Non-album tracks
A number of additional songs were recorded during the Help! sessions. The first was ‘Yes It Is’, which became the b-side of the ‘Ticket To Ride’ single in April 1965. It was recorded on 16 February, with the harmony vocals being overdubbed onto the rhythm track on the same day. The Beatles recorded another b-side on 14 June 1965: ‘I’m Down’, which was released on the b-side of the ‘Help!’ single.A version of Larry Williams’ ‘Bad Boy’ was taped on 10 May, during the session that the group also recorded Williams’ ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’. The song was issued on the US album Beatles VI in June 1965, and on the UK compilation A Collection Of Beatles Oldies in December 1966.
‘Wait’ was taped in four takes on 17 June 1965, the last recording session for the album. The Beatles evidently didn’t think it good enough for inclusion on Help!, but revived it towards the end of the year when they needed more material for Rubber Soul.
Two songs recorded for Help! remained unreleased in the 1960s. ‘If You’ve Got Trouble’ was recorded on 18 February 1965 as Ringo Starr’s solo vocal spot on the LP. One of Lennon-McCartney’s least successful compositions, it was shelved in favour of ‘Act Naturally’, and remained unreleased until Anthology 2 in 1996.
‘That Means A Lot’ was written by Lennon and McCartney for Help!, but was given instead to American singer PJ Proby. The Beatles attempted to record the song on 20 February and 30 March 1965, though neither version was considered suitable for release. The 20 February version was released on Anthology 2.
The UK release
Help! was released in the United Kingdom on 6 August 1965, as Parlophone PMC 1255 (mono) and PCS 3071 (stereo). It was also available on 4″ reel-to-reel tape, in mono only, as TA-PMC 1255.
The album followed the template established on A Hard Day’s Night, whereby the seven film soundtrack songs made up side one and non-soundtrack recordings were on the flipside.
The Help! LP entered the UK charts at number one on 14 August, knocking off The Sound Of Music from the top, and remaining there for nine weeks.
Over 250,000 copies of Help! were ordered in advance of its release, and sales topped 270,000 in its first week on sale. In all it spent 37 weeks on the charts before dropping out.
Two of the songs from Help! – the title track and ‘Ticket To Ride’ – were released as singles in the UK, both of which topped the charts and became million-sellers.
The US edition
The American version of Help! was released one week later than its UK counterpart, on 13 August 1965. It had a deluxe gatefold sleeve.
In the US, Capitol Records had manufactured one million copies of Help! for the first pressing, which at the time was the largest initial order in the history of the music industry. The album sold more than three million copies, and after spending nine weeks at number one remained in the charts for a further 33 weeks.
The tracklisting was significantly different from the UK version. As before, it contained the seven songs from the film, but added six orchestral pieces from the soundtrack by The Ken Thorne Orchestra. It was released by Capitol Records as SMAS 2386.
Thorne’s score from the film contained a mixture of orchestrated Beatles tunes, classical music, and new compositions. The Capitol version of Help! was reissued on CD in 2006 as part of the Capitol Albums Vol. 2 box set.
The US version is also notable for a 16-second ‘James Bond’ introduction to the title track, which featuring John Barry-style guitar, plus orchestral and Indian instrumentation. The LP’s tracklisting featured 12 titles: ‘Help!’, ‘The Night Before’, ‘From Me To You Fantasy’ (Instrumental), ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’, ‘I Need You’, ‘In The Tyrol’ (Instrumental), ‘Another Girl’, ‘Another Hard Day’s Night’ (Instrumental), ‘Ticket To Ride’, ‘The Bitter End’/‘You Can’t Do That’ (Instrumental), ‘You’re Going To Lose That Girl’, ‘The Chase’ (Instrumental).
I produced all the tracks for the film, but I wasn’t asked to do the scoring – another guy was offered the job. Dick Lester and I didn’t hit it off well on A Hard Day’s Night, and the fact that I got an Academy Award nomination for musical direction probably didn’t help either.
The US version of Help! was also the first Beatles release to feature a sitar. The instrumental ‘Another Hard Day’s Night’ was a medley of ‘A Hard Day’s Night’, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’, and ‘I Should Have Known Better’, performed on a sitar, tablas, flute and finger cymbals. Although The Beatles didn’t perform on it, the tune soundtracked the film’s scene in the Rajahama restaurant, during the shooting of which George Harrison first played a sitar.
