Helped! (December, 1965, Timaeus)
< file under Beatles In Atlantis >
~ an approximation of this album, using latest remasters, can be heard here on Apple Music ~
Fast on the fins of the budget Spoil The Party, and arriving in record stores just in time for the release of the Beatles' second feature film, Help!ed arguably presents an Atlantean improvement over its UK source; Tivowr Dorna did have months of hindsight available when preparing the album, courtesy of the delaying conditions described in previous entry. While side one mirrors the UK edition, the opening and closing of side two bear Dorna's imprint. Perplexed by the UK lineup's inclusion of a couple of oldies covers, unlike the all-original and stellar album issued in conjuction with the fabs' first film, Dorna felt overall Help! might be taken to signal The Beatles were slipping rather than progressing. Hence, first thing, Dorna excised those two covers, transplanting them into the budget LP of the month before. Having already lifted what would become the most famous of originals from the non-soundtrack side, Yesterday, for Spoil The Party in keeping with the wistful and downright no fun mood of the title track of that collection, and having preemptively pulled the Help! leftover Wait from Rubber Soul, perhaps slightly as a winking nod to the delay Atlantis fans had just experienced between Beatles releases, Dorna turned to singles-only sides and one outtake, which he himself edited from source provided by George Martin, to fill the three gaps, and to, in his estimation, improve the album.
The quirky, and from this vantage decades later, proto-New Wave, If You've Got Trouble was so much more lively and forward-looking — and funnier — than the cover of Act Naturally; Yes It Is was clearly a more essential number from the underrepresented Lennon than the Dizzy Miss Lizzy cover, and, unlike Yesterday, actually featured the four fabs; and I'm Down was simply stronger, particularly as a closer, than the throwback Dizzy.
As with A Hard Day's Night, the film distributor had the right to release a soundtrack under the film's title, so Dorna, wanting to keep the name of the band's LP as close as possible, filed it as "Help! edited" which he then abbreviated to "Help!ed" when commissioning the cover art and sending out advance press. He got away with it. Not that the film company would really benefit from taking issue with the similar title. They had a hit movie on their hands, associated with another enormously popular, and critically hailed, LP. Furthermore, the movie studio — and the Atlantean film industry — was well aware that the movie's success was in no small part attributable to Dorna's promotional efforts, including the bundled LP/discount movie ticket plan he'd sold the movie studio on, and a reassuring campaign centered on the film's title, tied in with the LP, aimed at making moviegoers feel safe again. The young record company staffer was widely credited in the undersea entertainment world as helping to get live audiences back into theatre seats after the Tumults of the preceding year had kept them away.
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| After the events of the past year, this help was greatly welcome underseas |
1. Help! †
2. The Night Before †3. You've Got To Hide Your Love Away †4. I Need You †5. Another Girl †6. You're Going To Lose That Girl †7. Ticket To Ride †
1. If You've Got Trouble ª2. It's Only Love †3. You Like Me Too Much †4. Tell Me What You See †5. I've Just Seen A Face †6. Yes It Is °7. I'm Down °
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