“Yellow Submarine” is the title of the first and only full-length
animated movie featuring the music of The Beatles and the third Beatles movie
prepared to fulfill the October 1963 agreement with United Artists. The first two movies made in this three-film
deal with the company were highly successful box office hits, namely “A Hard
Day's Night” and “Help!”. Negotiations
were being made for a third movie as early as February 1965, film titles such
as “A Talent For Loving,” “Shades Of A Personality,” “Up Against It,” “The
Three Musketeers” and even a film adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's “The Lord Of
The Rings” being discussed. As it was,
The Beatles weren't keen on making a third movie at all and thought it would be
an appropriate way to fulfill their contract with United Artists by allowing Al
Brodax to create an animated movie without much involvement from them.
Al Brodax, who produced the King Features cartoon series of The
Beatles in America, approached Brian Epstein in 1966 about such an
endeavor. "Brian had set it up, and
we had nothing to do with it," John stated in 1968. When an agreement
surfaced, the contract allowed them to use as many as twelve previously
released Beatles songs but also required four new songs for the film. Since the group only reluctantly agreed to
participate in this project, they would save songs they deemed unsuitable for
their current releases, such as “Magical Mystery Tour,” and submit them for the
animated film project. George Martin
remembers: “Whenever we were working on a song that we didn't like too much, or
wasn't that brilliant a one, they would say, 'OK, let's put that one aside,
that will do for the Yellow Submarine.'
That was the attitude.”
The released movie occurred in America on November 13th, 1968, but
the accompanying soundtrack album laid dormant until a full two months later.
This means that moviegoers heard a handful of new Beatles songs in the theater
as part of the movie but were not able to own them for another two months.
However, with the release of their new double album “The Beatles” (aka the
“White Album”) a week-and-a-half later on November 25th of that year, Beatles
fans had quite enough to occupy them in the meantime. Since the film opened much earlier in England,
on July 17th, 1968, British audiences had to wait a whopping six months to get
their copies of these songs.
Origin Of The Album
With the film opening in England in July of 1968, Capitol records
assumed that a soundtrack album for the movie would be released very soon. Capitol thereby reserved a catalog number (ST
2957) for this release, but this ended up reassigned to a different Capitol
album since The Beatles, and EMI engaged too busy with other projects at the
time, the most noteworthy being the recording of the “White Album.”
When Capitol saw that the movie was opening in November, they
excitedly put together cover artwork for the anticipated soundtrack album and
assigned another catalog number (ST 3354) in conjunction with it released on
their newly formed Apple Records label.
This too was shelved for the time being because the “White Album”
demanded their primary focus. “We want
it out before the 'Yellow Submarine” LP comes out,” Paul stated in early July.
In fact, the initial plan was to release the new Beatles songs
from the film were in the form of an EP, proposed for release in September of
1968. This would have been similar to
what they had just done in Britain with the six tracks they had recorded for
“Magical Mystery Tour” the previous year.
However, since EP's didn't sell well in the states, Capitol combined
those six songs with five others and created the “Magical Mystery Tour”
album. A decision was therefore made to
turn the four new Beatles songs, along with two previously released Beatles
tracks and a George Martin prepared film score into a full-length album for
worldwide consumption. However, to show
that such plans for an EP still held being serious consideration, a master tape
took shape on March 13th, 1969 by EMI employee Edward Gadsby-Toni that
consisted of, not four, but five songs, including the as-not-yet-released
“Across The Universe” which eventually found a new pathway destined for release
on the World Wildlife Fund charity album.
Recording The Album
Of the six Beatles songs that appear on the album, the first to be
recorded was the previously released title song “Yellow Submarine,” the
recording of which began on May 26th, 1966.
Then came the newly released “Only A Northern Song” which began on
February 13th, 1967 during the sessions for the “Sgt. Pepper” album and then
eventually delegated for release on this soundtrack album. Another two of the newly released songs on
the album began in May of 1967, “All Together Now” on May 12th and “It's All
Too Much” on May 25th. “All You Need Is
Love” first saw the recording studio on June 14th, 1967 and, although the song
was previously released that year, this soundtrack album contained the
first-ever stereo mix of the song.
Finally, John's boisterous “Hey Bulldog” was fully recorded on February
11th, 1968.
