Beatles Take Ticket to the Top! (1965)

 Beatles Take Ticket to the Top!

By Nigel Hunter

Disc Weekly

April 17, 1965

    It all started four months ago during rehearsals for The Beatles' Christmas show at the Hammersmith Odeon. Beatle publisher, Dick James, went down there on one of his periodic visits to the boys in connection with John and Paul's songwriting activities.

     "I sat with Paul in the stalls watching some of the other acts," he recalled. "Then Paul sang a few snatches of melody to me, which he and John had in mind for future songs."

     Soon afterwards, John started on some of the same tunes Paul had been singing out front. "There's a sort of title I've got in my mind, which I can't get rid of," he told Dick. "She's got a ticket to ride." Dick liked the phrase, for it was a slightly more original idea than usual for expressing goodbye and parting. He encouraged John and Paul to work on it, and the matter passed into the back of his mind for a while.

     "Ticket to Ride" next cropped up in early February, when Beatles A&R man George Martin joined John in Switzerland for some skiing. "One evening, John borrowed a guitar from their skiing instructor and strummed through a tune. I liked it straight away," said George, "and John said he'd get together with Paul as soon as he got back to London and finish it off.

    "It went in with the rest of the songs the boys had lined up for their forthcoming film, and it was one of the first we recorded during the week in the studios before they went off to the Bahamas on location."

     Dick James came back on the scene during the recording sessions. He always visits the Beatles at the St John's Wood studio, so he can keep right up to the minute on the progress of the boys' songs. 

    "As usual, I received a rough acetate of 'Ticket to Ride' when it had been cut exactly as it was, without any technical treatment."

    The song was then registered with the British Museum in the same way that every newspaper, magazine, and book published is registered by a copy being deposited there. The contract for John and Paul was drawn up, and the song was registered with the Performing Rights Society to safeguard its copyright and royalties when performed live by other singers or bands, and with the mechanical copyright protection society, which fulfills a similar function where disc versions are concerned. 

    Dick says that John and Paul's enthusiasm is a major factor behind the success of "Ticket to Ride"; like all their other hits, it's his recipe for success all the way in pop music: enthusiasm plus talent. "They really work at their songwriting. A lot of their ideas and groundwork happen in hotels, dressing rooms, and while traveling, and often George and Rigo help out too when they've got something definite that needs to be finished. 

    "Then John and Paul will lock themselves away and get on with it until it's completed to their satisfaction."

     That's the story of "Ticket to Ride," a phrase John Lennon couldn't get out of his mind, a snatch of melody worked out by Paul and him, a tryout for George Martin on a Swiss skiing instructor's guitar, plus unlimited enthusiasm and talent.