The Beatles: All US Number Ones Ranked Worst To Best
1. Help!
9th Number One, 1965 - Written by John Lennon
The single greatest Beatles number one seems to round up all the best or more remarkable qualities of the others. Like A Hard Day's Night, it was written specifically for a film, with the title coming before the rest of the song; like She Loves You, it's a powerhouse banger that keeps its energy going till the very end; like All You Need Is Love, every beat and hook is iconic and has been engraved in the public consciousness; and like Hey Jude, the song's message is a bit deeper than one might think.
John described the track as a veritable cry for help, at a time when he felt overwhelmed by the band's sudden ascension. But you wouldn't get that through passive listening alone, for the song never sounds sad. In fact, it's so powerful and energetic that it almost seems to be combating the underlying depression. Yet every 'please' uttered in falsetto gives away some of that despair.
The most memorable bit in Help! is that incredible intro. In hindsight, it might seem odd that it never comes up again, but the song is so monumental throughout that it doesn't need to bring it back.
Fun Fact: For the Help! album cover, the photographer had the idea to make the Beatles spell out the letters to the title in flag semaphore. But it looked so bad so they ended up spelling random letters instead.