The Beatles - With A Little Help From My Friends Lyrics

The Beatles Lyrics

"With A Little Help From My Friends"

Billy Shears

What would you think if I sang out of tune
Would you stand up and walk out on me?
Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song
And I'll try not to sing out of key
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm gonna try with a little help from my friends

What do I do when my love is away?
(Does it worry you to be alone?)
How do I feel by the end of the day?
(Are you sad because you're on your own?)
No I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm I get high with a little help from my friends
Mm gonna try with a little help from my friends

(Do you need anybody?)
I need somebody to love
(Could it be anybody?)
I want somebody to love

(Would you believe in a love at first sight?)
Yes I'm certain that it happens all the time
(What do you see when you turn out the light?)
I can't tell you, but I know it's mine
Oh I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm I get high with a little help from my friends
Oh I'm gonna try with a little help from my friends

(Do you need anybody?)
I just need someone to love
(Could it be anybody?)
I want somebody to love

Oh I get by with a little help from my friends
Mm gonna try with a little help from my friends
Oh I get high with a little help from my friends
Yes I get by with a little help from my friends
With a little help from my friends

Submit Corrections

Thanks to sabrina for correcting these lyrics.

Writer(s): Paul McCartney, John Lennon

This song is seamlessly connected to the previous one on the album. It made some difficulties for radio DJs to play them separately.

"Billy Shears" is Ringo Starr's character in the fictional Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote this song specifically for Ringo Starr. McCartney said, "It was pretty much co-written, John and I doing a work song for Ringo, a little craft job."

One of the first lines of this song had originally a lyric "Would you stand up and throw tomatoes at me?", but Ringo Starr declined to sing this because he feared people would really throw tomatoes at them if they'd ever perform live again. In his Anthology he recalled, "I said, 'There's not a chance in hell I am going to sing this line,' because we still had lots of really deep memories of the kids throwing jelly beans and toys on stage".

"Lend me your ears" is borrowed from a play "Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare where it appears in the speech "Friends, Romans, countrymen". The phrase simply means "listen".

This song was on top on the UK charts three times, but it wasn't performed by The Beatles then. Three other artists achieved that: Joe Cocker in 1968, Wet Wet Wet in 1988, and Sam and Mark in 2004.