with a little help for my friend

The second song in Sgt. Pepper's 'With A Little Help From My Friends' is one of my favorite Beatles tunes. Sweety and trippy melody and a very good Ringo voice. Not to forget the marvelous bass playing from Macca. Here are the facts about this song....

Ringo sang lead on this as "Billy Shears," a name chosen because it sounded good. The album was recorded as if Sgt. Pepper was a real band.

This was one of the very last songs Lennon and McCartney sat and wrote together. They were at Paul's house messing around on the piano. (thanks, Mike - Mountlake Terrace, WA. U.S.A)

The original title was "Badfinger Boogie." The Beatles got some use out of the name when they signed a group to their label, Apple Records, and named them Badfinger.

The cheering at the beginning was taken from a Beatles concert at the Hollywood Bowl. The Beatles had stopped touring by the time this was recorded.

This hit #1 on the UK charts 3 times: first by Joe Cocker in 1968, again by Wet Wet Wet in 1988 and finally by Sam and Mark in 2004. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)

John Lennon claimed this was not about drugs, but many people didn't believe him, including US vice president Spiro Agnew, who once told a crowd that this song was a "Tribute to the power of illegal drugs." He said 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 realized that the 'friends' were assorted drugs!" (thanks, Mike - Mountlake Terrace, WA. U.S.A)

The first line was originally "What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and throw tomatoes at me?" Ringo did not want to sing it, fearing that if they ever did it live he would be pelted with tomatoes.

The Beatles finished recording this the night they shot the cover for the Sgt. Pepper album. This continued the "Concept" of the album, but until the reprise of "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" at the end, the theme of the fictional band ends with this.

Twelve years after "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "With a Little Help from My Friends" appeared on the Sgt. Pepper album, they were released together as a 2-song medley and reached US #71 and UK #63. (thanks, Jerro - New Alexandria, PA)

BEATLES: Sgt. Pepper's MONO/Stereo

It's only months left before the first released of mono Sgt. Pepper's in CD format. These are the differences between the mono and stereo version of this great album. The mono also has more punchy sound and most important, it's the Pepper as the fabs intended.

1. The funky backwards guitar part at the end of the opening song just before "Billy Shears."


2. The flangey/ADT effect on Ringo's voice during some chorus of "With A Little Help From My Friends."


3. The tripped out flangey vocals from the second verse out on "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds."


4. The slightly longer end of "Fixing A Hole" where McCartney is wailing up high.


5. The change in tone in "She's leaving home" in the mono version - due to being sped up, not so dreary and long as in the stereo version.


6. The timing on the effects of "Mr. Kite."


7. The extended louder laughter on "Within You Without You."


8. The louder backing "oo-oo's" on "When I'm 64".


9. The "bleed edit" found at the beginning of the "Sgt. Pepper Reprise"; you can hear the machine flutter as it comes out of pause.


10. The low volume mumbo jumbo during the extended bass drum raps at the beginning of the "Sgt. Pepper Reprise".


11. The timing of the audiences are different on the "Reprise" section.


12. Paul McCartney ad libbing at the end. Paul sound like he is saying "Thank you very much good night now..." or "bye bye now".