On March 9, 1965 (56 years ago today!), The Beatles spent their final day of filming scenes in the Bahamas for their second feature film, Help!, which was, in part, a satire of the James Bond series of films.

In America, the Bond connection came complete with the uncredited instrumental intro based on the “James Bond Theme” preceding the title song. I am playing the seven songs from the soundtrack album … but sparing you the selections from the film’s orchestral score.

The album cover showed the Beatles with their arms positioned to spell out a word in flag semaphore. According to cover photographer Robert Freeman, “I had the idea of semaphore spelling out the letters ‘HELP’. But when we came to do the shot, the arrangement of the arms with those letters didn’t look good. So we decided to improvise and ended up with the best graphic positioning of the arms.”

On the UK Parlophone release, the letters formed by the Beatles appear to be “NUJV”, while the slightly rearranged U.S. release on Capitol Records appeared to indicate the letters “NVUJ”, with Paul McCartney’s left hand pointing to the Capitol logo.

Your Memories … That’s What We’re All About

Play button is on the left … Volume slider is on the right

Beatles’ Help Medley