The first time that we were aware of anything Indian was when we were making Help!. There was an odd thing about an Indian and that Eastern sect that had the ring and the sacrifice; and on the set in one place they had sitars and things – they were the Indian band playing in the background, and George was looking at them.We recorded that bit in London, in a restaurant. And then we were in the Bahamas filming a section and a little yogi runs over to us. We didn’t know what they were in those days, and this little Indian guy comes legging over and gives us a book each, signed to us, on yoga. We didn’t look at it, we just stuck it along with all the other things people would give us.
Then, about two years later, George had started getting into hatha yoga. He’d got involved in Indian music from looking at the instruments in the set. All from that crazy movie. Years later he met this yogi who gave us each that book; I’ve forgotten what his name was because they all have that ‘Baram Baram Badoolabam’, and all that jazz. All of the Indian involvement came out of the film Help!.
The non-soundtrack songs from the UK version of Help! were spread over three US long-players. Three of the songs had already appeared on the Capitol album Beatles VI. These were ‘You Like Me Too Much’, ‘Dizzy Miss Lizzy’, and ‘Tell Me What You See’.
Two more songs – ‘I’ve Just Seen A Face’ and ‘It’s Only Love’ – were held over for the US version of Rubber Soul, released on 6 December 1965. The remaining two – ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Act Naturally’ – were finally issued on the Yesterday… And Today LP on 20 June 1966.
On compact disc
When Help! was originally released in 1965, mono was still preferred by the majority of record buyers. As a result, George Martin and his assistants spent more time working on the mono mix than they did on the stereo. Martin was not even present when eight of the original stereo mixes were made.
When Martin prepared the compact disc reissue of Help! in 1987 he created a new stereo mix from the four track tapes. These mixes were selected for the 2009 remastered stereo version; the box set The Beatles In Mono contained both the original 1965 mono and stereo mixes.
‘Help’ is a very “overlooked” Beatles album because its half Beatlemania and half “new” Beatles. While there are some great old-style Beatles songs on it, Beatlemania ends on this album…and ‘Rubber Soul’ begins. You get the best of both worlds on ‘Help’. Also, McCartney emerges as a strong song writer on this album for the first time…equal with Lennon. Previously, Lennon was the dominant singer/songwriter. This is probably why the next few years produced some of their finest music. Can’t forget Harrison. He also emerges as a strong song writer on ‘Help’ and continues on throughout his Beatle career.
‘Help’, ‘The Night Before’, ‘You’re Gonna Lose That Girl’, Yesterday’ ‘ Another Girl’…good Beatlemania-style songs.
Then, the “new” Beatles emerge with “I’ve Just Seen A Face”, ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’, ‘It’s Only Love’, ‘Ticket To Ride’…ushering the “Rubber Soul/Revolver” period…and a great Harrison tune, ‘I Need You’.
You are perpetuating the nonsense you claim to despise. McCartney was always a great song writer and contributed massively to all the albums. Take a Hard Days Night, he wrote Can’t buy me Love, Things we Said Today and And I Love Her. Every one a classic.
Yesterday, a beatlemania-style song? I actually think that Mccartney does not really arrive as songwriter until Revolver, with the exception of Yesterday. It is interesting that he becomes so prolific and dominating in 1967 but all of the songs that really give the beatles depth and soul belong to John although Paul contributes a lot to John songs. Probably more than John contributed to Paul’s. The masterpieces of 67 include: Strawberry Fields, Mr. Kite,Lucy in the sky w/ Diamonds, Day in the life, I am the Walrus, All you need is love. The only 67 Paul song that is of this caliber is Penny Lane. If you take John’s contribution off of Pepper and George’s Within you and Without you it is a rather light weight record. Don’t get me wrong, I love Paul but John really gets depicted badly in Emmerick’s book. After reading it, you would think that old Geoff fancied Paul.
Emmerick has worked for Paul on 3 albums after the breakup. He is not a source of objectivity.
Neither of you guys seems to know what you are talking about. 1) The idea that the Beatles wrote “Beatlemania” songs until a certain point and then suddenly changed it with Rubber Soul/Revolver is nonsense. The hallmark of Lennon-McCartney songwriting was they insisted on writing something new and different from any previous song, exploring new musical territory. Beatlemania was not a song writing genre, but something the press made up to describe fan reaction. Beatlemania “ended” when they decided to stop touring, period. Not only were they tired of it, but reproducing their increasing complex songs (like Rain/Paperback Writer) on stage was difficult and frustrating.
