beatleswithlyrics's video: The Beatles With a Little Help From My Friends with lyrics

"With a Little Help from My Friends" (originally titled "A Little Help from My Friends") is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, released on the Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. The song was written for and sung by the Beatles' drummer Ringo Starr as the character "Billy Shears". It 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. 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.) The song's composition is unusually well documented as Hunter Davies was present and described the writing process in the Beatles' official biography. The song is partly in the form of a conversation, in which the other three Beatles sing a question "Would you believe in a love at first sight?" and Starr answers, "Yes, I'm certain that it happens all the time." The band started recording the song the day before they posed for the Sgt. Pepper album cover (29 March 1967), wrapping up the session at 5:45 in the morning. At dawn, Starr trudged up the stairs to head home -- but the other Beatles cajoled him into doing his lead vocal then and there, standing around the microphone for moral support. There have been at least 50 cover versions of the song and it has achieved the number one position on the British singles charts three times: by Joe Cocker in 1968, Wet Wet Wet in 1988 and by Sam & Mark in 2004. The song was also covered by Mumford & Sons and Dawes on the Tour of Two Halves in 2012. Mumford & Sons also covered the song to close out their headline set at the 2013 Glastonbury Festival with Vampire Weekend, The Vaccines, First Aid Kit, and The Staves on 30 June 2013