Easter 1965 brought the Easter school report and a new Beatles single. Luckily my marks were just good enough to scrape together enough money to buy "Ticket to ride". This single has probably the ugliest picture sleeve ever to be designed for a Beatles 45. It was a kind of press release with typed text and without a picture of the band. Some fanatics will even claim this was not a "picture sleeve" but an "art sleeve", designed by the art department of the record company without the addition of a picture of the artist(s).
A friend of mine later got the "Help!" album and I was amazed to learn from the credits on the back that the lead guitar in "Ticket" was played by Paul McCartney. I tried to imagine how George Harrison must have felt when this happened. But no doubt George played the song's main riff on his chiming 12-string Rickenbacker.
The flipside was "very close" harmony, my father even claimed it was sung flat. In a 1970s interview George Harrison sang the first line of his part and suddenly the harmonies made a lot more sense to me.
Rating: ****
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