![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/John-Lennon-1960s-Musician-The-Beatles-Far-Out-Magazine-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n
Tue 28 April 2026 20:56, UK <\/p>\n
Looking back through the catalogue of songs registered under the inspiring moniker of The Beatles<\/a>, I can see how easy it is to get lost. <\/p>\n Not only were the band prolific throughout the 1960s<\/a>, delivering hundreds of classic songs, but the sentiments of those tracks range wildly between perfectly poised pop and deeply experimental intrusions into the psyches of broken men. It\u2019s part of what makes the band so widely revered to this day.\u00a0<\/p>\n This vast range of singles means that there is a good chance, within the millions of adoring fans, that every single one of their tunes is considered a favourite for one reason or another. But favourites and what might be considered their \u201cbest\u201d are very different things.\u00a0<\/p>\n The former term can be applied to the most mundane of music. Ubiquitous hits that remind us of days gone by or simple riffs that charge up our souls and rip our hearts can often be considered our favourite tunes. But finding out what might be the best song from The Beatles is a far more qualitative exploration that would not be without its twists and turns. Perhaps the easiest route to the answer is listening to the band themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr routinely shared their thoughts on the group\u2019s output and have, over the years, often shared what might be considered their favourites from the discography<\/a>. However, there are only a few occasions when the musicians have picked out their best songs. One such moment came a little way into their reign as pop royalty when Lennon shared his thoughts on one of their newer hits, \u2018Help!\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cWe think it\u2019s one of the best we\u2019ve written,\u201d said Lennon in 1965 as he contemplated the band\u2019s single, a commissioned track for their new film Help!, taking notes from the film\u2019s title. As ever with the Fab Four, a new movie meant a new album, and the Lennon-McCartney train looked like it showed no signs of slowing down.<\/p>\n Yet \u2018Help!\u2019 marked a subtle turning point in the band\u2019s writing. Up until that moment, much of The Beatles\u2019 catalogue had thrived on the buoyant optimism of young love and teenage excitement. With this number, Lennon opened the door to something a little more honest. Beneath the bright tempo and light-hearted guitars sat a lyric that felt unusually vulnerable for a band still marketed as the smiling kings of pop.<\/a><\/p>\n Behind the fast fame, quick money and unstoppable fandom, Lennon was already starting to long for the time before The Beatles took over his life. He would think back to the days when he could sit alone in his room, contemplating life\u2019s mysteries without the pressure of producing a hit record every few months. In truth, he was crying out for help. On this track, he enters what he later called his \u201cfat Elvis period\u201d, yet still manages to create one of the band\u2019s most cherished songs, one of his personal favourites, and possibly one of their very best.<\/p>\n The track is seemingly written with the film in mind, but hides many separate meanings and evocative moments for the song\u2019s main composer<\/a>. It\u2019s a tune utterly beloved by the band\u2019s fans and marked Lennon out as a future Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. It saw Lennon put his heart on the page for all to see. As we know now, it\u2019s that honesty that would quickly become one of Lennon\u2019s greatest strengths as a songwriter. <\/p>\n In the years that followed, he would lean further into introspection with songs like \u2018Strawberry Fields Forever\u2019 and \u2018Julia\u2019, turning personal doubt into something universal. In hindsight, \u2018Help!\u2019 feels like the moment the mask first slipped, when the world\u2019s biggest pop star briefly stopped playing the part and admitted that fame had begun to weigh heavier than anyone realised.<\/p>\n During various interviews, Lennon pointed to \u2018Help!\u2019\u00a0as one of his favourite<\/a> songs of the Fab Four.<\/a> In 1970, he delivered a typically flagrant response after avoiding a simple question from Rolling Stone founder Jan Wenner on Lennon\u2019s favourite song he ever wrote for The Beatles. Lennon says: \u201dI always liked \u2018[I Am The] Walrus\u2019, \u2018Strawberry Fields\u2019, \u2018Help!\u2019, \u2018In My Life\u2019,\u201d Wenner soon interjects, \u201cWhy \u2018Help!\u2019?\u201d Lennon delivers a notably colourful response, one rendered with his uncontrollable honesty.<\/p>\n The singer and guitarist replies, \u201cBecause I meant it, it\u2019s real. The lyric is as good now as it was then, it\u2019s no different, you know. It makes me feel secure to know that I was that sensible or whatever- well, not sensible, but aware of myself. That\u2019s with no acid, no nothing\u2026 well pot or whatever.\u201d Lennon clarifies his point:<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just me singing \u2018help\u2019 and I meant it, you know. I don\u2019t like the recording that much, the song I like. We did it too fast to try and be commercial.\u201d<\/p>\n John Lennon<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It\u2019s a notion that Lennon later expanded on during his now-iconic interview with David Sheff of Playboy in 1980. \u201cThe whole Beatle thing was just beyond comprehension,\u201d recalls Lennon as flashes of the mobs of fans and press flash across his brain, \u201cWhen \u2018Help\u2019 came out, I was actually crying out for help. Most people think it\u2019s just a fast rock \u2018n\u2019 roll song\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t 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,\u201d he added. It was a moment when Lennon\u2019s old personality, his old way of being, was beginning to lose out to the pop star the band had created. <\/p>\n \u201cSo it was my fat Elvis period,\u201d he continues.<\/p>\n \u201cYou see the movie: He \u2014 I \u2014 is very fat, very insecure, and he\u2019s completely lost himself,\u201d Lennon added. \u201cAnd I am singing about when I was so much younger and all the rest, looking back at how easy it was. Now I may be very positive\u2026 yes, yes\u2026 but I also go through deep depressions where I would like to jump out the window, you know.\u201d<\/p>\n Luckily, the duality of getting older may well provide you with rose-tinted moments of youthful hopefulness that will never be attained again, but it also provides you with the knowledge to know what\u2019s to come. \u201cIt becomes easier to deal with as I get older; I don\u2019t know whether you learn control or, when you grow up, you calm down a little,\u201d says Lennon, concluding the matter with his classic wit and curtness. <\/p>\n \u201cAnyway, I was fat and depressed, and I was crying out for help.\u201d<\/p>\n Often written off as another commercial number for The Beatles to lay more stones along the path to success. But, in fact, the song was deeply personal, entirely affected by its creator and a hint at the wonderful songs that were to come. \u2018Help!\u2019 isn\u2019t just one of Lennon\u2019s favourites; it might well be his greatest ever contribution to The Beatles.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/The-Beatles-Ringo-Starr-George-Harrison-Paul-McCartney-John-Lennon-1965-Russia-Far-Out-Magazine-1024.jpeg\")
<\/a>(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n![\"John](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/John-Lennon-The-Beatles-Musician-1960s-Far-Out-Magazine-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n\n
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<\/a> The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n