On October 22nd and 23rd, 1968, George Martin and a 41-piece
orchestra entered EMI Studio One to record the soundtrack music for inclusion
on side two of the “Yellow Submarine” soundtrack album. Or should I say, re-record the soundtrack
music. “It was more convenient to do
so,” George Martin explains, “and no more costly since the original orchestra
would have had to be paid twice anyway if we had used the soundtrack for the
record.” The engineers for both of these
three-hour sessions were Geoff Emerick and Nick Webb.
Most record buyers felt somewhat ripped-off when they realized
that only the first side of this new Beatles album contained songs played by
The Beatles, two of which were previously released nonetheless. “Brian made a
mistake by letting George Martin put in all those fills in 'Yellow Submarine,'
the 'Sea Of Holes' sh*t,” remarked Lennon at the time. “He recorded all this terrible sh*t that went
out with our LP, you know. If you check
it out, it's a whole sort of joke.
George Martin is on one side of our album. Oh, we didn't notice that.”
All this said the entire recorded “Yellow Submarine” soundtrack
album made way between May 26th, 1966 and October 23rd, 1968.
Success Of The Album
The Beatles were on a definite roll as far as the Billboard album
chart in America was concerned. The
“White Album” spent a total of nine weeks in the #1 spot, stretching from
November 28th, 1968 to March 1st, 1969.
With 30 new Beatles songs contained on this double album package, you
would think Beatles fans would have enough to digest for a while, especially
since their wait from The Beatles previous American album, “Magical Mystery
Tour,” had been a full year.
However, a mere seven weeks after the “White Album” was released,
a new Beatles album debuted on the market.
The “Yellow Submarine” soundtrack album also soared up the charts,
indicating that any new Beatles music, even if it was only a total of four new
songs, was in high demand. It peaked at
the #2 position on the Billboard album chart during the final week that the
“White Album” was at #1. This soundtrack
album stayed on the Billboard charts for a total of 25 weeks and certified as a
gold record selling over a million copies.
And with George Martin's orchestral score on side two of the album, it
undoubtedly proved to be his biggest money maker as far as royalties are
concerned, not to mention that the album became a permanent fixture in the
Beatles catalog throughout all repackaging reissues and box sets.
(Enjoy now the insights shared from the Beatles Bible):
The soundtrack for Yellow Submarine, The Beatles' fourth film, was
the band's tenth UK album. It was released in early 1969, just weeks after the
White Album.
The film project had begun in 1967, at a time when The Beatles had
little enthusiasm for making a full-length film. They had recently completed
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and were more focused on the television
special Magical Mystery Tour and its soundtrack.
The film project had begun in 1967, at a time when The Beatles had
little enthusiasm for making a full-length film. They had recently completed
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and were more focused on the television
special Magical Mystery Tour and its soundtrack. However, they were under
contract by United Artists to make another film, and by way of compromise, an
animation featuring the voices of actors and the music of The Beatles was
decided upon. The Beatles additionally agreed to film a short sequence for the
film's end and oversaw its creation.
The Beatles supplied four new songs for the film. Two of these –
Only A Northern Song and It's All Too Much – were by George Harrison. At a time
when the guitarist struggled to have his compositions included on The Beatles'
albums, this shows how little regard the band, and Lennon and McCartney in
particular, held the project. “Bespoke, indeed, not exactly a good fit. The
dregs of their inventory. Pieces they would, in any case, jettison: junk,
file-and-forget pieces… I don't fancy you will use the new songs as highlights
embracing story points, but rather as filler at best.” George Martin/Up
Periscope Yellow: The Making of the Beatles' Yellow Submarine, Al Brodax.
Of the other two new songs, Hey Bulldog was recorded in a 10-hour
session, during the filming of the Lady Madonna promotional film. All Together
Now, meanwhile, took even less time, just six hours on 12 May 1967. In the
absence of George Martin, the song was essentially produced by Paul McCartney
with assistance from engineer Geoff Emerick.
The soundtrack album also contained two older and
previously-released Beatles songs – the title track from 1966, and the
following year's All You Need Is Love.
The albums' second side comprised seven tracks, re-recordings of
the George Martin's orchestral soundtrack for the film. These were album
recordings were taped with a 41-piece orchestra over two three-hour sessions on
22 and 23 October 1968, and were edited on 22 November.
In the studio
The oldest song on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album was the
title track, which had been recorded for the Revolver album in May and June
1966.
The first original song to be recorded was Only A Northern Song.
