Oh, the indignities American fans of the Beatles were forced to suffer. At this point, we are only one-and-a-half years into the Beatles career, and Capitol Records has figured out a way to stretch their five British albums over something like ten American albums, depending on how or what you count.

In England, “Help!” contained fourteen entirely new songs, presented exactly as the band intended. In American we were served a “soundtrack” album of seven new songs, the balance filled with virtually worthless incidental music from the film. All this padding allowed the label to assemble yet another collection from leftovers. To hear the remaining seven songs in America, you would need to buy three additional albums; “Beatles VI” (their previous American album, which contained advance releases of three tracks from the British version of “Help!”), the American “Rubber Soul” (which contained I’ve Just Seen a Face” and “It’s Only Love”) and “Yesterday and Today” (with the remaining tracks “Yesterday” and its b-side, “Act Naturally”).

Few other bands could survive such manhandling of their catalog, but the Beatles were an exception to just about any rule. They owned us – they knew it, we knew it, and most importantly in this case, their label knew it. We bought “Help!” in sufficient quantities to see it rocket to number one on the charts where it remained for nine weeks. We also lined up to see the film in the theaters, making “Help!” one the most popular films of 1965.

Featured tracks include;

1) Help!

2) The Night Before

3) From Me to You Fantasy

4) You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away

5) I Need You

6) In the Tyrol

7) Another Girl

8) Another Hard Day’s Night

9) Ticket to Ride

10) The Bitter End/You Can’t Do That

11) You’re Going to Lose That Girl

12) The Chase

August 1965 - Billboard Charted #1