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TL;DR:

  • John Lennon said The Beatles’ “Help!” was one of his favorites.
  • Even though he liked it, he had a major issue with the song.
  • John wanted to rerecord “Help!” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”
John Lennon posing for The Beatles' 'Help!' in a snowy area
John Lennon posing for The Beatles’ ‘Help!’ | Bettmann / Contributor

The Beatles‘ “Help!” is one of the group’s most famous hits. Despite this, John Lennon had a major issue with the song. In the 1970s, John said he wanted to rerecord the track to fix it.

John Lennon named some of The Beatles’ songs he liked the most

The book Lennon Remembers includes an interview with the former Beatle from 1970. In it, John discussed some of his favorite Fab Four tunes. He said it was difficult to chose one favorite. “I like — I always like ‘[I Am the] Walrus,’ ‘Strawberry Fields [Forever], ‘Help!,’ ‘In My Life,'” he revealed. “Those are some favorites.”

John was asked why he liked “Help!” so much. “Because I mean it,” he replied. “It’s real. The lyric is as good now as it was then. It’s not different. It makes me feel secure to know that I was that sensible or whatever — not sensible but aware of myself then.

“That’s with no acid, no nothing, well, pot, or whatever,” he added. “It was just me singing ‘Help!’ and I meant it.”

Why John Lennon wanted to redo The Beatles’ ‘Help!’ and ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’

Subsequently, John explained his issue with “Help!” “I don’t like the recording that much,” he said. “The song I like. We did it too fast to try and be commercial and all that.”

John then discussed “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” “I like ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand,'” he said. “We wrote that together — it’s a beautiful melody. I might do ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ and ‘Help!’ again, because I like them. I sing them, they’re the kind of songs I sing.”

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How ‘Help!’ and its parent album performed on the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

“Help!” became a massive hit in the United States. The tune was No. 1 for three of its 13 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100. The song appeared on the soundtrack of the movie Help! The soundtrack topped the Billboard 200 for nine weeks, staying on the chart for 46 weeks.

According to The Official Charts Company, “Help!” was No. 1 for three of its 14 weeks on the United Kingdom’s chart in the 1960s. In 1985, the track recharted at No. 86 and remained on the chart for three weeks before hitting no. 99 for one week in 2010. Meanwhile, the album Help! topped the U.K. chart for nine weeks. It stayed on the chart for 39 weeks in total.

“Help!” became a huge success — even if John had issues with the recording.

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