The Beatles’ fifth official UK album release, Help! was the soundtrack to the group’s second feature film. It contained 14 songs: 10 by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, two more by George Harrison, and a further two cover versions.

The film had an early working title of Beatles II, until Eight Arms To Hold You was suggested. This was used for around three weeks in March and April 1965, and Capitol Records even announced that it would be the title of their first US single of the year.

Eventually the title Help! was settled on and, as for A Hard Day’s Night previously, John Lennon rose to the challenge of composing the theme song.

Lennon’s writing for the Help! LP continued the inward reflection first explored on Beatles For Sale, with the title track speaking of his insecurity during the peak of The Beatles’ fame.

"The whole Beatle thing was just beyond comprehension. I was eating and drinking like a pig and I was fat as a pig, dissatisfied with myself, and subconsciously I was crying for help…

When ‘Help!’ came out, I was actually crying out for help. Most people think it’s just a fast rock ‘n’ roll song. I didn’t realise it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie. But later, I knew I really was crying out for help. So it was my fat Elvis period. You see the movie: he – I – is very fat, very insecure, and he’s completely lost himself. And I am singing about when I was so much younger and all the rest, looking back at how easy it was." John Lennon, 1980 / All We Are Saying, David Sheff

Lennon’s other key compositions for the album were ‘Ticket To Ride’, which became The Beatles’ first single of 1965, and ‘You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away’, a mostly acoustic recording featuring introspective lyrics inspired by Bob Dylan.