2) Lennon and McCartney were in fact largely equal co-writers on many of the early songs (From Me To You, She Loves You, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, This Boy, etc.), with McCartney early on revealing a special talent for creating memorable melodies (something Lennon tended to struggle with, especially in later years.) Lennon was a great lyricist and straight rock and roller, and it should be pointed out their first two albums featured lots of rock and roll covers, plus a few great original compositions. Writing-wise, I Saw Her Standing There was largely Paul, as was Love Me Do. All My Loving was all Paul. By A Hard Day’s Night some truly timeless standouts were being written by Paul (And I Love Her, Can’t Buy Me Love, Things We Said Today.) The songs A Hard Day’s Night and I’m Happy Just To Dance With You were co-written, while You Can’t Do That was a classic Lennon rocker (and a personal favorite of mine.) McCartney likewise made considerable contributions to Help. Even excluding Paul’s unmatched Yesterday, McCartney songs like The Night Before are quite notable, as well as his distinctive co-writing on Ticket To Ride (including the unique drum syncopations which were all Paul.)
So, the ridiculous notion that McCartney didn’t come into his own as a songwriter until Revolver or later is simply misguided fantasy with no basis in fact. Even sillier is the assertion Lennon wrote any/all songs of substance in 1967. Nonsense. Hello Goodbye, yep, B side to Walrus A, went to No. 1 while Walrus tanked (guess the public knew best on that one.) Then there was Fool On The Hill, a remarkably beautiful song Paul composed while at the same time co-writing A Little Help From My Friends with Lennon. Then of course was Sgt. Pepper, a classic rocker featuring one of McCartney’s best vocals ever (plus his lead on guitar.) Not to mention there would be no Day in the Life had not McCartney provided the incredibly symphonic musical depth for the song’s middle. Then again, Lennon later dissed much of his own work on Pepper, saying how dissatisfied he was with it and would like to do it over. I don’t happen to agree, I think Lennon’s Pepper contributions were oustanding. Lennon though could get fairly petty not only about Paul’s work but everything Beatles, which apparently still translates over to some fans who never weary of this silly pissing match…
You prefer Hello Goodbye to I am the Walrus? Enough said, no reason to continue having this conversation.
I prefer reading comments by people who actually know something and don’t just make stuff up while ignoring facts (like calling Ringo “clumsy.”) Early on McCartney and Lennon were equal songwriters. That’s why they were a songwriting “team.” Though different in applied talents, one was not more dominant then the other.
OK, can I request that you all play nicely? There’s room for opinions without it getting personal, so let’s try to keep this a pleasant place to discuss the songs.
George once said that Ringo’s fills sounded like someone falling down the stairs.
Where’s your source?
Actually Abe Laboriel Jr. said something very similar to that at the time when Ringo
Was inducted into the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame.
He probably meant it in a good way as a reference to Ringo having his own unique drumming style and approach to drum fills, never playing the same thing twice.
WOW! I never thought an observing commentary on the “Help” album could bring such anger from a McCartneyologist. While it’s true that McCartney made Lennon a better songwriter, the same can be said for Lennon for McCartney. However, what I said was a personal opinion that I think the “Help” album was the Beatles saying goodbye to Beatlemania and introducing themselves to the “Rubber Soul” era. Half of “Help” was Beatlemania, the other half was more mature, laid back, more acoustic and McCartney offered us more. I have to take the word of McCartney that he and Lennon wrote eyeball to eyeball (as Lennon also said), but that whoever was the primary writer…sang the song. No doubt also that if the Beatles were made up of only Lennon’s songs, then we’d be bored quickly…vice versa with only McCartney’s songs, if they had no influence on one another. So come on Thomas, lighten up and open up to other opinions…but thanks for the critique and you have some valid points.
I have to disagree with you on Help! being their transitional album. There are still some lingering elements of their earlier years, but in my book the transition really began with the moody Beatles For Sale. As I said over on the comments for No Reply:
So while Help! is definitely transitioning, I think it had already begun an album earlier. I’d even accept an argument that it started with A Hard Day’s Night, but for me that’s pushing it a bit.
