I get by with a little help from my friends.

The line is from the Beatles song “With a Little Help from My Friends,” written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney for the 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. It was conceived as a showcase for drummer Ringo Starr, who sings it in character as “Billy Shears” within the album’s framing conceit of a fictional band. The lyric appears in the song’s call-and-response structure, where the singer answers questions about coping, love, and everyday life by emphasizing reliance on companionship. Released at the height of the Beatles’ collaborative studio period, it became one of the era’s most recognizable statements of communal support.

On its surface, the line is a plainspoken admission that getting through life is not a solitary achievement. Its power lies in its modesty: “get by” suggests ordinary endurance rather than heroic triumph, and the “little help” underscores how small acts of care—encouragement, presence, practical aid—can be decisive. Within Sgt. Pepper’s theatrical setting, it also affirms the band-as-community idea, countering myths of the lone genius with a portrait of mutual dependence. More broadly, the lyric has endured as a secular, everyday credo of friendship, often invoked to frame solidarity as both emotionally sustaining and socially necessary.

“I get high with a little help from my friends.”
“I’m gonna try with a little help from my friends.”