In 1965, The Beatles released “Ticket To Ride”. Written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, “Ticket To Ride” appears on Help!, their fifth studio album.
Although they likely didn’t know it at the time, McCartney and Lennon forever changed music with “Ticket To Ride”. The song is just over three minutes, making it The Beatles’ longest song at the time. From there, The Beatles began releasing longer songs, as did other acts. Their “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” comes in at just under eight minutes, although it wasn’t a hit single. That song appears on The Beatles’ final record, Abbey Road, out in 1969. The Beatles’ longest single came in 1968, with “Hey Jude”, which is just over seven minutes.
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The Beatles may be known for their longer songs, but they aren’t the only artist to break the three-minute barrier. Although other artists had longer songs on their records, Bob Dylan is one of the first to have a hit on the radio with a longer song. In 1965, Dylan had his first Top 5 single, with “Like A Rolling Stone”. The song is just over six minutes long.
The Story Behind “Ticket To Ride” by The Beatles
“Ticket To Ride” is actually a sad song about a relationship ending. The song begins with “I think I’m gonna be sad / I think it’s today, yeah / The girl that’s driving me mad / Is going away / She’s got a ticket to ride / She’s got a ticket to ride / She’s got a ticket to ride / But she don’t care.”
The format of “Ticket To Ride” is also different from anything The Beatles had done before, using an outro in the song. According to McCartney, it’s what makes “Ticket To Ride” stand out.
“I think the interesting thing was a crazy ending,” he says. “Instead of ending like the previous verse, we changed the tempo. We picked up one of the lines, ‘My baby don’t care’, but completely altered the melody. We almost invented the idea of a new bit of a song on the fade-out with this song. It was something specially written for the fade-out, which was very effective. But it was quite cheeky, and we did a fast ending. It was quite radical at the time.”
Lennon later said that “Ticket To Ride” was the first heavy metal song that was ever released.
“If you go and look in the charts for what other music people were making… It’s a heavy record and the drums are heavy too,” Lennon maintained.
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