You are probably right. It was the New York meeting with Bob Dylan that got John on a different “tack” when it came to songwriting. It became much more introspective with “I’m a Loser” and “No Reply,” especially the former.
Being posted on Quora:
Unfortunately, Capitol repackaging sometimes affected the perception of where the Beatles were headed musically, especially noted by me for 1965, where people saw a sharp change of sound after Beatles VI and the Help! soundtrack when Rubber Soul came out. People in the U.S. didn’t know about the non-soundtrack side of the British Help! album:
3 songs already on Beatles VI; 2 other songs, “Yesterday” and “Act Naturally”, were the next U.S single but weren’t on album until 1966 Yesterday and Today; 2 other songs, not officially released in U.S. until Rubber Soul, where they led off sides 1 & 2.
The Beatles understood they were to record 2 songs in May 1965 for the U.S. market. They responded with Dizzy Miss Lizzie and Bad Boy; those were used on Beatles VI, then Dizzy Miss Lizzie was used on British Help! album. Bad Boy was unreleased in UK until Beatles oldies album there in late 1966. Along with “Act Naturally”, they were the last cover songs recorded by the Beatles until excerpt of Maggie Mae on Let It Be.
Brian Wilson cited Rubber Soul as a big influence on Pet Sounds, and I pressed the question of which Rubber Soul, because of differences between Capitol and Parlophone labels. Controversy would sometimes ensue when a record leaked to the other side of the Atlantic and was found to have songs not released on that other side of the Atlantic. Jan. 1965 saw the release of a Capitol single whose 2 songs were on a British album the preceding month but not on US album released that same month; this happened again in Jan. 1966.
This is their second weakest album (their first is their worst in my book). Don’t get me wrong, ‘weak’ for the Beatles is still fantastic. But their are only 5 standout tunes on this album. The rest are good, but not fantastic. The sound is very muddy, not crisp at all compared to their other albums. It works on “You’ve got to..” but not on the rest.And the performances are less enthusiastic than any other album, except for possible Let it Be.
To me, there is a lot of “filler” songs on this album. Mostly McCartney tunes. But they (the songs) blend in well and follow along quite well. I came across a German pressing lp at a flea market (rummage sale) here in Pensacola, Florida last year. the cover was torn but the vinyl was in great shape. I wish I would have bought it!
Thomas lets be fair, You make a comment like ” Obviously You all don’t know what Your talking about ” People have certain opinions and I respect that, You seem pretty McCartney biased from the long piece You wrote. I guess Im more Lennon biased as He’s my idol and I get that aswell. McCartney is a genius musician that there is no doubt, But I feel in the early days leading up to Revolver, Lennon was the main man he was the one who wrote the better songs, He had the drive which spurred the Beatles on, Look at A Hard Day’s Night for example its basically a Lennon solo album, He was so creative in those early Beatle’s days and yes Lennon was more the rocker of the two and he wrote the more edgier/zingy Beatles tracks but he also had that sensitive side to Him look at Julia, Across The Universe for example, The thing with McCartney was he was too mainstream he wanted to release safe tracks that He knew would be accepted, Lennon was the opposite he was writing songs and searching for a new direction and in the process laying down the foundations for music as We know it now. Both equally brilliant in there own right, Alone they were good, Together they were Stellar! Its just John is My favourite…
By the way HelloGoodbye is a great track, I Am The Walrus is frighteningly brilliant…
I noticed on the US cover that George is standing on the H for Harrison, John on the L for Lennon, and by his first name Paul on the P, but none for ringo, especially because he doesn’t have any of the titles letters in his stage name. Sounds silly, but i like to think that.
polishrocker93: I transferred your remark to wikipedia talk page about this album.
As for the British cover, I noticed the Beatles are in alphabetical order, and this is either by first or last name! For Paul, ignore the “James” (you may remember “James Paul McCartney”).
I agree with whoever said that there are five great songs on this album. If you took Help, Hide Your Love Away, Ticket to Ride, I’ve Just Seen a Face and Yesterday they match up with anything the Beatles ever did. The problem is there are too many fillers after that, although most are pretty decent. I can’t stand You Like Me Too Much though, the lyrics are juvenile, and Tell Me What You See and Dizzy Miss Lizzy are average at best. As for the Lennon/McCartney debate, this was really the start of Lennon’s peak, he was just incredible in ’65, whereas I don’t think Paul peaked until about ’68 with his fantastic contributions to the White Album and also Hey Jude. Although maybe he peaked on Revolver, but I’ve always liked his White Album songs better.
