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.
