It's All Too Much

AUTHORSHIP Harrison (1.00)
HARRISON: " 'It's All Too Much' was written in a childlike manner from realizations that appeared during and after some LSD experiences and which were later confirmed in meditation." I Me Mine
There is a reference to his wife, Patti Harrison in the lyrics: "With your long blond hair and your eyes of blue" - taken from the song "Sorrow," a hit for the Merseys.

RECORDED
May 25, 1967, with overdubbing May 26 and June 2, at De Lane Lea Music Recording Studios, London

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, harmony vocal, handclaps
LENNON: lead guitar, harmony vocal, handclaps
HARRISON: lead guitar, organ, lead vocal (double-tracked)
STARR: drums, tambourine
SESSION MUSICIANS: two trumpets

MISCELLANEOUS
The version in the film includes an extra verse not on the album. Beatles Illustrated Record : 3rd Revised Edition

I'm A Loser

AUTHORSHIP Lennon (.9) and McCartney (.1)
LENNON: "That's me in my Dylan period. . . . Part of suspects I'm a loser and part of me thinks I'm God almighty." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Singer Jackie DeShannon was on the Beatles' summer 1964 North American tour. She recalled that Lennon was writing this song on the plane during the tour. RS (February 16, 1984)

McCARTNEY: "Looking back on it I think songs like 'I'm A Loser' and 'Nowhere Man' were John's cries for help. We used to listen to quite a lot of country and western songs and they are all about sadness and 'I lost my truck' so it was quite acceptable to sing 'I'm a loser'. You didn't really think about it at the time, it's only later you think, God! I think it was pretty brave of John. 'I'm A Loser' was very much John's song and there may have been a dabble or two from me." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

RECORDED
August 14, 1964, at Abbey Road

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, harmony vocal
LENNON: acoustic guitar, harmonica, lead vocal
HARRISON: lead guitar (Gretsch Tennessean [model PX6119])
STARR: drums, tambourine
guitar from Guitar (November 1987)

MISCELLANEOUS
This was once considered for release as a single in the United Kingdom until Lennon wrote "I Feel Fine." The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

This song was part of the Beatles' live repertoire in 1964 and 1965. The Complete Beatles Chronicle

Here, There And Everywhere

"HERE, THERE AND EVERYWHERE"

AUTHORSHIP McCartney (.8) and Lennon (.2)
This song had its genesis in John's sleeping patterns. Paul arrived at Kenwood for a songwriting session and John was still in bed. Since it was a nice June day, Paul asked someone to make him a cup of tea and went to sit by John's swimming pool while he waited.

McCARTNEY: "I sat out by the pool on one of the sun chairs with my guitar and started strumming in E, and soon had a few chords, and I think by the time he'd woken up, I had pretty much written the song, so we took it indoors and finished it up. But it's very me, it's one of my favourite songs that I've written. Jazz people used to pick it up because they like the chord structure.
"'Here, There And Everywhere' has a couple of interesting structural points about it: lyrically the way it combines the whole title: each verse takes a word. 'Here' discusses here. Next verse, 'there' discusses there, then it pulls it all together in the last verse, with 'everywhere'. The structure of that is quite neat. And I like the tune. John might have helped with a few last words. When I sang it in the studio I remember thinking, 'I'll sing it like Marianne Faithfull'; something no one would never know. You get these little things in your mind, you think, 'I'll sing it like James Brown might', but of course it's always you that sings it, but in your head there's a little James Brown for that session. If you can't think how to sing the thing, that's always a good clue: imagine Aretha Franklin to come and sing it, Ray Charles is going to sing it. So that one was a little voice, I used an almost falsetto voice and double-tracked it. My Marianne Faithfull impression. So I would credit me pretty much 80-20 on that one." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

RECORDED
June 14, 1966, at Abbey Road, with overdubs added June 16 and 17

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: acoustic guitar, lead vocal (double-tracked)
LENNON: backing vocal
HARRISON: lead guitar, backing vocal
STARR: drums

COMMENTS BY BEATLES
LENNON: "This was a great one of his." Hit Parader (April 1972)

LENNON: "One of my favourite songs of the Beatles." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Help!