“The front cover was yet another instantly classic design. Featuring the four Beatles standing in a row wearing their ski garb from the Help! film, they spelt out the letters ‘NUJV’ in semaphore. For the US version released by Capitol Records, the order was slightly amended to read ‘NVUJ'” WHY?
I believe Ringo was moved to the left and John and Paul moved to the right so that Paul’s hand would point to the “Capitol” logo.
Although I like the Polish poster’s reply below that the American cover puts Harrison above the H, Lennon above the L, and Paul above the P. Poor Ringo gets the E, or a punctuation mark on other albums.
This was maybe the first British import LP I bought (I’m in the US) and I loved the A side–the movie music. I rarely played the B side even though it had a few stellar cuts (I’ve Just Seen A Face, Yesterday) because the weak songs are pretty darn weak.
Loved the movie too. A little aimless perhaps, but very funny. (“Are you buzzing?”)
It’s definitely not much of a Beatles film, but it is a very fun spy movie pastiche that happens to have the Beatles in it.
Side one is good, side two seems fairly forgettable though, excluding Yesterday of course. The organ playing helps on some of the tracks. Played by John I believe.
As a kid in the mid 60’s and bought a 45 rpm copy of “Ticket to ride” that says on it: “from the United Artists release Eight arms to hold you”. I didn’t think much of of it at the time, but now I’m glad I have it. It’s probably not worth much, not quite like an original “Butcher” LP cover, but it is neat to have one of those “Mistakes”. The US version of the Help LP is a rough listen. I am not much of an instrumental fan. Always thought it was filler and fluff that I really didn’t want to pay for. The UK version is stellar.
I got this album in March 1980 for my 14th birthday. Like its predecessor Beatles For Sale it is a transitional album, as Beatles biographer Bob Spitz said in 2005. I believe because of that it is also underrated. The song Help is a John Lennon autobiographical song and Youve Got To Hide Youre Love Away is a Lennon classic. Likewise I just love Ticket To Ride, another John Lennon beauty. As for Paul McCartney he came up with one of his all time classics , Yesterday and one of his most underrated Ive Just Seen A Face. I just love Dizzy Miss Lizzy ,a great cover. I do not care what anyone says, like all The Beatles albums this deserves to be listed in the top 100 albums of all time.
I believe this album is underrated because as Beatles biographer Bob Spitz said in 2005 this is a transitional album. I got this in March 1980 for my 14th birthday. It belongs like all the Beatles albums in the top 100 records of all time. John Lennon came up with classics like the title track Help, Youve Got To Hide Youre Love Away and Ticket To Ride. Paul McCartney has one of his greatest , Yesterday and the underrated Ive Just seen A Face. And I just love the cover of Dizzy Miss Lizzie.
This is how I reshuffled Help! on my playlist. Included are If You’ve Got Trouble from anthology, I’m Down, Bad Boy, Yes It Is and Wait from Rubber Soul
(Which was written as a Help! Song). Removed are my two least favorite songs on the album, Act Naturally and I’ve Just Seen A Face.
Side one
1. Help!
2. The Night Before
3. You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away
4. I Need You
5. Another Girl
6. If You’ve Got Trouble
7. You’re Going To Lose That Girl
8. Wait
9. Ticket To Ride ( side one closer )
Side two
10. Bad Boy
11. I’m Down
12. It’s Only Love
13. You Like Me Too Much
14. Tell Me What You See
15. Yes It Is
16. Yesterday
17. Dizzy Miss Lizzy ( album closer )
Congrats B L-H fan, you should go work for Capitol Records….. ;o)
Help! was the Beatles at their fun loving cheekiest. It is a perfect balance of the optimistic days of 1963 and the downer times of Beatles For Sale, and soon, Rubber Soul / Revolver.
Also one of the last albums with John clearly in command. It’s unfortunate he lost interest in the Beatles by 1966-67 because the time period from Please Please Me to Rubber Soul was the Beatles at their finest, all of these albums, by the way, featured John on lead at least 6 or 7 times if not more. Clearly the Beatles weren’t quite the same by Sgt.Pepper onward.
I thought that was a Pete Townsend quote about Keith Moons drumming ?