This was taped in February 1967 during the Sgt Pepper sessions, but was
rejected for that album and replaced with George Harrison's Within You Without
You. Only A Northern Song was completed in April 1967, with the addition of new
vocals, bass guitar, trumpet, and glockenspiel.
All Together Now was the next of the songs to be recorded, on 12
May 1967. It's All Too Much was recorded a few weeks later, in May and June
1967.
All You Need Is Love had been a single in July 1967, the month
after it was recorded and premiered during the worldwide satellite broadcast
Our World.
Hey Bulldog was taped on 11 February 1968, shortly before The
Beatles' trip to India to study Transcendental Meditation. It was written and
recorded while The Beatles were being filmed for a promotional film for Lady
Madonna. “Paul said we should do a real song in the studio, to save wasting
time. Could I whip one off? I had a few words at home so I brought them in.”
John Lennon/The Beatles, Hunter Davies.
The Beatles had originally intended to release the four original
Yellow Submarine songs on an EP, with the bonus song Across The Universe, in
September 1968.
This was to have been on a mono 7" single, to be played at
33rpm, but plans were put on hold to make way for the release of the White
Album.
When the Yellow Submarine album eventually emerged on 13 January
1969 in the United States, and four days later in the UK, it was several months
after the film's launch in July 1968, demonstrating how low a priority it was
for the band.
While it was issued only in stereo in the US, it was available in
mono and stereo in the UK. However, the mono version was simply a fold-down, made
by combining the two stereo channels into one, rather than a true mono mix.
In the US, an 8-track tape version contained Lucy In The Sky With
Diamonds, another of the film's songs, as an additional track.
Yellow Submarine was first released on compact disc in August
1987. It featured the UK artwork, and liner notes by Derek Taylor and Tony
Palmer.
In 1999 the Yellow Submarine Soundtrack album was released. It
omitted George Martin's orchestral instrumentals, and contained remixes of The
Beatles songs, including nine not included in the original soundtrack album.
A remastered version of the Yellow Submarine album was released on
9 September 2009, along with all The Beatles' other albums. This edition
included both the US and UK sleeve notes, plus historical information and
recording notes.
Chart success
Yellow Submarine sold comparatively poorly for a Beatles album. It
peaked at number three in the UK, and remained in the top 15 for ten weeks.
In the US it reached number two, where it was held off by the
White Album. In 1969 it spent 24 weeks in the American charts.
The soundtrack fared better in Canada and Norway, where it topped
the album charts. In Canada it was number one for two weeks, ending the White
Album's 12-week run at the top.
The Yellow Submarine EP
After the release of the album, the Beatles received criticism for
its poor value for money. As a result, they revived the idea of issuing an EP
of the original songs plus Across The Universe.
had originally intended to release the four original Yellow
Submarine songs on an EP, plus the bonus song Across The Universe.
The EP was to have had Only A Northern Song, Hey Bulldog and
Across The Universe on side one, and All Together Now and It's All To Much on
side two.
A master tape was compiled in March 1969, and contained true mono
mixes of the songs, but the release was abandoned. The mixes can be heard on
the Mono Masters disc in the 2009 box set The Beatles In Mono.
Cover artwork
The front cover of the Yellow Submarine album features a cartoon of
The Beatles, which had previously featured on posters for the film. The UK
version of the album had the words "NOTHING IS REAL" in small letters
below the title. Furthermore, the tracklisting for the US LP listed six tracks
on side two: Sea Of Time and Sea Of Holes were combined into one track, listed
as Medley: Sea of Time & Sea of Holes.
Furthermore, the tracklisting for the US LP listed six tracks on
side two: Sea Of Time and Sea Of Holes were combined into one track, listed as
Medley: Sea of Time & Sea of Holes.
UK sleeve notes
Somewhat oddly, the back cover of the UK edition contained a
review of the White Album, written by Tony Palmer of the Observer newspaper. It
was preceded by a short introduction by Apple's press officer Derek Taylor.
My name is Derek but that is what mother called me so it’s no big
thing, except that it is my name and I would like to say I was asked to write
the notes for Yellow Submarine. Now Derek Taylor used to be the Beatles press
agent and then, in America he became the former Beatles press agent (having
left them) and now Derek Taylor is the press agent for the Beatles again so
when he was asked to write the notes for “Yellow Submarine” he decided that not
only had he nothing new to say about the Beatles whom he adores too much to
apply any critical reasoning, and by whom he is paid too much to feel
completely free, ad also he couldn’t be bothered, and also he wanted the people
who bought the Yellow Submarine album to buy and enjoy the really wonderful
“The Beatles” album out in the month of November ’68 so here and now, unbought,
unsolicited, unexpurgated, unattached, pure and unmeasurably favorable review
of “The Beatles” (the new Apple/EMI album) from the London Observer by Tony
Palmer, a journalist and film-maker of some special distinction. The Beatles’
bull’s-eye.
