Written collaboratively by John Lennon and Paul McCartney during the final stages of the Sgt Pepper project, ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ was sung by Ringo Starr.
Poking a little fun at Ringo was actually a lot of fun. ‘What would you do if I sang out of tune?’ Actually, John and I wrote this song within a vocal range that would cause no problems for Ringo, who had a style of singing different to outs. We tailored it especially for him, and I think that’s one reason why it was such a great success for him on Sgt Pepper.The song was performed very much in the style of the Sgt Pepper album as a whole – the style of a live show in which the song is sung by a certain ‘Billy Shears’. For those old enough to remember, Billy Shears was the name of the person who supposedly replaced me in The Beatles when I’d ‘died’ after a road accident in 1966. That was a crazy rumour that had been doing the rounds. Now Billy Shears showed up, large as life, in the guise of Ringo Starr! So, this song is Ringo’s intro as a character in this operetta.
The Lyrics: 1956 To The Present
Hunter Davies’ authorised biography of The Beatles contains a passage recounting the genesis of the song. Davies observed Lennon and McCartney beginning with a chorus line and segment of melody.
That’s 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.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
From there they played around with words, performed rock ‘n’ roll songs whenever they got stuck, and spent much time laughing, idly leafing through magazines or chatting about anything that took their fancy.
This was written out at John’s house in Weybridge for Ringo; we always liked to do one for him and it had to be not too much like our style. I think that was probably the best of the songs we wrote for Ringo actually…It was pretty much co-written, John and I doing a work song for Ringo, a little craft job. I always saw those as the equivalent of writing a James Bond film theme. It was a challenge, it was something out of the ordinary for us because we actually had to write in a key for Ringo and you had to be a little tongue in cheek. Ringo liked kids a lot, he was very good with kids so we knew ‘Yellow Submarine’ would be a good thing for Ringo to sing. In this case, it was a slightly more mature song, which I always liked very much. I remember giggling with John as we wrote the lines ‘What do you see when you turn out the light? I can’t tell you but I know it’s mine.’ It could have been him playing with his willie under the covers, or it could have been taken on a deeper level; this was what it meant but it was a nice way to say it, a very non-specific way to say it. I always liked that.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ was initially recorded with the working title ‘Bad Finger Boogie’, after Lennon tried to play the melody on a piano having hurt his forefinger. Starr had misgivings about singing the final sustained high note in the song, and refused to sing a certain line.
The song ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ was written specifically for me, but they had one line that I wouldn’t sing. It was ‘What would you do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and throw tomatoes at me?’ I said, ‘There’s not a chance in hell am I going to sing this line,’ because we still had lots of really deep memories of the kids throwing jelly beans and toys on stage; and I thought that if we ever did get out there again, I was not going to be bombarded with tomatoes.
Anthology
In the studio
From the start The Beatles knew that ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ would be adjoined to Sgt Pepper‘s title track. From take one it included the “Billy Shears” introduction.
He was to be a character in this operetta, this whole thing that we were doing, so this gave him a good intro, wherever he came in the album; in fact it was the second track. It was a nice place for him, but wherever it came, it gave us an intro. Again, because it was the pot era, we had to slip in a little reference: ‘I get high!’
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
The Beatles recorded 10 takes of ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ on 29 March 1967, with Paul McCartney on piano, John Lennon beating a cowbell, George Harrison playing lead guitar, and Ringo Starr on drums. Following the final take Starr overdubbed his lead vocals.
The following day – on the morning of which they posed for the Sgt Pepper cover shoot – they added guitar, tambourine, bass and harmony vocals to complete the recording.
Playboy: “With a Little Help From My Friends”?
John: That’s 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.
Look at this:
“Paul had the line about ‘a little help from my friends.’ He had some kind of structure for it, and we wrote it pretty well fifty-fifty from his original idea.”
–John Lennon, 1970
You see, ten years are a long time.
Indeed. When John forgot to credit Paul for ‘Norwegian Wood’ in 1980, unlike in 1970, we could also blame the passing of time, couldn’t we?
I would assume that the passing of time’s influence on John’s memory isn’t only a valid objection in the cases where he ends up downplaying his own role in the proceedings.
(Not to suggest that there are too many of these internal disagreements.)
Both Mccartney and Hunter Davies (present during the songwriting session) agreed that the song was co-written
It’s probably John who listened to the song many years later and thinking it’s not that good (in his opinion) and not willing to have got to do something with it by just say it’s Paul’s song
I hear two Hammond Organs on the track. One with the Rock Band Vocal Track at the beginning played by George Martin and one quietly heard on the Rock Band Piano Track played by John Lennon
With A Little Help From My Friends
personnel
Ringo Starr: Lead Vocals, Drums, Tambourine
Paul McCartney: Harmony Vocals, Piano, Bass Guitar
John Lennon: Harmony Vocals, Rhythm Guitar, Cowbell
George Harrison: Harmony Vocals, Lead and Rhythm Guitars, Hammond Organ
wait. doesn’t george sing in this song at all?
