With a Little Help from My Friends

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"With a Little Help from My Friends" (originally titled A Little Help from My Friends) is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, released on The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. The song was written for and sung by Beatles drummer Ringo Starr.

[edit] Origins

The song was written specifically as Starr's track for the album. It was briefly called Bad Finger Boogie (after Lennon had composed the melody on a piano using his middle finger after having hurt his forefinger), later the inspiration for the band Badfinger. However, the notion that Lennon is responsible for the song's melody, as opposed to McCartney alone, or Lennon in collaboration with McCartney, is highly questionable in light of Lennon's remarks, in his 1980 Playboy interview, where he refers to 'With a Little Help from My Friends'" by stating: "This is Paul, with a little help from me. 'What do you see when you turn out the light/ I can't tell you, but I know it's mine...' is mine."

Lennon and McCartney deliberately wrote a tune with a limited range - except for the last note, which McCartney worked closely with Starr to achieve.

Speaking in the Anthology, Starr insisted on changing the first line which originally was "What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you throw ripe tomatoes at me?" He changed the lyric so that fans would not throw tomatoes at him should he perform it live. (In the early days, after George Harrison made a passing comment that he liked jelly babies, the group was pelted with them at all of their live performances.)^[1]

The song's composition is unusually well documented as Hunter Davies was present and described the writing process in the Beatles' official biography.

The song reads like a conversation between the singer and a group of people. For example, "Would you believe in a love at first sight/Yes I'm certain that it happens all the time". In the preceding quotation from the lyrics, the other three Beatles sing the first line, with Starr answering in the following one.

The band started recording the song the same day that they posed for the Sgt. Pepper album cover (30 March 1967). The session finished at 7:30 the following morning.

[edit] Billy Shears

Billy Shears was Starr's alias on the Beatles' 1967 album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Billy Shears is mentioned in the title song and, implicitly, as the singer of the segued-into "With a Little Help from My Friends". The cheering between the songs was taken from a recording of the Beatles' performance at the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, California.

[edit] Cover interpretations

The song has been number one on the British singles charts three times; once when it was recorded by Joe Cocker in 1968, a second time when it was covered by Wet Wet Wet in 1988 and finally when it was sung by Sam and Mark in 2004. A second recording of Cocker singing the song was made at Woodstock in 1969 and can be seen in the documentary film about the concert, "3 Days of Peace and Music". The drummer on the 1968 Joe Cocker hit single version of the song was Procol Harum's B.J. Wilson. In 1976, Jeff Lynne of ELO recorded the song for the evanescent musical documentary All This and World War II.

“With a Little Help from My Friends”
Single by Joe Cocker from the album With a Little Help from My Friends
Released	October 1968 (UK)
Format	7"
Recorded	1968
Genre	Rock
Length	5:11
Label	Polydor
Joe Cocker singles chronology
"With a Little Help from My Friends" (1988) "Delta Lady" (1969)

In 1995, Tori Amos released a cover on the unauthorized (bootleg) album Under the Covers. This version is a sparse live performance with Amos singing solo, accompanied only by her piano.^[2]

In 2007, Razorlight re-recorded the song for It Was 40 Years Ago Today, a television film with contemporary acts recording the album's songs using the same studio, technicians and recording techniques as the original.

Actors Joe Anderson and Jim Sturgess sang the song in the 2007 musical film Across the Universe. (See also "Joe Cocker version" below.)

The song appears on the album Herb Alpert's Ninth, rendered in the band's mariachi style.

[edit] Joe Cocker version

Joe Cocker's version was a radical re-arrangement of the original, in a slower, 6/8 meter, in a different key, using different chords in the middle eight, and a lengthy instrumental introduction (featuring memorable guitar lines from Jimmy Page). It was used as the opening theme song of the American television series The Wonder Years. This cover has become one of Joe Cocker's most famous songs, and it was played during the Woodstock Festival.

The version heard in the film Across the Universe segues from the original to Joe Cocker's arrangement at the end of the song.

[edit] Wet Wet Wet version

“With a Little Help from My Friends”
Single by Wet Wet Wet
Released	May 9, 1988 (UK)
Format	7"
Recorded	1988
Genre	Pop
Label	PolyGram
Wet Wet Wet singles chronology
"Temptation" (1988) "With a Little Help from My Friends" (1988) "Sweet Surrender" (1989)

Wet Wet Wet's version was released on 9 May 1988. The proceeds from sales of the single, which spent four weeks at Number One in the UK chart, were around £600,000, all of which was donated to ChildLine, the UK-based charity for abused children. Billy Bragg's performance of "She's Leaving Home" was the B-side.

[edit] Track listings

7":

1. "With a Little Help from My Friends"
2. "She's Leaving Home" (performed by Billy Bragg)

Wets frontman Marti Pellow recorded his own version of the song for inclusion on his 2002 album Marti Pellow Sings the Hits of Wet Wet Wet & Smile.

[edit] Sergio Mendes version

Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66 picked up the title line of the song and made their own jazz inspired tune at about the same time Joe Cocker did. The song, which goes by the same title became an instant hit.

[edit] Jeremiah Freed version

Jeremiah Freed released a version of the song on their 2002 EP "Times Don't Change." Their arrangement of the song features a similar tempo and feel as Joe Cocker's version, but is played in a different key. Also, the chorus line, which is sang by a choir in Joe Cocker's version, is played by the lead guitar.

[edit] Cultural legacy

John Belushi performed the song on Saturday Night Live, October 25, 1975. He covered the Joe Cocker version. Rob Reiner was hosting.

It became well-known in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Cocker's cover version was the theme song for the television series The Wonder Years.

The song is ranked #304 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

The song was performed by the characters on the Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends float in the 2006 Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Since it was public and mainly intended for children, they censored the line "I get high with a little help from my friends" by repeating the preceding line "I get by with a little help from my friends."

The title of the song gave inspiration for the title of a British reality television show 'With a little help from my friends'. In the show, numerous British celebrities would undertake a charitable task while enlisting help from their friends.

In the "English, Fitz, or Percy" episode of Prison Break, Michael Scofield refers to this song when he says "with a little help from my friends"

The song also plays an integral part in the plot of the 1971 novel "The Lathe of Heaven" by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Classical guitarist and composer Branimir Krstic arranged the song for classical guitar and performed it on the first full classical rendition of Sgt. Pepper, released by Pineapple Music in 2004.

[edit] Notes

1. ^ The Beatles, Anthology, p. 242
2. ^ Under the Covers. Retrieved on 2008-03-17.

[edit] External links

• How B.J. Wilson Rescued a Classic Joe Cocker Track (page about B.J. Wilson and Joe Cocker's recording of the song)
• The Beatles, (1978), McGraw-Hill.