CHART ACTION
UNITED KINGDOM: Also released as a single, July 23, 1965. It became a No. 1 hit immediately and held that position for four weeks. Final sales totalled 900,000. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

UNITED STATES: Also released as a single, July 19, 1965. It entered the Top 40 August 14, remained on the chart for twelve weeks, and held the No. 1 position for three. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles and Billboard

AUTHORSHIP Lennon (.7) and McCartney (.3)
The song was written on April 4, 1965. The Beatles Diary, Volume 1 : From Liverpool to London

McCARTNEY: "John wrote that - well, John and I wrote it at his house in Weybridge for the film. I think the title was out of desperation." Playboy (December 1984)

McCARTNEY: "I seem to remember Dick Lester, Brian Epstein, Walter Shenson and ourselves sitting around, maybe Victor Spinetti was there, and thinking, 'What are we going to call this one?' Somehow Help! came out. I didn't suggest it; John might have suggested it or Dick Lester. It was one of them. John went home and thought about it and got the basis of it, then we had a writing session on it. We sat at his house and wrote it, so he obviously didn't have that much of it. I would have to credit it to John for the original inspiration 70-30. My main contribution is the countermelody to John. If you analyse our songs, John's are often on one note, whereas mine are often much more melodic. I enjoy going places with melodies. I like what John did too, but his are mroe rhythmic. So to take away from the solo note a little bit I wrote a descant to it." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

LENNON: "Later, I knew I reall was crying out for help. So it was my fat Elvis period. You see the movie: He - I - is very fat, very insecure, and he's completely lost himself." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

When they finished the song, feeling very pleased with themselves, they took their guitars downstairs to the living room where Cynthia Lennon and the journalist Maureen Cleave were sitting and played it to them.

McCARTNEY: "Because it was finished, you see. Once we'd done our writing session there was nothing left to be done except put the instruments on. That's what I was there for; to complete it. Had John just been left on his own he might have taken weeks to do it, but just one visit and we would go right in and complete it. So we came down and played the intro, into the verse, descant coming in on the second verse. It was all crafted, it was all there, the final verses and the end. 'Very nice,' they said. 'Like it.'" Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

RECORDED
April 13, 1965, at Abbey Road

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, backing vocal
LENNON: acoustic guitar, lead vocal
HARRISON: lead guitar, backing vocal
STARR: drums, tambourine

MISCELLANEOUS
On the single's first pressing the caption says: "From the United Artists screenplay, Eight Arms To Hold You." That was the original title for Help!
This song was part of the Beatles' live repertoire in 1965. The Complete Beatles Chronicle
In the mid-'80s, the Ford Motor Company paid a reported $100,000 to use this song in a TV ad for its Lincoln-Mercury division. But, unlike Nike's later use of the actual Beatles' performance of "Revolution," this song was performed by a sound-alike group. Los Angeles Times (May 1987)

COMMENTS BY BEATLES
LENNON: "I meant it - it's real. The lyric is as good now as it was then. It is no different, and it makes me feel secure to know that I was that aware of myself then. It was just me singing "Help!" and I meant it. I don't like the recording too much; we did it too fast trying to be commercial." December 1970, Lennon Remembers: The Full Rolling Stone Interviews from 1970

Helter Skelter

AUTHORSHIP McCartney (1.00)
Paul came up with the idea for "Helter Skelter" in Scotland after reading an interview with Pete Townshend in which he described the Who's new single, "I Can See For Miles", as the loudest, rawest, dirtiest and most uncompromising song they had ever done.

McCARTNEY, referring to a Pete Townshend interview in Melody Maker: "He said the Who had made some track that was the loudest, the most raucous rock 'n' roll, the dirtiest thing they'd ever done. It made me think, 'Right. Got to do it.' I like that kind of geeking up. And we decided to do the loudest, nastiest, sweatiest rock number we could. That was 'Helter Skelter.' " Musician (February 1985)

McCARTNEY: "I was always trying to write something different, trying to not write in character, and I read this and I was inspired, Oh, wow! Yeah! Just that one little paragraph was enough to inspire me; to make me make a move. So I sat down and wrote 'Helter Skelter' to be the most raucous vocal, the loudest drums, et cetera et cetera. I was using the symbol of a helter skelter as a ride from the top to the bottom - the rise and fall of the Roman Empire - and this was the fall, the demise, the going down. You could have thought of it as a rather cute title but it's since taken on all sorts of ominous overtones because Manson picked it up as an anthem, and since then quite a few punk bands have done it because it is a raunchy rocker.
"I went into the studio and said, 'Hey, look, I've read this thing. Let's do it!' We got the engineers and George Martin to hike up the drum sound and really get it as loud and horrible as it could and we played it and said, 'No, it still sounds too safe, it's got to get louder and dirtier.' We tried everything we could to dirty it up and in the end you can hear Ringo say, 'I've got blisters on my fingers.' That wasn't a joke put-on: his hands were actually bleeding at the end of the take, he'd been drumming so ferociously. We did work very hard on that track. Unfortunately it inspired people to evil deeds." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

RECORDED
The first version, recorded July 18, 1968, at Abbey Road, was about twenty-seven minutes long. The album version was recorded September 9 with an overdub added September 10. This was recorded on an eight-track machine that EMI had just installed. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

BRIAN GIBSON, technical engineer: "The version on the album was out of control. They were completely out of their heads that night. But, as usual, a blind eye was turned to what the Beatles did in the studio. Everyone knew what substances they were taking, but they were really a law unto themselves in the studio." The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962-1970