Help is the beginning of McCartney castrating Harrison. At this point McCartney took over lead guitar on his songs. No wonder Harrison never forgave McCartney. Mccartney has said Harrison didn’t turn up for many Pepper sessions. Why would Harrison turn up when he had zero input into any of McCartney songs.
Harrison had input on many Mccartney songs, (and vice versa) but Paul occasionally had an idea of the sound he wanted and it wasn’t on the same track with george so George felt left out. Most famously on let it be gorge started with a strong guitar counter to the music and Paul wanted to start with just the piano and add more instruments in so he asked George to stop. You can see why George would be irritated but it was Paul’s song and he called the shots. George did the same on his songs. Paul gave his all on George’s songs so george had fewer chances to irritate paul. Just a case of 2 musical brains getting better all the time and no longer in synch. George was ready to go on his own as were they all. Too bad they could not work it out enough to get back and record an occasional reunion album…
That song was “Hey Jude”, not “Let it Be”.
No it wasn’t and Paul never castrated George. Yes, Paul did play lead guitar on select songs, but he still remained The Beatles’ bassist and George remained The Beatles’ lead guitarist.
I never realized how pretentious and irritating Beatles fans could be until reading the comment sections of this website. You guys need to take it down a notch and stop pretending like you were there in the recording studio.
Naturally, these are my own personal opinions… Although there are some excellent songs on this, as a full “album”, it never really gelled for me. As far as soundtracks are concerned, this is inferior to “A Hard Day’s Night”. As far as studio albums are concerned, I would take “Beatles For Sale” over this. A lot of filler on this album, especially Side 2. It might’ve been better if some B-sides were added (“Yes It Is”, “I’m Down”). Although I can see why they shelved it (partly because of the drum patterns’ similarity to “Ticket To Ride”), I still wish they would’ve completed “That Means A Lot” & included it on this, possibly as the opening track on Side 2.
“Help!” was the beginning of a new era for The Beatles: reduction mixes began to be utilized in recordings (not as prolifically at this stage, compared to later years), Paul began to branch out to playing guitar while still remaining their bassist (remember that he reluctantly switched to the bass after John and George both refused, preferring to stay guitarists), John and Paul both began to contribute more keyboard parts (John on electric piano and organ and Paul on acoustic piano and electric piano), George started writing and singing his own songs again, branched out to 12-string acoustic guitar and started utilizing the volume pedal and Leslie speaker, John gave his harmonica a rest from recording until “Sgt. Pepper”, Ringo played the back of a guitar body on “I Need You” and the group began a new routine of rehearsing a song with the tapes rolling and then record over the rehearsals with the proper performance of whatever song they were recording that day.
Additionally, Johnnie Scott played flutes on “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away” (frankly, it made a nice change from the harmonica) and a string quartet was used on “Yesterday”.
This is also the last album where Paul only used his Hofner for playing his bass parts, because he started to use his Rickenbacker for “Rubber Soul”.
Here’s some more trivia: George and John acquired their Fender Stratocasters at the start of the sessions for “Help!”, not “Rubber Soul”, as some sources have erroneously reported. George Martin’s handwritten production notes confirm the utilization of Fender Stratocasters from John and/or George, contingent on the song.
As the story goes, John and George dispatched Mal Evans off to Kent to buy a couple of Fender Stratocasters and Brian Epstein agreed to pay for them on the condition that they were identical. Mal came back from Kent with two Fender Stratocasters in a rare Sonic Blue finish and George’s one was the same guitar that he repainted in psychedelic colours and nicknamed “Rocky”, so he clearly loved that Stratocaster very much.
John also liked his Stratocaster enough to use it on the “Help!”, “Rubber Soul” and perhaps the “Revolver” sessions not to mention that he was photographed with it during the “Sgt. Pepper” sessions, but I don’t know what became of his Stratocaster; still, neither he nor George fully abandoned their Rickenbacker 325 and Gretsch respectively for the “Help!” and “Rubber Soul” sessions.
This was a fun album and movie to me before the psychedelic era. My off beat favorite song was always the less often cited The Night Before as love Macca’s voice on that. However, the other main songs are much stronger. I never even thought of Paul “castrating” George by playing guitar, lol.
The comment of Paul “castrating” George by playing guitar is nonsense and despite what Paul incorrectly stated in a 1980’s interview, George actually was very involved with the “Sgt. Pepper” sessions.