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, Blur, Paul Weller, Radiohead, Oasis, The KLF and Manic Street Preachers. It was followed by 1 Love, Hope, Help!: A Day in the Life and War Child Presents Heroes.

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 5th and was in shops on Saturday 9th. 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 New Musical Express. Notable tracks include:

A version of The Beatles' song "Come Together", by new supergroup the Smokin' Mojo Filters: Paul McCartney, Paul Weller, Noel Gallagher, Steve Cradock, Steve White, and Carleen Anderson.
A cover of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' on My Head", which marked Manic Street Preachers' return to recording after the disappearance of Richey Edwards.
The first appearance of the Radiohead song "Lucky", later included on the 1997 album OK Computer.
An early version of "Adnan's", a track from Orbital's fourth album In Sides.
Suede's cover of Elvis Costello's "Shipbuilding".
The first new recording from Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty in over 2 years, "The Magnificent": a drum and bass version of the theme tune from the film The Magnificent Seven, with vocal samples from DJ Fleka of Serbian radio station B92.
A version of Bobbie Gentry's "Ode to Billie Joe" by Sinéad O'Connor. As the makers of the album were putting the final touches to the album, a courier arrived with a tape of O'Connor's contribution. In theory, the song had arrived too late for inclusion in the album, but the producers were so impressed with her haunting rendition that they felt they had to include the song.
An early appearance by Kate Moss with her then boyfriend Johnny Depp on the Oasis contribution, "Fade Away".
A re-recording of "Love Spreads" by The Stone Roses; this is the only studio recording by the band that features drummer Robbie Maddix and keyboard player Nigel Ippinson.

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. 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.

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.

"Come Together" single

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