S$# 004 Beatles | If You’ve Got Trouble

On February 18, 1965, the Fabs stepped into Studio 2 at Abbey Road to record, among other tracks that day, Ringo’s vocal outing for the upcoming Help! album. It was one of the more bizarre numbers in the Lennon-McCartney oeuvre, and it remained unreleased for more than 30 years.

Writing in 1987 in The Beatles Recording Sessions, Fab historian Mark Lewisohn wrote:

It was not one of the better Lennon-McCartney numbers by any stretch of the imagination, nor was it brilliantly performed in the one and only take… There was a fine moment of humour, however. Ringo had a tendency to shout something akin to “Take it, George!” when it came to the middle eight instrumental breaks of his songs. In If You’ve Got Trouble, perhaps sensing that the song needed some vital boosting, Ringo pleads “Aah, rock on, anybody!”

It is this idiosyncratic nature of the song that makes it fun. It’s no Yesterday or You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away, but it shows a quirky side of the Beatles that one didn’t often hear. I’m glad it was included in the Anthology 2 set.