Picking up where I left off (Beatles For Sale) with my album by album series on who contributed more to each Beatles album, John Lennon or Paul McCartney? So far John is up 4-0.

Help! (1965)

Help! doesn’t seem to get highlighted as often as A Hard Day’s Night does but personally I think it’s a superior album, at least as far as it’s originals go. I could do without the covers. And it’s a pretty big step forward from Beatles For Sale.

01. “Help!” – John

As usual The Beatles started off with a bang. The title track is also one of the best songs on the album and definitely gives John an early lead. Paul has said he played a part in the writing of the song as well, but it’s definitely mostly a John song. In his 1970 Rolling Stone interview he said “Help!” was one of his “most genuine” Beatles songs but he did say he wished it had been recorded at a slower tempo (which was his initial desire, it was sped up to make it more commercial.)

02. “The Night Before” – Paul

Not one of Paul’s best songs. It seems a bit “by the numbers.” Compared to the songs before and after it, it feels a bit dated. But it’s not a bad song, I like it. It’s just nothing particularly special by Beatles standards. There’s some conflicting information on who played the guitar solo, according to Many Years From Now Paul played the solo but others have George playing it (perhaps just an assumption on their part as he was the usual lead guitarist?)

03. “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” – John

Probably my favorite song on the album. Everything about it works just about perfectly in my book. The lyrics, the melody, John’s voice. Perfection. The flutes at the end are a beautiful touch. The Bob Dylan influence is obvious, but at the same time it doesn’t really sound like Dylan to me.

04. “I Need You”

This was only George’s second original song with The Beatles and his first good one (“Don’t Bother Me” was a bit of a throwaway on With The Beatles.) I think George’s songs from 1965 (on Help! & Rubber Soul) are really underrated. I love this one, the volume pedal on the guitar really works too. It creates a nice sense of space.

05. “Another Girl” – Paul

This is another somewhat sub-par song by Paul (like “The Night Before.”) It definitely pales in comparison with “Help!” & “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away.” And like “The Night Before” Paul plays the lead guitar on it (he replaced the part George had played.) While this isn’t a real standout number, it is pretty darn catchy and it has it’s charms.

06. “You’re Gonna Lose That Girl” – John

I’m not a big fan of this one, although like “The Night Before” & “Another Girl” it has it’s charms. What’s up with the bongo? It’s seems almost random and it’s way too fast for the song. It’s all in the right channel if you want to take a listen for it now.

07. “Ticket To Ride” – John

There’s some dispute over how much of a contribution McCartney made on this song. While John said that Paul only contributed by helping Ringo out on how to play the drums, Paul says that’s not really true and they wrote the song together. Paul played the lead guitar part. It seems clear that Paul did actually contribute pretty significantly to this song even if he and Lennon didn’t write the song together like he claimed.

08. “Act Naturally”

Cover song sung by Ringo. Cute song. But I could really do without it.

09. “It’s Only Love” – John

John dismissed this song, but I actually think it’s quite charming. Sure, some of the verse lyrics are pretty bad but it’s got a nice melody and the chorus is pretty darn good. I also like the unusual guitar tone. This is what John had to say about it in his 1980 Playboy interview: “I always thought it was a lousy song. The lyrics were abysmal. I always hated that song.”

10. “You Like Me Too Much”

My least favorite of George’s 1965 songs but it’s still kind of catchy and I like the little instrumental breakdown. Apparently that’s John rocking the electric piano.

11. “Tell Me What You See” – Paul

I prefer this one to “The Night Before” & “Another Girl” but it’s still not exactly Paul at the top of his game. I think it has some nice little elements though. The melody is catchy (as always with Paul) and the percussion is kind of cool.

12. “I’ve Just Seen A Face” – Paul

Now this is what I’m talking about. I sometimes cringe at hearing that “country & western” influence on The Beatles earlier music but it really works with this song. In fact this may be my favorite “country” song ever.

13. “Yesterday” – Paul

I think you may have heard of this song before? While just about everyone appreciates it for being a perfect pop ballad, it doesn’t get enough credit for being pretty groundbreaking as far it’s arrangement. It was extremely unusual in 1965 for a song to feature nothing but acoustic guitar and a string quartet (along with Paul’s voice of course.)

The rest of The Beatles (other than Paul) were concerned that the song didn’t fit in with their image and Paul had a hard time convincing them it was worthy of inclusion on the album (that seems rather ridiculous now.) They successfully kept it from being released as a single in the UK. It’s hard to know how much of that was genuine concern with the band’s “image” and how much of it may have been jealousy as the song really highlights Paul (he’s the only Beatle on the song.)

14. “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” – John

Awful. I can’t stand this cover and it ruins any mood set by “Yesterday.”

VERDICT: John

This is a tough one. They both wrote five originals for this album (and John sang one cover.) To me it comes down to three really good songs from John (“Help!” “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away” & “Ticket To Ride”) vs two really good ones from Paul (“Yesterday” & “I’ve Just Seen A Face.”) But yes, I’m going with John again. He’s now up 5-0 which does seem a bit strange considering that Paul won the Last.FM based battle and the “Who Wrote More #1 Singles?” battle.

Of course as we’ll see, as time went on Paul began writing more and more of The Beatles songs so there’s a good shot he will be catching up. Plus since The Beatles often did not include their hit singles on their albums, Paul’s advantage on #1 hits may not give him much that help with the album battles.

Buy Remastered Help! CD On Amazon.com

The Beatles Remastered CD Box Sets

Help! is included in both The Mono Box Set & The Stereo Box Set. The Help! CD included in the mono box set includes the original mono and the original stereo mix on CD for the first time (the version of Help! on CD now and in the remastered stereo box set is a newer remix made in the 1980s.) You can buy both box sets (and the new Beatles Rock Band game) at The Beatles Store on Amazon.com

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