008-07-13 rating:
Not the ORIGINAL Soundtrack
This is not the American release of the Original Soundtrack, it has added a few songs not from that album and left off the original instrumentals such as "In the Tyrol", "rom me to you fantasy" " The Chase" and more.
Don't know why they can't come up with standard releases instead of UK releases here in the USA, when all we got at the time of release from Capitol was the USA version............now they are all UK.


review by: date: 2008-05-29 rating:
Help!
The Beatles-Help ****

Help! is far from the five star classic it is being labeled but it was a precursor to what was to come from the boys. Just around the corner the four lads would release five of the greatest albums in music history, so for me this plays as a warm up lap around the recording studio.

The title track 'Help' really was a personal cry for help from John Lennon, and not to mention on of the groups best. 'Yesterday' is the very best song McCartney ever recorded, it also went on to become the most covered song in history with well over five hundred version to date. 'Hide Your Love Away' would have fit better on Rubber Soul but is a nice addition to Help! ''The Night Before' is pretty catchy and Paul was really on to something here, and 'Ticket To Ride' might be the strongest thing The Beatles ever recorded. John was a true genius. As for the rest of the songs, honestly they are take it or leave it, and just because they are the Beatles does not make them great songs.

Once again while I don't think this is necessarily a classic I do think it is worth owning and one of the best 'early' Beatles albums.

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