Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 26 May, 1 June 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Released: 5 August 1966 (UK), 8 August 1966 (US)
Ringo Starr: vocals, drums
John Lennon: backing vocals, acoustic guitar
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, bass
George Harrison: backing vocals, tambourine
Mal Evans: backing vocals, bass drum
Neil Aspinall, George Martin, Geoff Emerick, Pattie Harrison, Brian Jones, Marianne Faithfull, Alf Bicknell: backing vocals
Available on:
Revolver
1
Yellow Submarine
Yellow Submarine Songtrack
Released as a double a-side with Eleanor Rigby, Yellow Submarine has become a divisive song among Beatles fans. To many it's a charming singalong for all ages; for others, it's one of the band's weakest moments, and an unnecessary bout of whimsy on the otherwise flawless Revolver.
I don't actually know where they got the idea for it; I just felt it was a really interesting track for me to do. I'd been doing a lot of covers. At that time I did either covers or something they wrote specifically for me.
Anthology
Written by Paul McCartney, Yellow Submarine was always intended to be a children's song. It chimed perfectly with the carefree, nostalgic and childlike attitudes that dominated the burgeoning psychedelic era.
I remember lying in bed one night, in that moment before you're falling asleep – that little twilight moment when a silly idea comes into your head – and thinking of Yellow Submarine: 'We all live in a yellow submarine...'I quite like children's things; I like children's minds and imagination. So it didn't seem uncool to me to have a pretty surreal idea that was also a children's idea. I thought also, with Ringo being so good with children – a knockabout uncle type – it might not be a bad idea for him to have a children's song, rather than a very serious song. He wasn't that keen on singing.
Anthology
Since The Beatles had stopped recording cover versions by 1966, Yellow Submarine was given to Ringo Starr as his vocal contribution to Revolver. It became his first lead vocal on a Beatles single.
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. I just made up a little tune in my head, then started making a story, sort of an ancient mariner, telling the young kids where he'd lived and how there'd been a place where he had a yellow submarine. It's pretty much my song as I recall, written for Ringo in that little twilight moment. I think John helped out; the lyrics get more and more obscure as it goes on but the chorus, melody and verses are mine. There were funny little grammatical jokes we used to play. It should have been 'Everyone of us has all he needs' but Ringo turned it into 'everyone of us has all we need.' So that became the lyric. It's wrong, but it's great. We used to love that.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
One couplet in the song was suggested by Donovan, whose single Mellow Yellow was released in October 1966. McCartney visited Donovan's apartment in London on 26 May, prior to the recording session for Yellow Submarine.
He played one about a yellow submarine. He said he was missing a line and would I fill it in. I left the room and returned with this: 'Sky of blue and sea of green/In our yellow submarine.' It was nothing really, but he liked it and it stayed in.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
Yellow Submarine was the inspiration and basis for The Beatles' fourth film, released in 1968, as well as its accompanying soundtrack album.
Um…yeah, Yellow Submarine, totally my fave movie; Songtrack kicks major ass!(first CD I ever bought). Oh yeah, my comment was that Yellow Submarine was actually The Beatles’ fourth film. Magical Mystery Tour being the third was aired ’round Christmas time ’67 meanwhile “The Sub” didn’t see the light of day til november ’68; Nearly a year after! just thought I’d let you know.
Hey Martin – thanks for the comment. You’re right, of course. I’ll change the info now.
Brian Jones plays clangin glasses
The weakest song on “Revolver” is still a great addition due to that album’s what-the-hell, try-anything approach. With so many great songs, they could afford to include a silly one for goofy, lovable Ringo to sing. To think of this sharing 45rpm vinyl with “Eleanor Rigby” blows my mind! (I wish they’d released the mix with the Ringo recitation and wackier sound fx.)
I agree about it being a weak song, but the animation it spawned was spectacular!
So true, Don. My 2 grandson’s love watching “Yellow Submarine”. The animation is beautiful and they love the soundtrack.
Y/S is not a “weak” song at all. It’s simple in thought, but listen to all the sounds thrown in…very rich, no “Computer Generated Effects”. My friend’s grandson is 4 and knows all the words. Children and adults all over the world know and sing this song joyfully.
Would you have a 4 yo singing this with his family or gangsta rapping? To paraphrase Paul’s opinion on editing down the White Album: It’s the Beatles’ [Yellow Submarine] ! Sod off!
