| "With a Little Help from My Friends" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Song by The Beatles from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | ||||
| Released | 1 June 1967 | |||
| Recorded | EMI Studios 29–30 March 1967 |
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| Genre | Pop rock | |||
| Length | 2:44 | |||
| Label | Parlophone PMC 7027 (mono), PCS 7027 (stereo) | |||
| Writer | Lennon–McCartney | |||
| Producer | George Martin | |||
| Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band track listing | ||||
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| "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"/"With a Little Help from My Friends" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by The Beatles | ||||
| from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band |
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| B-side | "A Day in the Life" | |||
| Released | 30 September 1978 | |||
| Format | 7" | |||
| Recorded | EMI Studios February–March 1967 |
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| Length | 4:46 | |||
| Label | Parlophone R6022 | |||
| Producer | George Martin | |||
| The Beatles singles chronology | ||||
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"With a Little Help from My Friends" (originally titled "A Little Help from My Friends") is a song written by Paul McCartney, with input from John Lennon, released on The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. The song was written for and sung by The Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr as the character "Billy Shears"; it is ranked #304 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
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Lennon and McCartney finished writing this song in mid-March 1967,[1] written specifically as Starr's track for the album. It was briefly called Bad Finger Boogie (later the inspiration for the band name Badfinger),[2] supposedly because Lennon composed the melody on a piano using his middle finger after having hurt his forefinger; but in his 1980 Playboy interview Lennon said: "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 stand up and throw 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 showered with them at all of their live performances.)[3]
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 is partly in the form of a conversation, in which the other three Beatles sing a question and Starr answers, for example: "Would you believe in a love at first sight? / Yes, I'm certain that it happens all the time."
The band started recording the song the day before they posed for the Sgt. Pepper album cover (29 March 1967), wrapping up the session at 5:45 in the morning.[4]
There have been at least 50 cover versions of the song[6] and it has achieved the number one position on the British singles charts three times: by Joe Cocker in 1968,[7] Wet Wet Wet in 1988[8] and by Sam & Mark in 2004.[9]
| "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 | Blues-rock, blue-eyed soul, gospel | |||
| Length | 5:11 | |||
| Label | Regal Zonophone | |||
| Joe Cocker singles chronology | ||||
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Joe Cocker's version was a radical re-arrangement of the original, in a slower, 6/8 meter, using different chords in the middle eight, and a lengthy instrumental introduction (featuring drums by Procol Harum's B.J. Wilson, guitar lines from Jimmy Page, and organ by Tommy Eyre). Cocker performed the song at Woodstock in 1969 and that performance was included in the documentary film, Woodstock. His cover was ranked number two in UpVenue's top 10 best music covers of all time in 2009.[10] The version heard in the film Across the Universe segues from the original to Cocker's arrangement at the end of the song.
| "With a Little Help from My Friends" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Wet Wet Wet | ||||
| A-side | "She's Leaving Home" (performed by Billy Bragg) | |||
| Released | 9 May 1988 (UK) | |||
| Format | 7" | |||
| Recorded | 1988 | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Label | PolyGram | |||
| Wet Wet Wet singles chronology | ||||
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| "With a Little Help from My Friends" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Sam & Mark | ||||
| Released | 9 February 2004 (UK) | |||
| Format | CD | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Label | S | |||
| Sam & Mark singles chronology | ||||
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The Joe Cocker version was used as the title music for the 1988-1993 television series The Wonder Years. "With a Little Help from My Friends" was played as wake-up music on Space Shuttle Mission STS-61.[11]
To date, Starr has closed every concert with each version of his All-Starr Band with this song. In recent performances, the band segues right into "Give Peace a Chance" , during which Starr walks off the stage.
McCartney and Starr performed this song for the first time together at the David Lynch Foundation Benefit Concert in the Radio City Music Hall, New York on 4 April 2009.[12]
| Preceded by "Those Were the Days" by Mary Hopkin |
UK number one single 6 November 1968 – 13 November 1968 (Joe Cocker version) |
Succeeded by "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" by Hugo Montenegro & His Orchestra |
| Preceded by "Perfect" by Fairground Attraction |
UK number one single 15 May 1988 – 12 June 1988 (Wet Wet Wet version) |
Succeeded by "Doctorin' the Tardis" by The Timelords |
| Preceded by "Take Me to the Clouds Above" by LMC vs U2 |
UK number one single 15 February 2004 – 21 February 2004 (Sam and Mark version) |
Succeeded by "Who's David?" by Busted |
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