Nop. Only John & Paul as backing low and high vocals.
Ringo as lead vocal.
George…only in the guitar.
Unfortunately, this also is not a song singed by the 4.
That’s definitely George singing back up vocals…”Are you sad because you’re own?” Can hear George’s voice!
Fantastic bass by Paul on this one….
Fantastic Bass indeed. What a genius Paul is on the bass!!!
Anyway, this might be the best “friendship” songs ever written… I think it’s a LOVE (L.O.V.E. like Michael Jackson said before dying) song written by John and Paul to Ringo. It almost makes me weep. Very profound. I can’t think of any better song written about friendship. Astonishing lyrics!
Certainly one of the aspects I liked most about the Beatles was their friendship and solidarity (in the earlier years). John and Paul could have decided early on that they alone would write and sing every Beatle song. Instead, they decided from the outset that George and Ringo would get their “moment in the spotlight” on each album with at least one lead vocal. Lennon and McCartney might have thought the songs they wrote for George and Ringo were just fillers or work-songs, but they turned out even better as fans of George and Ringo looked to these songs on each LP. Do You Want To Know A Secret for George and With A Little Help From My Friends for Ringo (as well as Good Night for Ringo) are perhaps the best examples. Ringo’s vocal on WALHFMF is probably his best with the Beatles, or perhaps his entire singing career.
More evidence being that even one down vote could eliminate a song from an album.
Yes! Paul’s bass on this one and on “Getting Better” is so fluid and melodic. I always remember hearing it for the first time when I was a kid in ’67 and thinking I’d never heard a bass line so separate and independent of the rest of the music while at the same time functioning perfectly as how a bass is supposed to. It wasn’t like a walking jazz bass or anything I’d ever heard in rock or pop. Something entirely new and different and very creative.
Am I the only person to hear a strong resemblance between the main melody line of “With a Little Help” and the “Ode to Joy” from Beethoven’s 9th Symphony? I wonder if the Beatles consciously “borrowed” the melody or if it was just a coincidence. Either way, it’s a wonderful song!
(Btw, the drum kit the Beatles used in their concerts has Beethoven’s first name on it!)
It is a coincidence, but the rise and fall of the notes (but not the rhythm) will fit, slightly, if you replace “Freude, schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium” with “What would you do if I sang out of tune, would you stand up and walk out on me-ee-ee?”.
It’s mere coincidence. The Beatles were never big classical fans (to my knowledge), and they’d never knowingly borrow from a piece around 160 years old. I could be wrong; never sure.
Well, Blackbird was partly inspired by Bach, so it could be more than coincidence.
Rolling over with laughter at those Beethoven comments (see what I did there?)
And don’t forget the prominent Ode to Joy scene in Help!
George sings backing vocals in this song. In fact pretty much everywhere except during the chorus “by, high, try with a little help from my friends”
“Because” on Abbey Road was inspired by Beethoven.
Funny how the Beatles sing the “Ode to Joy” in that scene in the movie “Help!” where Ringo is trapped in the basement with the tiger that had escaped from the London Zoo and John says to Ringo in a funny accent, “Don’t worry, all you have to do is whistle famous Beethoven’s famous 9th Symphony.” But Ringo is too scared to whistle, so they all start singing the Ode in German and the world joins in.
I don’t hear any Hammond organ in this, even after listening to the multitracks. Where is it?
It’s right at the start under the Billy Shears line.And apparently it was George HARRISON according to Recording The Beatles.
There two Hammond Organs at the beginning of the song played by John and George Martin listen to the rock band tracks. 🙂
Was this the last song they wrote for Ringo?
No, John gave his ballad “Good Night” to Ringo in ’68. That lovely little tune closed out the double White Album. Ringo began to offer his own compositions in ’68, but I wish John and Paul (or even George, as he did for Ringo’s solo work)had continued to use Ringo lead vocal for some of their self-composed tracks. Some of my fondest Beatles’ songs are those written by Lennon-McCartney, but sang by Ringo.
“Good Night” wasn’t really written for Ringo, so “…Friends” essentially was the last.
Listening last night & I just realized something: In the final refrain, Ringo switches the order of the “I get high…” and “Gonna try…” lines. Wonder if it was written that way or was it a legitimate Desmond/Molly-style switcheroo-mistake?
Oh I love ’em I just love ’em. They were not the only ones to have that snarky witty funny cool easy attitude of the ’60s and early ’70s, joke at serious stuff, nothin’ to get ‘ung about – but they showed it at every opportunity publicly while laying down such awesomely professional music and lyrics.
