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"Yellow Submarine"
Single by The Beatles
from the album Revolver
A-side "Eleanor Rigby"
Released 5 August 1966 (UK)
8 August 1966 (U.S.)
Format 7"
Recorded Abbey Road Studios
26 May, 1 June 1966
Genre Psychedelic pop
Length 2:38
Label Parlophone (UK)
Capitol (U.S.)
Writer(s) Lennon/McCartney
Producer George Martin
Certification Gold (RIAA)[1]
The Beatles singles chronology
"Paperback Writer"
(1966)
"Eleanor Rigby" / "Yellow Submarine"
(1966)
"Strawberry Fields Forever" / "Penny Lane"
(1967)
Revolver track listing
Yellow Submarine track listing

"Yellow Submarine" is a 1966 song by The Beatles (credited to Lennon/McCartney), with lead vocals by Ringo Starr. It was included on the Revolver album and issued as a single, coupled with "Eleanor Rigby". The single went to number 1 on every major British chart, remained at number 1 for four weeks and charted for 13 weeks. It won an Ivor Novello Award for the highest certified sales of any single issued in the UK in 1966.

However, it failed to reach number 1 on the American charts. A contributing factor may have been the "Bigger than Jesus" controversy.[2]

It became the title song of the 1968 animated United Artists film, also called Yellow Submarine, and the soundtrack album to the film, released as part of The Beatles' music catalogue.

Contents

[edit] Composition

McCartney was living in Jane Asher's parents' house when he found the inspiration for the song:[3] "I was laying in bed in the Asher's garret... I was thinking of it as a song for Ringo, which it eventually turned out to be, so I wrote it as not too rangey [too many notes] in the vocal, then started making a story, sort of an ancient mariner, telling the young kids where he'd lived. It was pretty much my song as I recall... I think John helped out. The lyrics got more and more obscure as it goes on, but the chorus, melody and verses are mine."[4] The song began as being about different coloured submarines, but evolved to include only a yellow one.[5]

In 1980, Lennon talked about the song: "'Yellow Submarine' is Paul's baby. Donovan helped with the lyrics. I helped with the lyrics too. We virtually made the track come alive in the studio, but based on Paul's inspiration. Paul's idea. Paul's title... written for Ringo."[4] Donovan added the words, "Sky of blue and sea of green".[6] McCartney also said: "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."[4]

[edit] Recording

Produced by George Martin and engineered by Geoff Emerick, "Yellow Submarine" was finished after five takes on 26 May 1966, in Studio Two at Abbey Road Studios, with special effects being added on 1 June 1966.[6] On the second session the studio store cupboard was ransacked for special effects, which included chains, a ship's bell, tap dancing mats, whistles, hooters, a tin bath filled with water, wind and thunderstorm machines, as well as a cash register, which was later used on Pink Floyd's song "Money".[7]

Lennon blew through a straw into a pan of water to create a bubbling effect, McCartney and Lennon talked through tin cans to create the sound of the captain's orders, at 1:37 in the song, Ringo stepped outside the doors of the recording room and yelled like a sailor acknowledging orders, which were looped into the song afterwards, and Abbey Road employees John Skinner and Terry Condon twirled chains in a tin bath to create water sounds.[6] After the line, "and the band begins to play", Emerick found a recording of a brass band and changed it slightly so it could not be identified, although it is thought to be a recording of Georges Krier and Charles Helmer's 1906 composition, "Le Rêve Passe".[6] To stay with the children's story theme, the original recording had a spoken intro by Starr, but the idea was abandoned on 3 June 1966.[6] "Yellow Submarine" was mixed on the 2nd and 3rd of June, and finished on 22 June 1966.

[edit] Release

Original US release single

The "Yellow Submarine" single was the Beatles' thirteenth UK single. It was released in the UK on 5 August as a 'double A side' with "Eleanor Rigby", and in the United States on 8 August. The Revolver album was released the next day.[8]

In the United States, the single was number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 1 in Record World, and number 2 in Cashbox, where it was held off number 1 by The Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love".[6]

The single went to number 1 on every major British chart, remained at number 1 for four weeks and charted for 13 weeks.[6] It won an Ivor Novello Award for the highest certified sales of any single issued in the UK in 1966. No promotional film clip was made, so some TV programs (including the BBC's Top Of The Pops) created their own clips from stock footage.

