With a Little Help from My Friends

"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
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
13 tracks Side one "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" "With a Little Help from My Friends" "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" "Getting Better" "Fixing a Hole" "She's Leaving Home" "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" Side two "Within You Without You" "When I'm Sixty-Four" "Lovely Rita" "Good Morning Good Morning" "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" "A Day in the Life"

"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
B-side	"A Day in the Life"
Released	30 September 1978
Format	7"
Recorded	EMI Studios February–March 1967
Length	4:46
Label	Parlophone R6022
Producer	George Martin
The Beatles singles chronology
"Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" (1976) "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" / "With a Little Help from My Friends" / "A Day in the Life" (1978) "The Beatles Movie Medley" (1982)

"With a Little Help from My Friends" (originally titled "A Little Help from My Friends") is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, 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.

Origins

Lennon and McCartney finished writing this song in mid-March 1967, written specifically as Starr's track for the album. It was briefly called "Bad Finger Boogie" (later the inspiration for the band name Badfinger), 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 also attributed most of the song to McCartney in his 1972 Hit Parader interview: "Paul. It was Paul's idea. I think I helped with some of the words. In fact, I did. Hunter Davies was there when we did it and mentioned it in the book. 'What do you see when you turn out the light, I can't tell you but I know it's mine.' That was 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.)

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.

Personnel

• Ringo Starr – vocal, drums, tambourine
• Paul McCartney – backing vocal, piano, bass
• John Lennon – backing vocal, cowbell
• George Harrison – backing vocal, lead guitar
• George Martin – producer, Hammond organ
• Geoff Emerick – engineer

Personnel per Ian MacDonald

Cover versions

There have been at least 50 cover versions of the song and it has achieved the number one position on the British singles charts three times: by Joe Cocker in 1968, Wet Wet Wet in 1988 and by Sam & Mark in 2004.

"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
"With a Little Help from My Friends" (1968) "Delta Lady" (1969)

Joe Cocker version

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. The version heard in the film Across the Universe segues from the original to Cocker's arrangement at the end of the song.^{[citation needed]}

Personnel

• Joe Cocker: vocals
• Jimmy Page: guitar
• Chris Stainton: bass
• Tommy Eyre: organ
• B. J. Wilson: drums
• Rosetta Hightower: backing vocals
• Sunny Wheetman: backing vocals

"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
"Temptation" (1988) "With a Little Help from My Friends" (1988) "Sweet Surrender" (1989)

"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
"With a Little Help from My Friends" (2004) "The Sun Has Come Your Way" (2004)

Cultural references

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.

To date, Starr has closed every concert with each version of his All-Starr Band with this song. After he is done singing, Starr tells the audience "Peace and Love...Peace and Love is the only way" and good night, then walks off the stage Since 2008, the band segued right into "Give Peace a Chance", during which Starr comes back onstage, then walks off again. He closes with this because he has a lot of help from his friends in his shows.

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. Though, the song had been performed once with George Harrison at the Prince's Trust Concert in 1987.

References

• The Beatles (2000). The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-2684-8. 
• Chianello, Joanne (2 October 2009). "Harper gets on stage with a little help from his wife". Ottawa Citizen. http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Harper+changes+tune+gala/2064118/story.html. Retrieved 2 October 2009. 
• Dowlding, William J. (1989). Beatlesongs. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-68229-6. 
• Fries, Colin, ed. (30 November 2009). "Chronology of Wakeup Calls". National Aeronautics and Space Administration. http://history.nasa.gov/wakeup%20calls.pdf. 
• Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1. 
• MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-844-13828-3. 
• Matovina, Dan (2000). Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger. Frances Glover Books. ISBN 0965712222. http://books.google.com/books?id=eAURGSMNfTUC. "Apple's Neil Aspinall remembers, "(...) Badfinger just popped in my head. It was from an old Lennon thing. He was playing the piano and he had a bad finger so he called the piece he was playing 'Bad Finger Boogie' (which evolved into 'With A Little Help From My Friends')" 
• "Original liner notes for Capitol’s Beach Boys Rarities album". bradelliott.com. 1983. http://www.bradelliott.com/writings/rarities/liners.html. 
• "Ringo Starr – With a Little Help from My Friends". The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. 13 January 2010. http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/wed-january-13-2010/ringo-starr---with-a-little-help-from-my-friends. 
• Kilpatrick, Sean (4 October 2009). "Stephen Harper rocks out". thestar.com (Toronto). http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/705169. Retrieved 22 October 2009. 
• "UpVenue Top 10 Best Music Covers". UpVenue.com. 2010. http://www.upvenue.com/music-news/blog-headline/1058/top-10-best-music-covers.html. 

External links

• How B.J. Wilson Rescued a Classic Joe Cocker Track (page about B.J. Wilson and Joe Cocker's recording of the song)

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