Help! by The Beatles
Help! is the title of the fifth British and tenth North American album by The Beatles, and the soundtrack from their film of the same name. Produced by George Martin for EMI's Parlophone Records, it contains fourteen songs in its original British form, of which seven appeared in the film. These songs took up the first side of the vinyl album and included the singles "Help!" and "Ticket to Ride". The second side contained seven other releases including the most-covered song ever written, "Yesterday". The American release was a true soundtrack album, mixing the first seven songs with orchestral material from the film. Of the other seven songs that were on the British release, two were released on the US version of the next Beatles album, Rubber Soul, two were back-to-back on the next US single and then appeared on Yesterday and Today, and three had already been on Beatles VI. In 2012, Help! was voted 331st on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
Beneath the white-on-white cover art, “The White Album” is an eclectic, 30-track album of largely stripped-down material, originally spread across two vinyl records. The album was a stark contrast to <i>Sgt. Pepper</i> in every aspect — from the cover art to the sounds within. The sheer breadth of material as well as the mixture of the loud and the soft is part of what makes “The White Album” so surprising. The heavy sounds of “Helter Skelter” and “Yer Blues” juxtapose with the gentle beauty of “Long, Long, Long” and “Julia”. The cacophony of “Revolution 9” is followed by the orchestral lullaby of “Good Night”. The album’s extended length gave the band room in which they could explore all of their musical influences and multiple forms of popular music, while creating revolutionary sounds in the studio.
