With a Little Help from My Friends
With a Little Help from My Friends is the second track from the iconic album Sgt. Pepper鈥檚 Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Beatles stopped touring in 1966 and this was the first album to be released during their studio period. The album pushed the boundaries of pop musicMusic which has general appeal and is often linked to styles of the 1950s. Driven by a strong rhythmic element. by experimenting with different musical influences and combining them with rock and pop.
The album has a theme that links all tracks and is intended to be played in full. The Beatles also wanted the album to sound as if it was played live by the fictional military band so they even added an orchestraA large ensemble made up of different instrument families. tuning up and applause.
rock 'n' rollA music style in the 1950s that includes guitars, drums, vocals and double bass. Often orientates around the 12-bar blues. influences can be heard in early songs by The Beatles, such as She Loves You and I Saw Her Standing There. Their style altered over the years and became more experimental. Sgt. Pepper鈥檚 Lonely Hearts Club Band was recorded during the band鈥檚 studio years and features unusual electronic instruments, effects pedals Guitar effects are electronic devices that modify the sound of the instrument eg, wah-wah pedal. , traditional Indian-originating instruments, a 40-piece orchestra plus a French horn quartet. The genre can be classed as psychedelic rockA type of rock music inspired by the psychedelic culture. due to its strange lyrics and surreal sounds.
With a Little Help from My Friends leads on from the opening song Sgt. Pepper鈥檚 Lonely Hearts Club Band with no break. The two songs are cross-faded together with pre-recorded applause. With a Little Help from My Friends was sung by Ringo Starr in the fictional character of Billy Shears, which was his alter ego in Sgt. Pepper鈥檚 band. John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the track especially for Ringo to sing. The album was produced by George Martin who had been heavily influenced by the album Pet Sounds by The Beach Boys. He wanted to expand the range of techniques used in both composition and production.
The album was recorded in Abbey Road studios using a Studer J37 4-track machine. This early form of 尘耻濒迟颈迟谤补肠办颈苍驳听Separate lines of music that can be mixed together so that all lines are heard at the same time. enabled four different tracks to be mixed into a single track and then combined with additional tracks. It meant that The Beatles could play lots of different instruments in one song. The album uses different types of technology and was never meant to be performed live.