| Help Me | |
| Cover: | Joni Mitchell Help Me cover.jpeg |
| Type: | single |
| Artist: | Joni Mitchell |
| Album: | Court and Spark |
| B-Side: | Just Like This Train |
| Released: | March 1974 |
| Recorded: | 1973 |
| Genre: | Jazz pop[1] |
| Length: | 3:22 |
| Label: | Asylum |
| Producer: | Joni Mitchell |
| Prev Title: | Raised on Robbery |
| Prev Year: | 1973 |
| Next Title: | Free Man in Paris |
| Next Year: | 1974 |
"Help Me" is a love song written, produced, and performed by Joni Mitchell and released on her 1974 album Court and Spark. The song was recorded with jazz band Tom Scott's L.A. Express as the backing band.[2]
"Help Me" was Mitchell's biggest hit single, her only Top 10 hit. It peaked at #7 in June 1974 on the Billboard Hot 100, and it hit #1 on the easy listening chart.[3] The song would later be referenced in "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker" by Prince, who was a huge fan of Joni Mitchell's work.
Billboard described the lyrics as Mitchell singing of "needing help to feel good."[4]
In the lyrics, the singer makes a plea for help that, in later lines, seems a bit of a dichotomy. She knows she's falling in love with "a rambler and a gambler and a sweet-talking ladies' man." But apparently, she has no intention to break things off, even though the last line of each chorus cynically says "We love our loving, but not like we love our freedom." This can be applied to both the singer and her object of affection, a reflection on 1970s outlooks on the challenges of a relationship without boundaries.
The song is ranked #288 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.[5]
Artists who have recorded cover versions of the song include:
The Prince song "The Ballad of Dorothy Parker", from his 1987 album Sign o' the Times, mentions the song in the lyrics: "..and it was Joni singing: ‘Help me, I think I'm falling’." Prince was a huge fan of Joni Mitchell's work.[7] A sample can also be heard in "Looking Through Patient Eyes" by P.M. Dawn.
In the show South Park, the character Butters briefly sings this song in Season 11/Episode 2 ("Cartman Sucks"). In the Season 6 of the TV series Shameless, the main character Frank Gallagher and his lover Queenie sing the first half of the song during breakfast.
| Chart (1974) | Peak position | |
|---|---|---|
| Canada RPM Top Singles[8] | 6 | |
| Canada RPM Adult Contemporary[9] | 4 | |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100[10] | 7 | |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary | 1 | |
| U.S. Cash Box Top 100[11] | 8 |
| Chart (1974) | Rank | |
|---|---|---|
| Canada RPM Top Singles [12] | 82 | |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 [13] | 53 | |
| U.S. Cash Box [14] | 50 |
