Yellow Submarine (song)

For other uses, see Yellow Submarine (disambiguation).

"Yellow Submarine"
Song
A-side	"Eleanor Rigby"

"Yellow Submarine" is a 1966 song by The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney (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."

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, and has since evolved into a popular modern-day nursery rhyme for children.

Composition

McCartney was living in Jane Asher's parents' house when he found the inspiration for the song: "I was laying in bed in the Ashers' 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 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." The song began as being about different coloured submarines, but evolved to include only a yellow one.

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." Donovan added the words, "Sky of blue and sea of green". 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."

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. 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, waves, 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".

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 1:38-40 in the song, Ringo stepped outside the doors of the recording room and yelled like a sailor acknowledging "Cut the cable! Drop the cable!", which was looped into the song afterwards, and Abbey Road employees John Skinner and Terry Condon twirled chains in a tin bath to create water sounds. 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". The original recording had a spoken intro by Starr, but the idea was abandoned on 3 June 1966.

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 the drum.

"Yellow Submarine" was mixed on 2 and 3 June, and finished on 22 June 1966.

Release

Original US release single

The "Yellow Submarine" single was The Beatles' thirteenth single release in the United Kingdom. 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.

As recorded, Lennon repeats Starr's line of "A life of ease" as he does with all subsequent lines in the final verse. This line can be heard on the single and the Yellow Submarine Songtrack release, but in all other releases, the line is missing.

Reception

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. 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.

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

Personnel

• Ringo Starr – vocal, drums
• Paul McCartney – backing vocal, Epiphone Texan acoustic guitar
• John Lennon – backing vocal, shouting, Gibson J-160E acoustic guitar
• George Harrison – backing vocal, tambourine, Burns Nu-Sonic bass guitar
• Mal Evans – backing vocal, bass drum
• George Martin – backing vocal, producer
• Geoff Emerick – backing vocal, engineer
• Neil Aspinall – backing vocal
• Alf Bicknell – sound effects (rattling chains)
• Pattie Harrison – backing vocal
• Marianne Faithfull – backing vocal
• Brian Jones – backing vocal, sound effects (clinking glasses)

Personnel per Ian MacDonald

Tribute

A 51 feet (16 m) 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.

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"); this translates to "The Green Submarine". The song was also covered by Roots Manuva in 2002, on his Badmeaningood 2 album. 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.

Polish football team Lech Poznan uses a cover of the song translated into Polish as its anthem.

New York based Soul/Funk outfit Revelation recorded a "Nile Rogers" style cover on their self titled LP on Handshake Records in 1980. (Side B Track 2).

References

• "Badmeaningood 2". MTV. 2008. Retrieved 9 September 2008.
• The Beatles (2000). The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco: Chronicle Books. ISBN 0-8118-2684-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Fontenot, Robert (20 August 1999). "Yellow Submarine". About.com. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Gilliland, John (1969). "The Rubberization of Soul: The great pop music renaissance" (audio). Pop Chronicles. Digital.library.unt.edu. {{cite web}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lewisohn, Mark (1988). The Beatles Recording Sessions. New York: Harmony Books. ISBN 0-517-57066-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• MacDonald, Ian (2005). Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties (Second Revised ed.). London: Pimlico (Rand). ISBN 1-844-13828-3. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Martin, George (1994). All You Need Is Ears. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-11482-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• "Maurice Chevalier - de "Valentine" à "Yellow Submarine"". Database.cd. 2008. Retrieved 10 September 2008.
• "Maurice Chevalier Songs". Allmusic. 2009. Retrieved 28 December 2009.
• Miles, Barry (1997). Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now. New York: Henry Holt & Company. ISBN 0-8050-5249-6. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "RIAA Gold & Platinum Searchable Database - The Beatles Gold Singles". RIAA. 2009. Retrieved 20 July 2009.
• Spitz, Bob (2005). The Beatles: The Biography. Boston: Little, Brown. ISBN 0-316-80352-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Turner, Steve (2005). A Hard Day's Write (Third ed.). HarperResource. ISBN 0-06-273698-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• "Yellow Submarine". The Beatles Bible. 2008. Retrieved 11 October 2008.
• "Yellow Submarine". Beatles Interview Database. 2008. Retrieved 9 September 2008.
• "Yellow Submarine". Icons of England. 20 August 1999. Retrieved 9 September 2008.
• Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (2008). Yellow Submarine. YouTube.