It’s one thing to say it’s “a weak song” and quite another to say “it’s the weakest song on Revolver”. The weakest song on Revolver would be most albums’ strongest song. I would love to have written that weak song.
Everett’s take:
The basic tracks contain John’s Jumbo, George’s tambourine, Ringo’s drums and Paul’s bass – all heard left. Ringo’s vocal and all four Beatles singing backing vocals are all heard right.
The instruments were recorded a half-step higher and vocals a half-step lower than now heard.
Tape reduction made room for the “Goon” type sound effects. A raid of the Studio Two trap room allowed for two additional and separately taped tracks – sometimes combined together and sometimes split. Heard are George swirling water in a metal bathtub (beginning at 0:18); Rolling Stones Brian Jones clinking glasses, supplying party chatter and playing the ocarina; John blowing bubbles in a bucket through a straw and shouting off-mike in the echo chamber; studio staff rattling chains in a metal tub and ship’s bells; and a manic John mocking Ringo’s every measure the second time through in to a hand-held mike plugged into a Vox guitar amp.
All who were not working the controls, including the Beatles, George Martin, Geoff Emerick, Mal, Neil, Alf Bicknell, Brian Jones, Patti Harrison and Marianne Faithfull joined in the final chorus.
I’ve heard that McCartney wasn’t present for some overdubs that took place and that Harrison re-did the bass.
Paul lived near the studio and George out of town so it does not seem likely. Possible though.
I know some people might consider this a slight song but actually it’s pretty innovative. The use of ambient sounds by way of musique concrete in creating this sound collage on “Yellow Submarine”. The Beatles seem to have ambient sounds on this record “Tomorrow Never Knows” uses seagull sounds created from sped-up tape loops. Pretty innovative stuff.
Oh, I agree! One of my favourite aspects of “Revolver” is the assortment of differing musical textures throughtout – strings, horns, Indian instrumentation – and the tape loops of “Tomorrow Never Knows” are definitely part of that, and so are the musique concrete effects of “Submarine” – particularly the earlier mix, with the recited Ringo intro and the greater abundance of sounds throughout. Have you heard that one?
The seagulls were Paul laughing and sped up.
The actual words Lennon shouts are:
“full speed ahead Mr Boatswain”
We are a sea fairing nation in the UK.
Just to let you know! 😉
I’ve heard claims that he says Mr Baker, Mr Barclay, Mr Boatswain and Mr Captain. For what it’s worth I think you’re correct – the clearest mix, with the words panned to one side of the stereo spectrum, is on the Read Love single.
Not all of us in the UK are seafaring BTW 😉
I’d agreed, if it weren’t for the fact that “boatswain” should be pronounced “bosun”. Maybe Lennon didn’t know.
I always thought that the title was derived from the fact that a fat joint in yellow rolling paper (Bambu?) somewhat resembles a tiny submarine, at least when one has smoked another previously.
What about John’s drawing of ‘The Yellow Submarine’ in St Peters Church Hall that he drew in school?
Hi everybody, could someone tell me who repeat the verses in funny voice at the final of the song:
As we live a life of ease(life of ease)
Every one of us(every one of us) has all we need,(has all we need)
Sky of blue,(sky of blue) and sea green,(sea of green)
In our yellow(In our yellow) submarine.(submarine) ( Haha! )
That was John Lennon, during this session.
Paul wrote Yellow Submarine in the same key Ringo tuned his drums, which he found easiest to sing in.
It’s a nice simple song; its a bit of fun and the band clearly had a great time recording it. I think you need songs like this on Beatles records; it portrays their sense of humour and reminds everyone they’re not taking themselves too seriously.
I’ve only just heard the remixed version on the Real Love CD for the first time. The ‘Land O’Groats’ intro is very clumsily edited : is that really how it was meant to be?
Could anybody tell me what the final (spoken) words of the lyrics are? It has always sounded to me like a man shouting something in Dutch: “Wat zijn de berichten?” [“What are the messages”]. Then somebody else seems to answer “Uitzeilen, uitzeilen” [“Set sail, set sail”]
TIA — John (Dutch)
Hi I can hear at some point Marcia Indietro and Posti di Divisa both Italian expression then one I can’t understand(Force at…) and then possibly Get Back Get Back…
Summer camp in Maine in late August of 1966…
I’m a 16 yr old counselor-in-training…
Every cabin has a couple of transistor radios…
We only listen to WBZ from Boston…
I’m out in the middle of the lake teaching a ten year old how to sail a sunfish…
The BZ jockey spins the new Beatles single …
In a rousing rush of joy, our buddies back on land are belting out the chorus, “We all live in a yellow submarine” …
It bounds out of the woods from our camp, crossing our bow…
The kid and I, in the doldrums, sail limp, dangling our feet, we laugh and sing too…
Then, an amazing audio wave washes us from the stern…
In a group response, an ethereal echo, also singing the chorus, is wafting out to greet us…
It is flowing from the girls’ camp on the other shore…
Chilling and warming to remember this…natural stereo…with the speakers separated by a mile of open water…
Radio, and the Beatles, were the uniting glue for us all…
———————————————————————–
I hope you appreciate the above recollection. In case it isn’t obvious, the “chilling” part of it was that because we were closer to the boys’ camp, than the girls’ side, the sound of the female “choir” was just a beat later.
Both populations were hearing their radios at the same moment, but the singing reached us at slightly different moments. From our position, we heard it as a boisterous guy-chant being chased by an angelic echo. I know this site is visited by a lot of music recording aficionados (is it ok to call you “geeks”?). It would be fantastic if someone could figure out how to replicate the effect, a capella, then we can all truly live a life of ease, and every one of us will have all we need.
When Ringo sings, “And the band begins to play”, is this a cameo appearance of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band?
No. That was recorded a couple of months before Paul came up with the “Sgt. Pepper” idea.
OK…..here’s this. On the 1973 vinyl release of “The Beatles 1967-1970” there was an insert included that listed all Beatles albums and singles released by Capitol Records. The B-side of “Yellow Submarine” is listed as being “Thingumybob”. Release date was 8-66. This is the only reference to this song that I have seen in my 50 years as a Beatle fan. Has anyone ever heard this song? There are a couple of minor mistakes on this insert and I’m wondering if maybe this was the biggest of those.
That’s probably a reference to the Black Dyke Mills Band’s version of Yellow Sub, the b-side to Thingumybob. It was one of the first four Apple singles, produced and written by Paul McCartney.
Am I the only one who thinks it’s Paul doing the echo singing on the final verse? I’ve always thought it was him and even though I try and fit John in as the singer, because everyone says it’s him, and can see some resemblance, nonetheless the way “in our yellow” is voiced it still sounds like Paul. Where exactly is the source of this identification that it is John? I note that on the second recording date page of this site (June 1, 1966 – recording-yellow-submarine-2) there is mention of an unidentified brass band playing on the track, but I’ve read in Emerick’s book, and elsewhere, that this was actually a recording that was edited so as to obscure its original nature. So not al the info on this site seems to be accurate all the time.
Emerick is incorrect. The brass band is not several pieces edited together, one can only listen to find out that it is one continuous piece of music. Emerick’s book features more nonsense similar to this.
It is Paul shouts in the final verse of course, you’re absolutely right.
This song is great fun and represents the Goons influence on the Beatles. Primarily written by Paul for Ringo, it works a treat. John Lennon’s vocal contributions are a highlight. Others may not, but I love the fact it is on”Revolver”.
I own both the forty five record and the Revolver album and I’ve found that in the final verse after the sound effects when Ringo says “As we live a life of ease” the shouting voice that repeats Ringo says “life of ease” on the forty five but not on the Revolver album. I’ve searched online for any hint about that but haven’t seen anything
Doesnt anyone hear Ringo shout “Paul’s a queer”
What do people think of this interview from 1967 where John and Paul talk about Yellow Submarine?
http://www.beatlesinterviews.org/db1967.0320IN.beatles.html
An excerpt:
Q: “Good. Who was principly reponsible, Paul or John?”
JOHN: “Paul.”
PAUL: “John, really.”
JOHN & PAUL: “No. No.”
A later excerpt:
Q: “John, earlier before we started recording, you said it was in effect written as two separate songs.”
JOHN: “Yeah. I seem to remember, like, the submarine… the chorus bit, you coming in with it.”
PAUL: “Yeah.”
JOHN: “And wasn’t the other bit something that I had already going, and we put them together?”
PAUL: “Well, yeah. Right. Yeah.”
JOHN: “And it made sense to make it into…”
PAUL: “Yeah, the bit… (sings melody to verse) ‘Dut-ta-da, da-dut-ta-da.'”
JOHN: “With Ringo in mind, again.”