{"id":845895,"date":"2026-08-06T18:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T18:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845895\/"},"modified":"2026-08-06T18:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T18:42:10","slug":"61-years-ago-today-the-beatles-released-the-no-1-soundtrack-that-included-historys-most-covered-pop-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/845895\/","title":{"rendered":"61 Years Ago Today, the Beatles Released the No. 1 Soundtrack That Included History’s Most-Covered Pop Song"},"content":{"rendered":"

On August 11, 1965, Help!\u2014the Beatles\u2019 second feature film after the previous year\u2019s A Hard Day\u2019s Night<\/a>\u2014hit U.S. theaters. By this time, the Hollywood shine had worn off for the Fab Four, with John Lennon complaining that they felt like extras in their own movie. Their disinterest showed in the final cut, and Help! received mixed reviews at the time.<\/p>\n

However, the soundtrack of the same name\u2014released on this day (August 6) in 1965\u2014was a different story. Help! the album topped charts in Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.<\/p>\n

\t\t\tVideos by American Songwriter\t\t<\/p>\n

Beyond sheer sales, however, the album marked a fairly significant shift in the Beatles\u2019 career from the shiny happy pop music of Beatlemania to the more experimental, introspective material that set the Fab Four apart as one of the best in the game. On Help!, we saw John Lennon get vulnerable; George Harrison come into his own as a songwriter; and Paul McCartney introducing a track that has since been covered more than any other pop song in history.<\/p>\n

Yes, the Beatles Were on Drugs Before, After, and During \u2018Help\u2019<\/p>\n

Help! scored an Album of the Year nod at the 1966 Grammy Awards. This marked the first time a rock band had been recognized in that category.<\/p>\n

So, what was the Beatles\u2019 secret ingredient? Well, if you ask pop culture journalist Alexis Petridis\u2014drugs.<\/p>\n

Bob Dylan had introduced the Liverpool quartet to marijuana the previous year, and they first experimented with LSD in early 1965.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were smoking marijuana for breakfast during that period,\u201d Lennon later recalled<\/a> of the Beatles\u2019 time filming Help! \u201cNobody could communicate with us, it was all glazed eyes and giggling all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Play\"\/<\/p>\n

Reaching New Heights in Songwriting<\/p>\n

According to Petridis, the Beatles\u2019 drug experimentation helped them take their songwriting to \u201cnew emotional depths\u201d on tracks such as \u201cYou\u2019ve Got to Hide Your Love Away\u201d and \u201cTicket to Ride\u201d.<\/p>\n

Lennon wrote and sang the former\u2014an intensely reflective ballad that was essentially \u201cjust basically John doing Dylan,\u201d Paul McCartney said.<\/p>\n

Lennon agreed, saying, \u201cThat\u2019s me in my\u00a0Dylan\u00a0period again. I am like a chameleon, influenced by whatever is going on. If\u00a0Elvis\u00a0can do it, I can do it. If the\u00a0Everly Brothers\u00a0can do it, me and\u00a0Paul\u00a0can. Same with Dylan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

George Harrison also contributed two tracks: \u201cI Need You\u201d and \u201cYou Like Me Too Much\u201d.\u00a0The former marked his first original composition since 1963\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Bother Me\u201d.<\/p>\n

This Song Came to Paul McCartney in a Dream<\/p>\n

As the story goes, Paul McCartney quite literally dreamed up the melody to \u201cYesterday\u201d at the home of his then-girlfriend.<\/p>\n

At first, he was nervous he had subconsciously plagiarized someone else\u2019s work. Once he was sure he hadn\u2019t, McCartney began adding the lyrics to a song he temporarily titled \u201cScrambled Eggs\u201d.<\/p>\n

[RELATED: 3 Iconic Beatles Songs That Had Weird Working Titles]<\/a><\/p>\n

Reaching number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, \u201cYesterday\u201d is now one of the most-covered songs in the history of popular music. <\/p>\n

Featured image by Daily Mirror\/Daily Mirror\/Mirrorpix via Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On August 11, 1965, Help!\u2014the Beatles\u2019 second feature film after the previous year\u2019s A Hard Day\u2019s Night\u2014hit U.S.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":845896,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[16764,64,63,134,136,5807,36484],"class_list":["post-845895","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-1960s","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-pop-music","tag-the-beatles"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845895","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=845895"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/845895\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/845896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=845895"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=845895"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=845895"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}