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Ticket to Ride
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the Beatles song. For the board game, see Ticket to Ride (board game) or Larry Kane, the writer of a book of the same name about the Beatles.
| "Ticket to Ride" | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Single by The Beatles | ||
| from the album Help! | ||
| B-side(s) | "Yes It Is" | |
| Released | 9 April 1965 (UK) 19 April 1965 (U.S.) |
|
| Format | 7" | |
| Recorded | Abbey Road Studios 15 February 1965 |
|
| Genre | Rock and roll | |
| Length | 3:02 | |
| Label | Parlophone (UK) R5265 Capitol (US) 5407 |
|
| Writer(s) | Lennon/McCartney | |
| Producer(s) | George Martin | |
| Chart positions | ||
|
||
| The Beatles singles chronology | ||
| "I Feel Fine" (UK-1964) --- "Eight Days a Week" (US-1965) |
"Ticket to Ride" (1965) |
"Help!" (1965) |
| Music sample | ||
|
"Ticket to Ride" (file info) |
||
| Help! track listing | ||
|
||
"Ticket to Ride" is a song by The Beatles from their 1965 album, Help!. It was recorded 15 February 1965 at Abbey Road Studios and released as a single in 1965. In 2004, this song was ranked number 384 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.
The song was written primarily by John Lennon (credited to Lennon/McCartney), with Paul McCartney's contributions in dispute. Lennon said that McCartney's contribution was limited to "the way Ringo played the drums".[1] McCartney said that was an incomplete response, and that "we sat down and wrote it together... give him 60 percent of it... we sat down together and worked on that for a full three-hour songwriting session."[2] Lennon said the double-time ending section (with the lyric "My baby don't care") was one of his "favorite bits" in the song.[1]
The inspiration of the song is unclear, and several plausible explanations exist:
- "a British Railways ticket to the town of Ryde on the Isle of Wight" (McCartney to Barry Miles)[2]
- "a girl riding out of the life of the narrator"[3]
- a phrase coined by John about the cards indicating a clean bill of health, handed out to Hamburg prostitutes in the 1960s (Don Short to Steve Turner)[3]
Other explanations[citation needed] attribute the song to the experience of Lennon's mother leaving the family when he was a child, and the possibility that Lennon was exposed, perhaps by Little Richard in Hamburg, to the Negro spiritual "If I Got My Ticket, Can I Ride?".
Contents |
"Ticket to Ride" was released on 9 April 1965 in the UK and 19 April in the U.S. with "Yes It Is" as its B-side. The original single's label declared that the song was from the United Artists release Eight Arms to Hold You. This was the original title of The Beatles' second movie; the title changed to Help! after the single was initially released.[4]
- John Lennon — double-tracked lead vocal, rhythm guitar
- Paul McCartney — harmony vocal, bass, lead guitar
- George Harrison — harmony vocal, rhythm guitar
- Ringo Starr — drums, tambourine, handclaps
- Above credits according to Ian MacDonald[5]
George Harrison is playing his 12-string Rickenbacker guitar.
After the breakup of the Beatles, Lennon proudly claimed that it was the first heavy metal song of all time;[1] given the droning bassline, repeating drums, and loaded guitar lines, he may be right, despite being less intense than later metal songs. Given this notion, it seems almost ironic that the famously wholesome Carpenters recorded a cover version of the song as a slow ballad in late 1969 for their debut album Offering, and the song charted as a minor #54 single on the American Billboard Hot 100 charts in early 1970. Hard rock pioneers Vanilla Fudge also recorded a cover version in 1967.
An orchestral version of the song is barely audible in the fadeout at the very end of newer CD issues of the Pink Floyd album The Dark Side of the Moon. This is probably a mistake in remastering; coincidentally both The Beatles and Pink Floyd were patrons of Abbey Road Studios.
- ^ a b c Sheff, David (2000). All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono. New York: St. Martin's Press, 196. ISBN 0-312-25464-4.
- ^ a b Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt & Company, 193. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6.
- ^ a b Turner, Steve. A Hard Day's Write, 80.
- ^ Harry, Bill (2000). The Beatles Encyclopedia: Revised and Updated. London: Virgin Publishing, 1074. ISBN 0-7535-0481-2.
- ^ MacDonald, Ian (1994). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 112. ISBN 0-8050-2780-7.
| Preceded by "Mrs. Brown You've Got a Lovely Daughter" by Herman's Hermits |
Billboard Hot 100 number one single May 22, 1965 |
Succeeded by "Help Me Rhonda" by The Beach Boys |