Yellow Submarine

The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine album
and animated movie

The Beatles’ eleventh album, Yellow Submarine, was released on January 17, 1969. It featured 6 original songs from the soundtrack to their animated movie, Yellow Submarine, plus 7 instrumental tracks by the George Martin Orchestra.

Track Listing

1) Yellow Submarine (Lennon/McCartney)
2) Only A Northern Song (Harrison)
3) All Together Now (Lennon/McCartney)
4) Hey, Bulldog (Lennon/McCartney)
5) It’s All Too Much (Harrison)
6) All You Need Is Love (Lennon/McCartney)
7) Pepperland (George Martin Orchestra)
8) Sea of Time (George Martin Orchestra)
9) Sea of Holes (George Martin Orchestra)
10) Sea of Monsters (George Martin Orchestra)
11) March of the Meanies (George Martin Orchestra)
12) Pepperland Laid Waste (George Martin Orchestra)
13) Yellow Submarine in Pepperland (George Martin Orchestra)

Yellow Submarine was released on CD in 1990 and then re-released as the “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” in 1999. The instrumental tracks were left out and 9 other Beatles’ songs that are featured in the Yellow Submarine movie were added.

Remastered:

Yellow Submarine (Remastered)
(released September 2009)

Beatles Remastered Stereo Box Set

Yellow Submarine: iTunes Digital Download (released November 2010)

Beatles iTunes Digital Box Set

Yellow Submarine Songtrack (remastered) (2012)

Fun fact: In 1999, the U.S. Postal Service issued an official stamp of Yellow Submarine as part of the “Celebrate the Century: 1960s” stamp series.

Yellow Submarine movie

The Beatles were still under contract to do one more film for United Artists. Before he died, the Beatles manager, Brian Epstein, signed a deal for an animated movie to be made about them. The project was conceived by the same man who created the popular Beatles TV cartoon series in the U.S., Al Brodax.

The Beatles were not too keen on their representation as silly cartoon characters. As a result, the Beatles were not enthusiastic about this project, and refused to be a part of it.

They refused to do the voices for their cartoon characters. However, after they saw how tastefully Yellow Submarine was done, they agreed to appear at the end of the movie.

Before they saw the movie, they also were reluctant to offer any songs to the project. Yellow Submarine, the song, had originally been released in 1966 on the Revolver album.

But a few more songs were needed for the movie soundtrack. At the time, the Beatles offered, in their opinion, some of their lesser quality songs for the movie including “Hey Bulldog” and “All Together Now.”

Although the Beatles might have disagreed with Brian initially, the Yellow Submarine movie turned out to be a great addition to the Beatles legacy. Yet again, the Beatles were fortunate that this project attracted extremely talented filmmakers and animators who appreciated the Beatles’ talent and charm.

The film premiered on July 17, 1968. It was a great success and has been a favorite for Beatles fans of all ages since it was released. It proved to be a classic masterpiece of animation, and it succeeded in capturing the Beatles spirit.

DAYTRIPPIN’ MAGAZINE EXCLUSIVE: Read the article “Behind the Scenes in the Making of Yellow Submarine” in Issue #8 of Daytrippin’ Magazine (available in PDF format or hard copy)

Visit Daytrippin’ Back Issues page for more information

Only A Northern Song

George Harrison’s song, “Only a Northern Song”, was a cynical commentary on the problems the Beatles were having with the ownership of their songs. These business dealings would eventually contribute to The Beatles’ breakup.

What seemed to cause irreparable damage between John and Paul were the circumstances surrounding Northern Songs. Northern Songs was the publishing company that owned the rights to every song that Lennon-McCartney wrote.

Dick James, the head of the company, intially set up the deal with Brian and the Beatles in the early ’60’s where he retained 50 percent of the company, John and Paul each had 20 percent, and Brian owned 10 percent.

In 1965, the company went public and to allow for extra shares to be sold on the market, John and Paul’s ownership decreased to 15 percent each. James now had 37.5 percent of the company, but with the involvement of Allen Klein and the disunity of John and Paul as songwriting partners, James wanted to sell his shares before it was too late.

Without telling the Beatles, James put his shares up for sale with Sir Lew Grade of ATV as the interested buyer. John and Paul were furious.

John and Yoko’s Peace Campaign

John Lennon’s relationship with Yoko Ono spurned a year of activities in the name of peace.

After their marriage on March 20, 1969, John and Yoko staged a “Bed-In for Peace” in Amsterdam on their honeymoon, and then another one in Montreal, where they recorded “Give Peace a Chance.”

In Dec. 1969, they posted billboards around the world stating “War is Over, if you want it. Happy Christmas from John and Yoko.”

Peter Brown remarks in his book, The Love You Make: An Insider’s Story of The Beatles, “Quite suddenly, it seemed, John took up the antiwar banner and became overnight one of the most vocal and relentless nonviolent peace advocates known to the media. This was most peculiar to those who knew him, for although the anti-Vietnam war movement had long been a just and fashionable cause, this sudden dedication to it could only be attributable to Yoko’s influence.”

In April 1969, John changed his name to “John Ono Lennon.” In a most defiant and rebellious stance, he returned his M.B.E. award to the Queen of England in Nov. 1969 in protest of “Britain’s involvement in the Nigeria-Biafra thing, against our support of America in Vietnam, and against Cold Turkey slipping down the charts.”

Watch a video montage from Yoko Ono about John and Yoko’s peace campaign