Ticket to Ride
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the Beatles song. For the board game, see Ticket to Ride (board game) or Larry Kane, the writer of a book of the same name about The Beatles.
| "Ticket to Ride" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
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| Single by The Beatles | ||
| from the album Help! | ||
| B-side(s) | "Yes It Is" | |
| Released | 9 April 1965 (UK) 19 April 1965 (US) |
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| Format | 7" | |
| Recorded | Abbey Road Studios 15 February 1965 |
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| Genre | Hard rock | |
| Length | 3:02 | |
| Label | Parlophone (UK) R5265 Capitol (US) 5407 |
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| Writer(s) | John Lennon / Paul McCartney | |
| Producer(s) | George Martin | |
| Chart positions | ||
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| The Beatles singles chronology | ||
| "I Feel Fine" (UK-1964) --- "Eight Days a Week" (US-1965) |
"Ticket to Ride" (1965) |
"Help!" (1965) |
| Help! track listing | ||
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"Ticket to Ride" is a song by The Beatles from their 1965 album, Help!. It was recorded 15 February 1965 at Abbey Road Studios and released 9 April 1965 in the UK and 19 April 1965 in the U.S. as a single with "Yes It Is" as its b-side (see 1965 in music). The song is credited to Lennon-McCartney (as are all Beatles works by either writer), though it is considered a John Lennon song.
Lennon performed the lead vocals. The lead guitar breaks are by Paul McCartney; this was the second time the bassist played lead guitar on a Beatles record, the first being "Another Girl". Live versions of the song generally break into double-time in the "My baby don't care" section which concludes the song. George Harrison is playing his 12-string Rickenbacker guitar.
The inspiration of the song is unclear: some say it was a reference to Lennon passing his driving test, some say it was a reference to a girl walking out of his life, some say it was about buying a train ticket to Ryde (on the Isle of Wight), and the more cynical say it was about a special ticket given to prostitutes in Hamburg (where The Beatles played their earliest serious gigs) that showed they had a clean bill of health and therefore had a "Tikka to Ride".
Other explanations [citation needed] attribute the song to the experience of Lennon's mother leaving the family when he was a child, and the possibility that Lennon was exposed, perhaps by Little Richard in Hamburg, to the Negro spiritual "If I Got My Ticket, Can I Ride?".
- The Beatles - "Ticket to Ride" (file info) — play in browser (beta)
- 19 seconds (of 3:10)
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After the breakup of the Beatles, Lennon proudly claimed that it was the first heavy metal song of all time; given the droning bassline, repeating drums, and loaded guitar lines, he may be right, despite being less intense than later metal songs. Given this notion it seems almost ironic to the original concept that the famously wholesome Carpenters recorded a cover version of the song as a slow ballad in late 1969 for their debut album Offering, and the song charted as a minor #54 single on the American Billboard Hot 100 charts in early 1970. Hard rock pioneers Vanilla Fudge also recorded a cover version in 1967.
The original 45s released of "Ticket to Ride" have written on them that the song appears in the motion picture Eight Arms to Hold You. This was the original title of The Beatles' second movie Help! and was not changed until after the single was initially released.
An orchestral version of the song is barely audible in the fadeout at the very end of newer CD issues of the Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon. This is probably a mistake in remastering; coincidentally both The Beatles and Pink Floyd were well-known patrons of Abbey Road Studios.
Rolling Stone ranked the song at #384 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
| Preceded by: "Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" by Herman's Hermits |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single May 22, 1965 |
Succeeded by: "Help Me Rhonda" by The Beach Boys |
