The second song on the "Pepper" LP follows the introduction of Billy Shears and is an original Lennon/McCartney composition written jointly by both composers but mainly by Paul entitled "With A Little Help From My Friends". This tune is sung by Ringo for the LP. At one point, the working title for the song was "Badfinger Boogie". "With A Little Help From My Friends" not only follows the first song on the LP but is actually joined to it. This was done by adding George Martin's hammond organ intro ( C major to D major to E major) from the very first recording session.
The first session was held on March 29 1967 at EMI studio two and the basic track consisted of Paul playing a piano while George Harrison played the electric guitar, Ringo played the drums and John played a cowbell. It took ten takes to perfect. Since all four tracks were now taken up, a reduction of the four tracks were turned into one track and Ringo's vocals as well as the introduction harmonies and some of the "question" John and Paul vocals were added to another track. This made take 10 into take 11.
The next day on March 30 1967 also at EMI studio two percussion, bass guitar and guitar were added to the mix and all put onto one track. On the last track, more of John and Paul's backing up "question" and middle eight vocals were added as well as the guitar riff at the end of the first chorus played by George Harrison. It was a fairly straight two day recording.
The next day on March 31 1967 from the control room of EMI studio two, "With A Little Help From My Friends" was given 15 mono mix attempts with the 15th mix being the best. At this point, the song was joined up with the title track. Artificial double tracking was added to Ringo's lead vocal. "With A Little Help From My Friends" was mixed for stereo on April 07 1967 from the control room of EMI studio two. The slight difference is the mono and stereo mix is that there seems to be more "flange" on the mono mix.
"With A Little Help From My Friends" appears on the Parlophone LP/CD "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" as well as the North American Capitol LP of the same name. It also appears on the Apple 2-LP/2-CD "The Beatles 1967-1970" as well as being joined on the same Capitol/Parlophone single and Capitol picture sleeve as "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" title track (see previous entry).
"With A Little Help From My Friends" was performed by Ringo for his 1978 television special "Ringo" and it has been performed by Ringo with his various incarnations of the All-Starr band (usually the last song of the evening) and can be heard on various LP/CD discs of any Ringo/All Starr band concert recording.
As an aside note, initial pressings of the North American Capitol LP "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" listed the song as "A Little Help From My Friends" rather than "With A Little Help From My Friends. This can be found on the mono (MAS-2653) and stereo (SMAS-2653) original Capitol rainbow labels.
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