With a Little Help from My Friends (Wet Wet Wet song)
| "With a Little Help from My Friends" | |
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| Song by the Beatles | |
| from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band | |
| Released | 26 May 1967 |
| Recorded |
EMI Studios 29–30 March 1967 |
| Genre | Pop rock, psychedelic pop |
| Length | 2:44 |
| Label | Parlophone PMC 7027 (mono), PCS 7027 (stereo) |
| Songwriter(s) | Lennon–McCartney |
| Producer(s) | George Martin |
| "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"/"With a Little Help from My Friends" | ||||
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| Single by the Beatles | ||||
| B-side | "A Day in the Life" | |||
| Released | 14 August 1978 (US) 30 September 1978 (UK) |
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| Format | 7" | |||
| Recorded | February–March 1967 | |||
| Length | 4:46 | |||
| Label |
Capitol 4612 (US) Parlophone R6022 (UK) |
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| Songwriter(s) | Lennon–McCartney | |||
| The Beatles UK singles chronology | ||||
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| The Beatles US singles chronology | ||||
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| "With a Little Help from My Friends" | ||||
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| Single by Joe Cocker | ||||
| from the album With a Little Help from My Friends | ||||
| B-side | "Something's Coming On" | |||
| Released | October 1968 (UK) | |||
| Format | 7" | |||
| Recorded | 1968 | |||
| Genre | Blues rock, hard rock, soul | |||
| Length | 5:11 | |||
| Label | Regal Zonophone | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Lennon–McCartney | |||
| Joe Cocker singles chronology | ||||
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| "With a Little Help from My Friends" | ||||
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| Single by Wet Wet Wet | ||||
| from the album Sgt. Pepper Knew My Father | ||||
| A-side | "She's Leaving Home" (performed by Billy Bragg) | |||
| Released | 9 May 1988 (UK) | |||
| Format | 7" | |||
| Recorded | 1988 | |||
| Genre | Pop | |||
| Label | PolyGram | |||
| Songwriter(s) | Lennon–McCartney | |||
| Wet Wet Wet singles chronology | ||||
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"With a Little Help from My Friends" is a song by the Beatles, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney from the album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band issued worldwide in June 1967. The song was written for and sung by the Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr as the character "Billy Shears". The song, paired with "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" and featuring "A Day in the Life" as its B-side, was reissued as a single in the U.S. in August 1978 (#71) and in the U.K. in September 1978 (#63). "With a Little Help from My Friends" was ranked No. 311 on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Lennon and McCartney finished writing this song in mid-March 1967, written specifically as Starr's track for the album. McCartney said: "It was pretty much co-written, John and I doing a work song for Ringo, a little craft job." In 1970 Lennon stated: "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.", but in 1980 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." 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.
The song begins with the applause from the end of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
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 think if I sang out of tune? Would you throw ripe 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.)
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Wikipedia