Lennon and McCartney finished writing this song in mid-March 1967, written as Starr's song for the album. It was briefly called "Bad Finger Boogie" (later the inspiration for the band name Badfinger), because Lennon composed the melody on a piano using his middle finger after having hurt his forefinger; but in his 1980 "Playboy" interview 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."
Lennon and McCartney 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 do if I sang out of tune? Would you stand up and throw 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 comment that he liked jelly babies, fans would throw them at the Beatles at all of their live shows.)
The song is in the form of a conversation. The other three Beatles sing a question and Starr answers, for example: "Would you believe in a love at first sight? / 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), ending the session at 5:45 in the morning.
"With a Little Help from My Friends" was played as wake-up music on Space Shuttle Mission STS-61.
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney for The Beatles' 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
Lennon's son, Julian, inspired the song with a nursery school drawing he called "Lucy — in the sky with diamonds". Shortly after the song's release, people realized that the first letter of each of the title's nouns spelled LSD. Though Lennon denied and mocked the idea of a hidden LSD reference, the BBC banned the song.
Later, other artists made a cover version of the song. One of them was Elton John, whose 1974 recording was at the top of the "Billboards" chart for two weeks.
According to the Beatles, Lennon's son, Julian Lennon showed his father a nursery school drawing he called Lucy - in the sky with diamonds, depicting his classmate, Lucy O'Donnell.
Julian said, "I don't know why I called it that or why it stood out from all my other drawings, but I obviously had an affection for Lucy at that age. I used to show dad everything I'd built or painted at school, and this one sparked off the idea..." Lucy Vodden née O'Donnell died of an immune system disease in 2009.
Lennon was surprised at the idea that the song title was a hidden reference to LSD.
"Rolling Stone" magazine described the song as "Lennon's lavish daydream" and music critic Richie Unterberger said "'Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds' was one of the best songs on the Beatles' famous Sgt. Pepper album, and one of the classic songs of psychedelia as a whole. There are few other songs that so successfully evoke a dream world, in both the sonic textures and words." In a review for the BBC, Chris Jones described the song as "nursery rhyme surrealism" that contributed to Sgt. Pepper's "revolutionary ... sonic carpet that enveloped the ears and sent the listener spinning into other realms."
In later interviews, Lennon expressed disappointment with the Beatles' arrangement of the recording, complaining that inadequate time was taken to fully develop his initial idea for the song. He also said that he felt he didn't think that he sang it very well. "I was so nervous I couldn't sing," he told the journalist Ray Connolly, "but I like the lyrics."
A 3.2 million year-old, 40% complete fossil skeleton of an "Australopithecus afarensis" specimen discovered in 1974 was named "Lucy" because the Beatles song was being played loudly and repeatedly on a tape recorder in the camp.
The White dwarf star BPM 37093, which contains a core of crystallized carbon roughly 4000 km in diameter, is informally named "Lucy" as a tribute to the Beatles song.
Getting Better
"Getting Better" is a song written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, based on an original idea by McCartney. It was recorded by The Beatles for the 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
One of the recording sessions for "Getting Better" is famous for an incident involving Lennon. During the 21 March 1967 session in which producer George Martin added a piano solo, Lennon complained that he did not feel well and could not focus. He had accidentally taken LSD when he meant to take an upper. Unaware of the mistake, Martin took him up to the roof of Abbey Road Studio for some fresh air, and returned to Studio Two where McCartney and Harrison were waiting. They knew why Lennon was not well, and upon hearing where Lennon was, rushed to the roof to retrieve him and prevent a possible accident.
Fixing a Hole
"Fixing a Hole" is a song mainly written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon/McCartney) and performed by The Beatles on the 1967 album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band".
The first of two recording sessions for the song was at Regent Sound Studio in London on 9 February 1967 in three takes.
The lead vocal was recorded at the same time as the rhythm track, a change from their post-1963 approach of overdubbing the vocal.
According to McCartney, on the night of the session an unusual man appeared at the gate of McCartney's home and said he was Jesus Christ. After a cup of tea, and after getting him to promise to be quiet and sit in a corner, McCartney brought the man to the recording session. After the session the man left and was never heard from again.
In another version of the story, John Lennon arrived at the studio, found the man hanging around the front door, and it was Lennon who invited him in.
The song is referenced to by Lennon in the last stanza of the song "Glass Onion" ("Fixing a Hole in the ocean"), from "The Beatles", released a year later.
In the live-action scene at the end of the 1968 movie "Yellow Submarine", Ringo mentions that he gave the other half of the "hole in me pocket" to Jeremy, so that he could "stop his mind from wandering", a direct reference to "Fixing a Hole".
Ian MacDonald
Ian MacCormick (3 October 1948 – 20 August 2003) was a music critic and author, who wrote a very famous detailed history about the Beatles.
She's Leaving Home
"She's Leaving Home" is a song, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and released in 1967 on The Beatles album "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band". McCartney wrote and sang the verse and Lennon the chorus. This was one of a handful of songs of the Beatles in which the members did not play any instruments.
Paul McCartney:
The newspaper story McCartney mentioned was from the front page of the "Daily Mirror", about a girl named Melanie Coe. Although McCartney made up most of the content, Coe, who was 17 at the time said that he got most of it right. Her parents wondered why she had left... "She has everything here." In real life, Melanie did not "meet a man from the motor trade", but instead a croupier, and left in the afternoon while her parents were at work. She was found ten days later because she had said where her boyfriend worked.
Coincidentally, Coe had met McCartney three years earlier when she was a contestant and prize winner on ITV's "Ready Steady Go!". An update on Melanie appeared in the Daily Mail in May 2008.