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, lead guitar, lead vocal
LENNON: bass, lead guitar, saxophone, backing vocal
HARRISON: rhythm guitar, backing vocal
STARR: drums
MAL EVANS: trumpet

MISCELLANEOUS
At the end of the song, Ringo screams, "I got blisters on my fingers!" The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962-1970

Convicted murderer Charles Manson took the title as the name for the race war and apocalypse he believed was destined to happen when the Black Panthers would rise up and kill the white "piggies." Manson had his group commit the Tate and LaBianca murders to show blacks how to "rise." In England the term helter skelter applies to an amusement-park slide.
Lennon found Manson's interpretation of "Helter Skelter" absurd. Manson's zealous reading of lyric signs and symbols was typical of Beatle fans, but - also typical, Lennon said - he came up with a message that simply did not exist in the song. December 1970, Lennon Remembers: The Full Rolling Stone Interviews from 1970

MANSON: "Like, Helter Skelter is a nightclub. Helter Skelter means confusion. Literally. It doesn't mean any war with anyone. It doesn't mean that those people are going to kill other people. It only means what it means. Helter Skelter is confusion. Confusion is coming down fast. If you don't see the confusion coming down fast, you can call it what you wish. It's not my conspiracy. It is not my music. I hear what it relates. It says 'Rise!' It says 'Kill!' Why blame it on me? I didn't write the music. I am not the person who projected it into your social consciousness." November 17, 1970, via Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

His followers could also be unbalanced, crazed people looking for a leader, twisting his message in their minds. The Charles Manson gang had it in their heads that "Helter Skelter" was an incitement to kill. They sang "Magical Mystery Tour" as they proceeded to take people away. When Manson himself was caught the only book in his room, and the one he was reading at the time, was my biography of the Beatles. It was a chilling realization of what could happen. And what did happen, once again, in December 1980. Hunter Davies, John Lennon: A Tribute (intro to The Beatles: Illustrated and Updated Edition)

Honey Pie

AUTHORSHIP McCartney (1.00)
McCARTNEY: "Both John and I had a great love for music hall, what the Americans call vaudeville. I'd heard a lot of that kind of music growing up with the Billy Cotton Band Show and all of that on the radio. I was also an admirer of people like Fred Astaire; one of my favourites of his was 'Cheek to Cheek' from a film called Top Hat that I used to have on an old 78. I very much liked that old crooner style, the strange fruity voice that they used, so 'Honey Pie' was me writing one of them to an imaginary woman, across the ocean, on the silver screen, who was called Honey Pie. It's another of my fantasy songs. We put a sound on my voice to make it sound like a scratchy old record. So it's not a parody, it's a nod to the vaudeville tradition that I was raised on." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

RECORDED
October 1, 1968, with overdubbing October 2 and 4, at Trident Studios

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: piano, vocal
LENNON: lead guitar (Sunburst Epiphone Casino)
HARRISON: bass
STARR: drums
FIFTEEN SESSION MUSICIANS: brass backing
guitar from Guitar (November 1987)

The brass arrangement was scored by George Martin. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

HARRISON: "John played a brilliant solo on 'Honey Pie' . . . sounded like Django Reinhardt or something. It was one of them where you just close your eyes and happen to hit all the right notes - sounded like a little jazz solo." Guitar (November 1987)

COMMENTS BY BEATLES
LENNON, when asked about "Honey Pie": (laughing) "I don't even want to think about that." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Hold Me Tight

AUTHORSHIP McCartney (.8) and Lennon (.2)
Another Lennon and McCartney song that became part of their Cavern repertoire was 'Hold Me Tight', a McCartney number that Paul and John worked on together. It was written in Forthlin Road, but not recorded until the With The Beatles album.
McCARTNEY: "When we first started it was all singles and we were always trying to write singles. That's why you get lots of these 2 minute 30 seconds songs; they all came out the same length. 'Hold Me Tight' was a failed attempt at a single which then became an acceptable album filler." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

LENNON: "Both of us [wrote this], but mainly Paul." Hit Parader (April 1972)

RECORDED
September 12, 1963, at Abbey Road

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, lead vocal, handclaps
LENNON: rhythm guitar, backing vocal, handclaps
HARRISON: lead guitar, backing vocal, handclaps
STARR: drums

MISCELLANEOUS
This song was part of the Beatles' concert repertoire from 1961 to 1963.
A version of this song was recorded February 11, 1963, during the Please Please Me session but not released. The Complete Beatles Chronicle

COMMENTS BY BEATLES
McCARTNEY: "I can't remember much about that one. Certain songs were just 'work' songs, you haven't got much memory of them. That's one of them. . . . It was a bit Shirelles." The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962-1970

LENNON: "It was a pretty poor song." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono