Music Album The Beatles Yellow Submarine

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1969 The 1968 Beatles movie of Yellow Submarine is fabulous, with a very psychedelic voyage to Pepperland to save music and love from the Blue Meanies, who end up running away to Argentina. The film mostly uses music from previous Beatles albums, especially Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band and Revolver (which even features the title song, Yellow Submarine). By 1969 the Beatles, already close to imploding as a group, were just completing their mammoth White Album project when they were hit with a contractual obligation to issue a belated soundtrack LP to the movie. They responded by doing the bare minimum they could. There are only six Beatle songs on the album, two of them previously released, Yellow Submarine and All You Need I Love. The remainder of the album consists of George Martin’s admittedly beautiful orchestral incidental music for the movie, but the limited Beatles material and indifferent marketing reduced the album’s sales and impact. It still sounds great, though it is the two George Harrison songs that stand out, Only A Northern Song, written in the bitterness of Harrison’s relegation to a minor writer behind Lennon-McCartney and his work often being marginalized or left out (the song itself was originally intended for the Sergeant Pepper album) and the lack of adequate royalty deals. His other contribution, It’s All Too Much is much more of an LSD trip inspired track than Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds ever was. Of the other songs, Hey Bulldog stands out, while All Together Now sounds like a twee nursery school sing-a-long and clap number. It was used over the movie’s closing credits. A disappointing album, but still bearing some outstanding moments. Youtube – It’s All Too Much as featured in the movie. Arthur Chappell