If there is still any doubt that Lennon and McCartney are the
greatest song writers since Schubert, then next Friday – with the publication
of the new Beatles double LP – should surely see the last vestiges of cultural
snobbery and bourgeois prejudice swept away in a deluge of joyful music making,
which only the ignorant will not hear and only the deaf will not acknowledge.
Called simply The Beatles (PMC 7067/8), it’s wrapped in a plain white cover
which is adorned only by the song’s titles and those four faces, faces which
for some still represent the menace of long-haired youth, for others the great
hope of a cultural renaissance and for others the desperate, apparently endless
struggle against cynical so-called betters.
In the Beatles’ eyes, as in their songs, you can see the fragile
fragmentary mirror of society which sponsored them, which interprets and makes
demands of them, and which punishes them when they do what others reckon to be
evil; Paul, ever-hopeful, wistful; Ringo, every mother’s son; George, local lad
made good; John, withdrawn, sad, but with a fierce intelligence clearly
undimmed by all that organized morality can throw at him. There are heroes for
all of us, and better than we deserve.
It’s not as if the Beatles ever seek such adulation. The
extra-ordinary quality of the 30 new songs is one of simple happiness. The
lyrics overflow with a sparkling radiance and sense of fun that it is
impossible to resist. Almost every track is a send-up of a send-up of a
send-up, rollicking, reckless, gentle, magical. The subject matter ranges from
piggies (‘Have you seen the bigger piggies/In their starched white shirts’), to
Bungalow Bill of Saturday morning film-show fame (‘He went out tiger hunting
with his elephant gun/In case of accidents he always took his mom’); from ‘Why
don’t we do it in the road’ to ‘Savoy Truffle.’
The skill at orchestration has matured with finite precision. Full
orchestra, brass, solo violin, glockenspiel, saxophone, organ, piano, harpsichord,
all manner of percussion, flute, sound effects, are used sparingly and thus
with deftness.
Electronic gimmickry has been suppressed or ignored in favor of
musicianship. References to or quotations from Elvis Presley, Donovan, Little
Richard, the Beach Boys, Blind Lemon Jefferson are woven into an aural fabric
that has become the Bayeux Tapestry of popular music. It’s all there, if you
listen. Lennon sings ‘I told you about strawberry fields’ and ‘I told you about
the fool on the hill’ – and now?
The Beatles are competent rather than virtuoso instrumentalists –
but their ensemble playing is intuitive and astonishing. They bend and twist
rhythms and phrases with a unanimous freedom that give their harmonic
adventures the frenzy of anticipation and unpredictability. The voice –
particularly that of Lennon – is just another instrument, wailing, screeching,
mocking, weeping.
There is a quiet determination to be rid of the bogus
intellectualization that usually surrounds them and their music. The words are
most deliberately simple-minded – one song is just called ‘Birthday’ and
includes lines like, ‘Happy birthday to you’; another just goes on repeating
‘Good-night’; another says ‘I’m so tired, I haven’t slept a wink.’ The music is
likewise stripped of all but the simplest of harmonies and beat – so what is
left is a prolific out-pouring of melody, music-making of unmistakable clarity
and foot-tapping beauty.
The sarcasm and bitterness that have always given their music its
unease and edginess still bubbles out – ‘Lady Madonna trying to make ends meet
– yeah/Looking through a glass onion.’ The harshness of the imagery is, if
anything, even harsher; ‘The eagle pick my eye/The worm he locks my bone.’
Black birds, black clouds, broken wings, lizards, destruction. And, most
grotesque of all, there is a terrifying track called ‘Revolution 9,’ which
comprises sound effects, overheard gossip, backwards-tapes, janglings from the
subconscious memories of a floundering civilization. Cruel, paranoiac, burning,
agonized, hopeless, it is given shape by an anonymous bingo voice which just
goes repeating ‘Number nine, number nine, number nine’ – until you want to
scream.
McCartney’s drifting melancholy overhands the entire proceedings
like a purple veil of shadowy optimism – glistening, inaccessible, loving.
