On May 22, 1965, sixty years ago, The Beatles’ jangly pop-rock gem “Ticket to Ride” became the band’s eighth overall single to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. The song was mainly written by John Lennon, with some assistance from bandmate Paul McCartney. Lennon sang lead on the track, while McCartney handled the vocal harmonies.
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The song is sung from the perspective of a guy who’s upset that his romantic partner, who isn’t getting along with him, is getting ready to leave him.
“Ticket to Ride” knocked Herman’s Hermits’ “Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter” from the top of the Hot 100. It spent one week at No. 1 before being replaced by The Beach Boys’ “Help Me, Rhonda.” “Ticket to Ride” also topped the U.K. singles tally for three weeks in late April and early May of ’65.
The “Ticket to Ride” single was released in April in the U.K. and the U.S. “Yes It Is” was on the B-side of both versions. The U.S. edition of the single announced that the song was from The Beatles’ upcoming movie Eight Arms to Hold You, which was the original title of the film Help! The song did appear in Help!, during a scene that featured the Fab Four skiing in the Austrian Alps.
The track also was included on the U.S. and U.K. versions of the Help! album, which were released in August 1965.
More About “Ticket to Ride”
In his 2021 book The Lyrics, McCartney revealed that the title of “Ticket to Ride” had a somewhat double meaning.
“John and I always liked wordplay,” Paul noted in the book. “So, the phrase ‘She’s got a ticket to ride’ of course referred to riding on a bus or train, but—if you really want to know—it also referred to [the town of] Ryde on the Isle of Wight, where my cousin Betty and her husband Mike were running a pub. That’s what they did; they ran pubs.”
McCartney continued, “It was great fun to visit them, so John and I hitchhiked down to Ryde, and when we wrote the song we were referring to the memory of this trip.”
According to BeatlesBible.com, in an archival interview with Lennon that was included in the 2000 book The Beatles Anthology, John said he felt that the band was exploring new sonic territory with “Ticket to Ride.”
“‘Ticket to Ride’ was slightly a new sound at the time,” Lennon maintained. “It was pretty f—ing heavy for then, if you go and look in the charts for what other music people were making. You hear it now and it doesn’t sound too bad; but it’d make me cringe. … It’s a heavy record and the drums are heavy too. That’s why I like it.”
In addition to harmony vocals and bass, McCartney contributed lead guitar to the song. This marked the first Beatles track to be released that featured Paul playing lead guitar.
“Ticket To Ride” also was The Beatles’ first single to run longer than 3 minutes.
Cover Versions of “Ticket to Ride”
“Ticket to Ride” has been covered by many artists over the years. One of the most noteworthy renditions is by The Carpenters, who released their version as a single in 1969.
The Carpenters’ cover reached No. 54 on the Hot 100 and No. 19 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary tally.
Other artists who recorded “Ticket to Ride” include Mary Wells, Vanilla Fudge, The 5th Dimension, Hüsker Dü, and Echo and the Bunnymen.
(Photo by David Redfern/Redferns)
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