To John, from what I’ve read, he sold out – his real personality was gritty and hard, a scrapper, no real friends, never happy – he sold out to be one of The Beatles, but Paul really did get high from friends. Is that what you imagine too?
Hunter Davies (p. 263) was present when the song was written – present that is at Paul’s house in St. John’s Wood. It’s interesting that Miles quotes Paul as saying it was written at John’s house in Weybridge. Davies does say that Paul and John had worked on the tune the day before the session he witnessed and perhaps that is what Paul is referring to. But Davies does describe a pretty lengthy songwriting session at which Cynthia Lennon and Terry Dolan also appeared. It’s odd that Paul would have overlooked that.
Does anyone know what they sing after SGT Pepper and before Help from my friends? Its just as the music is changing between the two songs.
“Billy Shears!”
I hear a timpany tuned in E right before Ringo starts singing, at the end of ” Bi- lly Shears”. If anyone could confirm that. Thanks.
Yep. It’s definitely hearable through the Rock Band mixes.
On ‘The Making of Sgt Peppers…’ video on utube George Martin states that Paul wrote ‘I Get by With a Little Help From My Friends’ but as usual all the band members added some of their own creative touches to the song.
It’s likely that George Martin was not present during the writing process. Also, he has always been heavily biased towards Paul — John and George not so much (he, laughingly, backhand compliments “Something” as “…quite simple, really…’ I tend to believe John’s comments from his 1970 interview regarding WALHFMF.
I’ve always wondered why the piano sounds so bright on this… Could it be it is the same kind of piano featured in Octopus’s Garden ?… It must be some kind of small non-reverberant piano, kept out of tune on purpose to achieve that bright chorused Honky Tonk sound…
Listen to both: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLHcyWdW9bA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLHcyWdW9bA
Does anyone have a clue?
I remember reading once about this song that John Lennon was trying to get the line “I can’t tell you but I know that it’s mine” and turned down someone’s suggestion (Mal?) that they go with “I just know that it’s miine” …because he hated the use of the word “just” as a filler. Always remember that and especially so when I first heard “Don’t You Want Me Baby” by Human League and the line “i guess it’s just what I must do”!
In fact because of that memory I used to be more inclined to thinking this was John’s song more than Paul’s
Lovely song. Great collaboration by John and Paul. It is one of the best songs on “Sgt Pepper”.It’s construction is so well documented in Hunter Davies biography. Joe Cockers version is a classic.
gosh, what a memory- about to graduate high school, driving my father’s car home,
and I hear ‘Little Help’ on the radio for the first time- It was like the most perfect
combination of melody/harmony, lyrics and arrangement, (not to mention bass) that
I had ever heard in my life. Thanks, lads.
Having heard Hunter Davies’ recollection on this song creative process on the radio around the early 1990s, brings back lots of reflections on how this songwriting team eventually slipped away. Great bass from Paul as mentioned in previous years comments. Harmonies give the song an extraordinary atmosphere. George Martin’s production took out an excellent result from the band.
I love how the vocal arrangement shifts with each verse: all Ringo on the 1st… John & Paul responding to Ringo in the 2nd… Ringo answering John & Paul in the 3rd. Wonderful vocal community.
So, I’m seeing a few comments about the line, “What do you see when you turn out the light? I can’t tell you but I know it’s mine.” You all get that’s a cloaked masturbatory reference, right?
Seems I recall reading that somewhere. Oh, yeah…on this very page in Paul’s recollection to Barry Miles. ” It could have been him playing with his willie under the covers…”
Paul added bass as the last takes on each song on SP acording to Jeff Emerick’s book, the first in and out at each session. He was very concious of Carol Kay ( Paul thought it was Brian Wilson) raising the bass playing bar on Pet Sounds.
That was Carol Kaye, of the Wrecking Crew, not Wilson? She was a phenom!
Do they say “give me cheese” at the top of the song? I cannot find that info anywhere!
“I cannot find that info anywhere!”
There’s your clue.
“Billy Shears”.
“Would you stand up and throw tomatoes at me?”
LOL. Thank God Ringo rejected that line, as it would have really jarred and the replacement is much better.
You can tell it’s a song written for Ringo, as I can’t imagine either John or Paul singing about singing out of key, as it wouldn’t ring true.
The backing track includes not only cowbell but tambourine (which moves around in the stereo mix), so Ringo didn’t play either of those. Presumably John played one of those, leaving someone else (Mal?) to play the other one. The cowbell is pretty rudimentary, so maybe Mal?
That’s a good question. Perhaps Mal played a guide tambourine or cowbell intended to be replaced by Ringo, but then again, it’s just my hunch, or perhaps Ringo overdubbed his own tambourine, as the article states.
The timpani could well have been played by Ringo at the start of the song, since he had previously played it on “Every Little Thing” and virtually all drummers are quite capable of playing percussion.