At the end, all you do is stand and applaud. Whatever your taste
in popular music, you will find it satisfied here. If you think that pop music
is Engelbert Humperdinck, then the Beatles have done it better – without sentimentality,
but with passion; if you think that pop is just rock ‘n’ roll, then the Beatles
have done it better – but infinitely more vengefully’ if you think that pop is
mind-blowing noise, then the Beatles have done it better – on distant shores of
the imagination that others have not even sighted.
This record took them five months to make and in case you think
that’s slow going, just consider that its completion they’ve written another 15
songs. Not even Schubert wrote at that speed.
US sleeve notes
For the American version, the Yellow Submarine album contained a
fictional biography of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, credited to Dan
Davis. “Somewhere during the hours between the years 700 and 750 (anno Domini),
a brother from the Northumbrian monastery wrote a youthful thane of King
Hygelac (King of the Geats) named Beowulf... a hero. A super-hero who arrived
from far by sea to rescue Heorot... a feasting hall built by a benevolent old
king called Hrothgar... a feasting hall that exuded the pleasures of food and
music and perpetual celebration and all that was raison d'être... a feasting
hall which for years had been ravaged by the villainy of an evil spirit named
Grendel. Having already proven his mettle as a good-guy combatant par excellence
(by the conquering of a picturesque sea monster and a victory over Breca in a
swimming match), Beowulf goes forth to rid the once beautiful Northumbrian
landscape of destructive Grendel... a demon who indeed perishes when his arm is
delicately dislodged from its socket by Mr. Wulf. The kingdom is saved (albeit
after disposing of Grendel's mother who took unkindly to the action) and Heorot
restored with the pleasures of food and music and perpetual celebration and
colorful beauty... a restoration which permits bigger and better glories to be
raised to the local gods addressed as Wryds.
Some 465 years later (1215), an English king named King John
signed a Magna Carta at a roost called Runnymede... an act of prodded royalty
which liberated barons and bumpkins to roust with a greater degree of
carefreedom.
Some 561 years later than that (1776), a Virginia gent named
Jefferson quilled a Declaration of Independence in, of all places, Philadelphia
and shipped it to a king called King George which hypothetically rid a small
group of new-world colonies from crimson-flocked enforcers from a faraway
land... taxations without representations vanished and the colonies flourished
freely under a hero named after the colonies' capital, Washington. (Ruffled
feathers on both sides of the sea have since been plucked.)
And in 1968 – some 1,218 years anno Beo (A.B); 753 years anno
Magna (A.M.); 192 years anno Declaration (A.D.) – bad people (Blue Meanies)
still force their wills on good people (Pepperlanders) and demolish the human
and physical landscape of beautiful pleasure domes (Pepperland). And Agnes –
the inquisitive baby sitter next door in California, United States of America –
will be pleased to know that there are still heroes around of the calibers of
Messrs. Wulf, John and Jefferson... there's John, Paul, George and Ringo and
their attending Lonely Hearts Club Band who sail from one place (Liverpool) at
the invitation of a benevolent but old leader of another place (the Lord Mayor
of Pepperland) to rescue the pleasures of food and music and perpetual
celebration and colorful beauty from the villainous hands of
less-than-beautiful people (Blue Meanies) who act under the supreme guidance of
the most evil spirit (Chief Blue Meanie). The Beatles come by sea (through the
Seas of Monsters, Time, Music, Science, Consumer Products, Nowhere, Green
Phrenology and Holes – each puddle supporting a lively cast of characters) in a
YELLOW SUBMARINE captained by Old Fred (also leader of Sgt. PLHCB) where they
prove their heroic metal by outwitting a sea monster (Vacuum Man) and
out-swimming competition (School of Whales) even before they reach the shores
of the besieged undersea kingdom of Pepperland. Once arrived at target P., they
triumph over the Chief Blue Meanie's primary evil-tempered henchmen (par example:
the lanky Apple Bonker who assaults his prey with Baldwin apples; the corpulent
Hidden Persuader with a penchant for underhanded unscrupulous; the abdominal
Snapping Turtle Turk who chomps at the slightest bit; the belligerent Butterfly
Stompers who perform tasks that any evil butterfly stompers worth their soul
would perform with supreme acuity). The good guys win... the hero-Beatles
triumph once again and restore the pleasures of color and music and all that's
beautiful... a restoration which permits bigger and better glories to be sung
to the reigning god of Pepperland addressed as Love.”
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