The single was released during the controversies about the "Butcher Cover" (the Yesterday and Today album cover)[6] and John Lennon's remarks about Christianity,[9] and are cited as part of the reason the song failed to reach number 1 on all US charts. Despite this, it sold 1,200,000 copies in only four weeks and earned the Beatles their twenty-first US Gold Record award, beating the record set by Elvis Presley.

[edit] Personnel

  • John Lennon – acoustic guitar, sound effects, backing vocals
  • Paul McCartney – bass guitar, sound effects, backing vocals
  • George Harrison – acoustic guitar, sound effects, backing vocals
  • Ringo Starr – lead vocals, drums, tambourine, sound effects, spoken vocals (on a 1995 version)

Various people unofficially contributed to the recording: Neil Aspinall, Pattie Boyd, Mal Evans, Marianne Faithfull, and Brian Jones (providing sound effects and "party" noises; laughter, clinking glasses, and background chatter) as well as chauffeur Alf Bicknell. When the overdubs were finished, Evans strapped on a marching bass drum and led everybody in a line around the studio doing the conga dance whilst banging on a bass drum.[7]

[edit] Tribute

A 51-foot long yellow submarine metal sculpture was built by apprentices from the Cammell Laird shipyard, and was used as part of Liverpool's International Garden Festival in 1984. In 2005 it was placed outside Liverpool's John Lennon Airport, where it remains.[10]

[edit] Cover versions

In 1968, Apple Records issued a single by the Black Dyke Mills Band, which featured a cover version of "Yellow Submarine" as the B-side. In 1966 Maurice Chevalier recorded a version in French ("Le sous-marin vert").[11] The song was also covered by Roots Manuva in 2002, on his Badmeaningood 2 album.[12] It has entered popular usage as a children's song, such as in Fun Song Factory, when it was once combined with colourful props and actions, and on Sesame Street, where a group of Anything Muppets sang the song inside a yellow submarine (resembling the one from the animated movie). Raffi sang this song on the album Let's Play.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra also covered the song, as they have many other famous pop and rock songs, but unlike other songs they have covered, they have also included the lyrics.[13]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ "RIAA Gold & Platinum Searchable Database - The Beatles Gold Singles". http://riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?resultpage=1&table=SEARCH_RESULTS&action=&title=&artist=The%20Beatles&format=SINGLE&debutLP=&category=&sex=&releaseDate=&requestNo=&type=&level=&label=&company=&certificationDate=&awardDescription=Platinum&catalogNo=&aSex=&rec_id=&charField=&gold=&platinum=&multiPlat=&level2=&certDate=&album=&id=&after=&before=&startMonth=1&endMonth=1&startYear=1958&endYear=2009&sort=Artist&perPage=25. Retrieved 2009-07-20. 
  2. ^ "The Beatles Bible: Yellow Submarine". http://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/yellow-submarine/. Retrieved 2008-10-11. 
  3. ^ Miles, Many Years From Now (1998) p106
  4. ^ a b c "Yellow Submarine". Beatles Interview Database. http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/dba10sub.html. Retrieved 2008-09-09. 
  5. ^ Turner, Steve (2003). "Revolver". in Nicola Hodge. A Hard Day's Write (9 ed.). HarperResource. p. 109. ISBN 0-06-273698-1. 
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h Fontenot, Robert (1999-08-20). "Yellow Submarine: The history of this classic Beatles song". Oldies About. http://oldies.about.com/od/thebeatlessongs/a/yellowsubmarine.htm. Retrieved 2008-09-09. 
  7. ^ a b Spitz, The Beatles (2005) p612
  8. ^ Spitz, The Beatles (2005) p629
  9. ^ Spitz, The Beatles (2005) p627
  10. ^ "Yellow Submarine - Icons of England". Icons. 1999-08-20. http://www.icons.org.uk/nom/nominations/yellow-submarine. Retrieved 2008-09-09. 
  11. ^ "Maurice Chevalier - de "Valentine" à "Yellow Submarine"". cd database. http://database.cd/z48110119/. Retrieved 2008-09-10. 
  12. ^ "Badmeaningood 2". MTV. http://www.mtv.com/music/artist/roots_manuva/albums.jhtml?albumId=331289. Retrieved 2008-09-09. 
  13. ^ Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. (2008). Yellow Submarine. YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHs6oR4tD-g. 

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Preceded by
"With a Girl Like You" by The Troggs
UK Singles Chart number one single
18 August 1966 - 8 September 1966
Succeeded by
"All or Nothing" by Small Faces



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