This song will stay with you…Billy was a one hit wonder but he did it right… #1 in the Billboard 100 in 1974. At the time Billy lived in Nashville and signed with Monument Records. He recorded the song in Young’un Sound Studio in Murfreesboro, TN. It is really hard not to like this song.
Fellow Beatle fan hanspostcard has mentioned this song sounds like a Ringo Starr type song…and I have to agree. Either way, it’s a good song. Now when I hear it…I hear Ringo singing it.
From Songfacts.
Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge brought Billy Swan a little RMI organ as a wedding present. Billy was fiddling around with it when the chorus “I can help” appeared, and within a few minutes he had written the lyrics.
Swan often took his medium-sized dog to his recording sessions. While Swan was recording “I Can Help,” the dog became playful and started tugging at Swan’s pant leg. He finished the take – and earned the applause from the bandmates that is heard at the end of the released song.
Swan wrote Clyde McPhatter’s 1962 hit “Lover Please.” He went on to write some popular country songs, but this was his only hit as an artist
I Can Help
If you’ve got a problem, I don’t care what it is
If you need a hand, I can assure you this
I can help, I’ve got two strong arms, I can help
It would sure do me good to do you good
Let me help
It’s a fact that people get lonely, ain’t nothing new
But a woman like you, baby, should never have the blues
Let me help, I’ve got two for me, let me help
It would sure do me good to do you good
Let me help
When I go to sleep at night, you’re always a part of my dream
Holding me tight and telling me everything I want to hear
Don’t forget me, baby, all you gotta do is call
You know how I feel about you, if I can do anything at all
Let me help, if your child needs a daddy, I can help
It would sure do me good to do you good, let me help
When I go to sleep at night, you’re always a part of my dream
Holding me tight and telling me everything I wanna hear
Don’t forget me, baby, all you gotta do is call
You know how I feel about you, if I can do anything at all
Let me help, if your child needs a daddy, I can help
It would sure do me good to do you good, let me help
PowerPop... An Eclectic Collection of Pop Culture 
Is it odd that so many artists- have a #1 hit right out of the gate- and never have another hit? Seems like it happened a lot. In some cases that is a good thing -[see Debbie Boone}
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I know. It’s hard to believe another one would not come out. I don’t know if they think too much about it or try too hard…or try to rewrite the first one.
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Young’un Sound moved to music row where it became Monument Studios and then it was sold in the late 70’s and became Masterlink Studios. It is now Southern Ground Studios owned by Zac Brown. The Foo Fighters recorded there on an episode of HBO’s Sonic Highway.
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I didn’t know Murfreesboro had any…but I can see why…it would probably be cheaper.
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Good tune… thank goodness for Rhino Records and their ‘HAve A Nice Day’ compilations or else I think tune’s like this one would be completely gone from hard copies otherwise
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They have been a blessing to older bands…and the audience.
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I thought it was Ringo when I first heard it. Then when I heard the name of the singer, I thought it was Ringo using a different name (i.e., a derivative of ‘Billy Shears’). I even thought he had a British accent. I had no idea he was actually from middle America. It’s a really neat story about how the song came to be. I love the part about his dog in the studio.
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I didn’t know he was local to me. He wrote it across from Centennial Park which I’ve been a million times.
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That’s pretty cool.
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