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Single Information

  Name Ticket to Ride
  Cover Ticket to Ridejpg
  Artist The Beatles
  From Album Help!
  B-side " Yes It Is "
  Released 9 April 1965 ( UK )<br/> 19 April 1965 ( US )
  Format 7"
  Recorded Abbey Road Studios <br/> 15 February 1965
  Genre Rock And Roll
  Length 3:02
  Label Parlophone (UK) <small>R5265</small><br /> Capitol (US) <small>5407</small>
  Writer Lennon/McCartney
  Producer George Martin
  Chart Position #1 <small>( UK Singles Chart )</small>
  Last Single " I Feel Fine "<br/>(UK-1964)<br/>---<br/>" Eight Days A Week "<br/>(US-1965)
  This Single "Ticket to Ride"<br/>(1965)
  Next Single " Help! "<br/>(1965)
  Album Help!
  Type studio
  Tracks Side one




"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.

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.3


MEANING OF "TICKET TO RIDE"

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)


  • "a girl riding out of the life of the narrator"4

  • a phrase coined by John about the cards indicating a clean bill of health, handed out to Hamburg Prostitute s in the 1960s (Don Short to Steve Turner) (the Beatles played in Hamburg early in their musical career, and "ride/riding" being slang for having Sex )


Other explanations 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?".

A popular myth (perpetrated by Casey Kasem ) was that the song was written and recorded as "Ticket to '' Rye ''," but the official name of the song was changed for the sake of American and international listeners who would not understand the reference to the town in East Sussex, England.


RELEASE

"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.5


CRITICAL ACCLAIM

Both Richie Unterberger of All Music Guide and author Ian MacDonald describe "Ticket to Ride" as an important milestone in the evolution of the musical style of the Beatles. Unterberger said, "the rhythm parts on 'Ticket to Ride' were harder and heavier than they had been on any previous Beatles outing, particularly in Ringo Starr 's stormy stutters and rolls."6 MacDonald described it as "psychologically deeper than anything The Beatles had recorded before ... extraordinary for its time — massive with chiming electric guitars, weighty rhythm, and rumbling floor tom-toms."7


CREDITS