THE BEATLES - YELLOW SUBMARINE OST @ 55

Released on January 13th, 1969, and celebrating its 55th anniversary today, is the Beatles' original soundtrack for their animated feature film, Yellow Submarine, which premiered in London in July of 1968. It was the tenth studio album by the band, though it does not, in fact, offer a full LP's worth of original Beatles music. The B-side of the LP is entirely taken up with incidental music created for the film by George Martin, the Beatles' producer. It was essentially a contractual obligation release due to the band having singed a deal for the film stipulating that they would create four original songs for the soundtrack and include Martin's score on the release.

The first side of the record features six songs from The Beatles, two of which had been released previously. These included the title track and All You Need Is Love. Of the 4 songs unique to the album, Only A Northern Song, a gripe-song about George's publishing contract, and It's All Too Much, an ode to LSD, were both Harrison compositions, with the former being a rejected leftover from Sgt. Pepper. The latter was originally over 8 minutes in length, but was edited down for the final version. All Together Now is a McCartney composition that was inspired by British music hall singalongs and was considered by its author to be a "throwaway", while Hey Bulldog was contributed by John Lennon, who described it as, "a good-sounding record that means nothing."

The B-side of the LP consists of re-recordings of the incidental music by George Martin and many consider this material to have severely compromised the overall quality of the album. Even John Lennon dismissed the music as "...all this terrible shit" and blamed Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, for allowing Martin to participate in the project. Plans were even made to release an EP containing only the 6 Beatles songs, but this release, even though it got as far as mixing mono versions of the songs and mastering, was ultimately abandoned. George Martin certainly wasn't going to agree to have his contribution dropped as this was going to be a major payday for him, given the massive publishing and royalties he'd be getting by piggybacking on The Beatles popularity. This was only changed when a 30th anniversary edition of the soundtrack was released in 1999, which omitted Martin's work and added 9 Beatles songs that appeared throughout the movie, but were not included on the original soundtrack due to being previously released songs.

Though the new material for the soundtrack was recorded and completed before the group started work on their eponymous "White" album, release of Yellow Submarine was delayed until after the White album was released in order to avoid having the impact of that album undermined by the soundtrack. Upon its release, it did well in terms of sales, but the critical response to it was mostly ambivalent and many felt that it simply didn't offer the kind of value that was a consistent trait of previous releases. The Beatles themselves were simply disinterested in the project as a whole and agreed to an animated film simply because it meant the most minimal commitment from them.

Personally, this album was my introduction to the group, at least in a way that left an impression on my very young mind. I couldn't have been older than 5 or six when a babysitter brought the LP over and played it for my brother and I. I was immediately enthralled by it, and it became my touchstone for my first impressions of the band. As such, it has a certain sentimental value, even though it's likely their least significant record.