“Ticket to Ride” by The Beatles

"Ticket to Ride" is where the Beatles started to sound heavy, and not just in the amps. John Lennon wrote most of it, with the usual Lennon–McCartney credit, and they cut it at EMI Studios in London in February 1965 for the album Help!. Instead of another bright, clattering beat number, they built it on a droning guitar figure and a harder, darker thump, and it still sounds brooding and restless next to what came before.

Critic Ian MacDonald later called it deeper, psychologically, than anything they'd done before. It went to number one in Britain, America, Canada, Australia and Ireland, was part of the Help! movie, which Richard Lester directed, and stayed in the live set, captured at Shea Stadium and the Hollywood Bowl.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.