With a Little Help from My Friends

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With a Little Help from My Friends is the second song off The Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Contents

Writing

This song, one of the few to actually have been written by both John Lennon and Paul McCartney was written specifically for Ringo to sing. Hunter Davies, who wrote a 1968 biography on The Beatles, witnessed the song being written. He said that when they would get stuck, they'd perform old rock and roll songs, look through magazines, and talk to each other until an idea came. The song was originally titled "Bad Finger Boogie," after the fact that Lennon had tried to play it on the piano while he had hurt his finger. During this writing session, Paul debuted The Fool On The Hill to John. Ringo did, however, refuse to sing one line. As he said in the Anthology book, "The song With A Little Help From My Friends was written specifically for me, but they had one line that I wouldn't sing. It was 'What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and throw tomatoes at me?' I said, 'There's not a chance in hell am I going to sing this line,' because we still had lots of really deep memories of the kids throwing jelly beans and toys on stage; and I thought that if we ever did get out there again, I was not going to be bombarded with tomatoes." It was already known that it would be joined with the song Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band since before it was recorded. On every take, it included the Billy Shears introduction. As Paul said, "He was to be a character in this operetta, this whole thing that we were doing, so this gave him a good intro, wherever he came in the album; in fact it was the second track. It was a nice place for him, but wherever it came, it gave us an intro. Again, because it was the pot era, we had to slip in a little reference: 'I get high!'"

Recording

The basic track was recorded in ten takes on March 29, 1967. It featured Paul on piano, George on guitar, John on cowbell, and Ringo on drums. The next day, the guitar, tambourine, bass, and harmony vocal overdubs were added.

Reaction

The song was thought to be about drugs, therefore, causing a lot of controversy. The then-Vice President of the US, Spiro T. Agnew, warned that the songwas a tribute to "the power of illegal drugs. The lines I get by with a little help from my friends/I get high with a little help from my friends, is a catchy tune, but until it was pointed out to me, I never realised that the ‘friends’ were assorted drugs."

Personnel

Musicians

The Beatles

Guest Musicians

Production

Available On

Available Versions

Cover Versions

  • Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass
  • Tori Amos (I Am Sam Soundtrack)
  • Joe Anderson
  • The Beach Boys
  • John Belushi
  • Bon Jovi
  • George Burns
  • Joe Cocker
  • Branimir Krstic
  • Rita Lee
  • Sergio Mendes
  • Peter And The Blizzards
  • Razorlight
  • Jim Sturgess
  • Wet Wet Wet

Source

Retrieved from "http://www.beatleswiki.org/wiki/With_a_Little_Help_from_My_Friends"
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