Short answers, pulled from the story.
"Help!" was written primarily by John Lennon with some assistance from Paul McCartney, and is credited to Lennon-McCartney. McCartney contributed the countermelody arrangement, working on the song at Lennon's house in Weybridge on the 4th of April 1965.
Lennon wrote "Help!" to express the stress and depression he felt during the Beatles' rapid rise to fame. In a 1980 Playboy interview, he said he was "fat and depressed" and was subconsciously crying out for help. Writer Ian MacDonald described it as the first crack in the emotional shell Lennon had built around himself.
"Help!" was number one for three weeks in both the United States and the United Kingdom in the summer of 1965. It was the fourth of six consecutive number-one singles the Beatles placed on the American charts.
The 1965 Capitol Records recording of "Help!" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2008.
Bananarama covered "Help!" with comedians Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders, and Kathy Burke, who were credited as Lananeeneenoonoo. The single was released in February 1989 as the Red Nose Day charity single, peaking at number three on the UK Singles Chart.
Tina Turner recorded a version of "Help!" based on John Farnham's slower, piano-based ballad arrangement and included it on her 1984 album Private Dancer. Her version reached the top forty in Belgium, the Netherlands, and the UK.