Yellow Submarine

There are some who think this song was taken from the animated movie of the same name. On the contrary, ‘Yellow Submarine’, which was written mostly by Paul, had been recorded for inclusion on Revolver and the decision was made to release it as a single. Both ‘Yellow Submarine’ and the new album, Revolver, were issued on the same day in August 1966. As Paul later remarked, “It’s a happy place, that’s all. You know, it was just… We were trying to write a children’s song. That was the basic idea. And there’s nothing more to be read into it than there is in the lyrics of any children’s song.”

The Beatles recorded ‘Yellow Submarine’ mid-way through the sessions for Revolver and the basic track was finished in five takes on 26 May 1966, with special sound effects added a week later. Coincidentally, these include a cash register later used on Pink Floyd’s ‘Money’ from The Dark Side of The Moon. Not long after George Martin started working for Parlophone in the 1950s, he began recording comedy records with artists including Spike Milligan, Peter Sellers, and later Bernard Cribbins, as well as a string of other British comedians. On these records Martin often employed sound effects and drew on all this experience when working on ‘Yellow Submarine’

With the distinction of being the band’s first No.1 single to feature neither John nor Paul on lead vocals, this is Ringo’s song. It is also the band’s 13th UK single release, and it proved to be anything but unlucky when it topped the singles chart for four weeks. Issued as a double A-side in both Britain and America with ‘Eleanor Rigby’ it was an irresistible combination in the UK, but could only manage No.2 on the Billboard Hot 100.

This brand-new edit has been created using material from the Yellow Submarine movie, directed by George Dunning who spent eleven months supervising over 200 artists and animators to create the material for the 1968 film. Art Director, Heinz Edelmann was clear about the risks that were taken with the movie. “At that time nobody knew if a non-Disney feature film would ever work because every other animated feature film made up until then had pulled down the studio with it. The big question was could we bring it off at all.” ‘Yellow Submarine’ was originally heard over the opening credits of the movie and this sequence captures the feel of the era.