The Help Album

The Help Album is a 1995 charity album to raise funds for the War Child charity, which provided aid to war-stricken areas, such as Bosnia and Herzegovina. All the songs were recorded in a single day. The album features British and Irish artists including Paul McCartney, Paul Weller, Radiohead, Oasis, Blur and the Manic Street Preachers. It was followed by 1 Love (2002), Hope (2003), Help!: A Day in the Life (2005) and War Child Presents Heroes (2009).

This article is about the 1995 charity album. For the Beatles album, see Help! For other albums of similar name, see Help.
The Help Album
Studio album by
Various artists
Released9 September 1995
Recorded4 September 1995
GenreVarious
Length75:39
LabelGo!
ProducerWar Child
War Child charity albums chronology
The Help Album
(1995)		 NME in Association with War Child Presents 1 Love
(2002)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[1]
NME(10/10)[2]

Recording

The album's recording was inspired by the concept behind John Lennon's "Instant Karma!" – records, like newspapers, should be released as soon as they are recorded. Help was recorded on Monday, 4 September 1995, mixed on Tuesday the fifth, and was in shops on Saturday the ninth. The original version release did not include any tracklist attached to the sleeve notes; the tracklisting was instead printed as a full page ad in the NME. Notable tracks include:

The album's sleeve notes included a contribution from former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, as well as artwork by John Squire and Massive Attack's 3-D. It reached number one on the UK albums compilation charts, and would have reached number one on the UK albums chart had the UK chart compilers not refused to accept it as a single artist album (Go! Discs had attempted to get around the chart restriction on various artists albums by declaring that all contributors were members of a one-off supergroup called War Child). In his book A Year with Swollen Appendices, Brian Eno writes bitterly about this decision, claiming that it cost the charity thousands of pounds in lost sales. Nevertheless, the album raised more than £1.25 million for War Child.

Track listing

The full track listing is not given in the booklet as it was not known at the time of printing.

  1. Oasis and Friends – "Fade Away"
  2. The Boo Radleys – "Oh Brother"
  3. The Stone Roses – "Love Spreads"
  4. Radiohead – "Lucky"
  5. Orbital – "Adnan"
  6. Portishead – "Mourning Air"
  7. Massive Attack – "Fake the Aroma" (alternate version of "Karmacoma")
  8. Suede – "Shipbuilding"
  9. The Charlatans vs. The Chemical Brothers – "Time For Livin'"
  10. Stereo MCs – "Sweetest Truth (Show No Fear)"
  11. Sinéad O'Connor – "Ode to Billie Joe"
  12. The Levellers – "Searchlights"
  13. Manic Street Preachers – "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head"
  14. Terrorvision – "Tom Petty Loves Veruca Salt"
  15. The One World Orchestra featuring The Massed Pipes and Drums of the Children's Free Revolutionary Volunteer Guards (aka The KLF) – "The Magnificent"
  16. Planet 4 Folk Quartet – "Message to Crommie"
  17. Terry Hall and Salad – "Dream a Little Dream of Me"
  18. Neneh Cherry and Trout – "1, 2, 3, 4, 5 "
  19. Blur – "Eine kleine Lift Musik"
  20. The Smokin' Mojo Filters – "Come Together"

The Help EP

An abbreviated Help EP was released in conjunction with the Help album. It charted at number 51 after BBC Radio 1 chose not to play it.[4]

  1. Radiohead – "Lucky"
  2. PJ Harvey – "50ft Queenie (Live)"
  3. Guru – "Momentum (Guru's Jazzmatazz)"
  4. Portishead – "Untitled"

"Come Together" single

The Smokin' Mojo Filters' version of "Come Together" was released as a single, reaching number 19 on the UK Singles Chart.[5] Like the Help EP, it featured a variety of artists.

  1. The Smokin' Mojo Filters – "Come Together"
  2. The Beautiful South – "A Minute's Silence"
  3. Dodgy – "Is It Me"
  4. Black Grape – "In the Name of the Father (Remix)"
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References
  1. Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine". AllMusic. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  2. Sutherland, Steve (16 September 1995). "Infant Karma". NME. p. 46.
  3. Irvin, Jim (July 1997), "Thom Yorke tells Jim Irvin how OK Computer was done", Mojo
  4. Lowe, Steve (December 1999), "Back to Save the Universe", Select
  5. Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 510. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
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