US single release: Help!

‘Help!’, The Beatles’ 10th Capitol Records single, was released just before the world premiere of their second feature film.

The single was issued as Capitol 5476, with the b-side ‘I’m Down’. ‘Help!’ was here issued with a slightly different lead vocal from that on the album of the same name.

In the UK the single was released by Parlophone on 23 July 1965.

The ‘Help!’ single sold much better than the two before it: ‘I Feel Fine’ and ‘Ticket To Ride’. But there were still a lot of fans who didn’t like ‘Help!’. They said, ‘Ah, The Beatles are dropping us. This isn’t as good as ‘A Hard Day’s Night’.’ So you can’t win. Trying to please everybody is impossible – if you did that, you’d end up in the middle with nobody liking you. You’ve just got to make the decision about what you think is your best, and do it.

People think of us as machines. They pay 6s 8d for a record and we have to do what they say – like a jack-in-the-box. I don’t like that side of it much. Some people have got it all wrong. We produce something, something great every time. The onus is on the public to decide whether they like it or not. It’s annoying when people turn round and say, ‘But we made you, you ungrateful swines.’ I know they did, in a way, but there’s a limit to what we’re bound to live up to, as if it’s a duty.