Home > Yellow Submarine

1 About the song

Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Lead Singer: Ringo Starr

The 45 disc single of "Yellow Submarine" was The Beatles' thirteenth UK single. It was released in Britain on 5 August 1966 and in the United States on 8 August. It includes uncredited lyric contributions and (probable) backing vocals by Donovan, and was promoted in Britain as a 'double A side' with its flip side, "Eleanor Rigby".

The single went to #1 on every major British chart, remained at #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 was #1 on the Billboard, and #1 in Record World and #2 in Cashbox , where it was held off #1 by The Supremes' "You Can't Hurry Love". The single was released at the height of the controversy surrounding John Lennon's comments about the Beatles being "bigger than Jesus" and this has been cited as part of the reason that it failed to reach #1 on all US charts. Despite this, it sold 1,200,000 copies in only four weeks and earned the Beatles their twenty-first US Gold Record award, beating the record set by Elvis Presley.

2 About the animated movie

Released at the height of the psychedelic pop-culture period of the 1960s, the movie Yellow Submarine was a box-office hit, drawing in crowds both for its lush, wildly creative images, and its soundtrack of Beatles songs. Five new songs were commissioned for the movie, including "All Together Now" (a soccer-crowd favorite), "It's All Too Much" (a sweeping George HarrisonNote: This article is about the Beatle George Harrison. For the early twentieth century singer, see Clinton Ford. George Harrison MBE ( February 25, 1943 November 29, 2001) was a popular British songwriter, musician and film producer best known as a membe-composed epic that is highly underrated), "Baby, You're A Rich Man", a song that made its public debut on the Magical Mystery Tour album; "Only A Northern Song" a low key Harrison track originally recorded during sessions for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club BandPepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is an album by the British band The Beatles. It is often called one of the most influential rock albums of all time by prominent critics and publications, including Rolling Stone''. It was recorded by The Beatles over a 12 (the partial inspiration for this film); and "Hey, Bulldog!", a John LennonJohn Winston Ono Lennon ( October 9, 1940 December 8, 1980), is best known as a singer, songwriter, and guitarist for The Beatles. His creative career also included the roles of solo musician, political activist, artist and author. As half of the legendar piano romp echoing of "Lady Madonna", which was recorded at the same time, but used as an A-Side (this song was originally included only in the European theatrical release, but restored for the U.S. theatrical reissue in 1999).

The film's incidental music was an orchestral score composed and arranged by George MartinSir George Martin (born January 3, 1926) is sometimes referred to as "the fifth Beatle", a title that he owes to his work as producer of almost all of the Beatles' records. In recognition of his services to the music industry, he is now a knight. Martin f. One of the film's cues, heard after the main title credits, was originally recorded as the introduction to "Don't Pass Me By", Ringo's composition for The Beatles (aka The White Album)The self-titled double album The Beatles released by the Beatles in 1968 at the height of their popularity, is often hailed as one of the major accomplishments in popular music. It is usually referred to as The White Album because it has a plain white alb (it would later appear as "A Beginning" on Volume 3 of The Beatles AnthologyThe Beatles Anthology is the name of a documentary, a series of three albums, and a television miniseries which focus on the history of the popular rock band The Beatles. The television specials and video collection Literally thousands of hours of footage CD).

The animation of Yellow Submarine has sometimes falsely been attributed to the famous psychedelic Pop artPop art is an artistic movement that is a rejection of abstract expressionism and aims to return to figurative art while incorporating themes and techniques from mass culture. The term was coined in 1956 by British critic Laurence Alloway but didn't entir artist of the era Peter MaxPeter Max (born October 19, 1937) is an American Pop artist. He was born in Berlin, Germany and raised in Shanghai, China and in Israel before his family settled in the United States in 1953. Max's art work was influential and much imitated in advertising. Early on, Max was intended to be hired to work on the project, but although his name is prominently displayed in the film's opening credits, he only produced a few concept drawings before he became too busy with other projects. Max's style, however, heavily influenced the work of many of the artists and animators who worked on the film. Heinz Edelman supervised the film's artwork, while the movie was directed by British animation producer George Dunning .

As with most motion picture musicals, the music takes precedence over the actual plot, and most of the story is a series of set-pieces designed to present Beatles music set to various images, in a form reminiscent of Walt Disney's Fantasia (and foreshadowing the rise of music videos and MTV fifteen years later). Nonetheless, the movie still presents an entertaining modern-day fairy tale that caters to the ideals of the "love generation." The story takes place in the idyllic paradise called "Pepperland," which is threatened by the evil music-hating Blue Meanies. The Beatles are recruited to save Pepperland from the Meanies, and they succeed through the power of love, music, bright colours, and positive thinking (there are huge stone sculptures of the words "YES," "OK" and "LOVE" littering the landscape of Pepperland).

The Beatles themselves were not enthusiastic in participating in a motion picture at the time, because they were experiencing personal stress (the band was beginning to break apart), and because they had just produced and starred in the disastrous TV special Magical Mystery Tour. Voice actors were hired to imitate the Fab Four's voices in the film. However, the Beatles, impressed after seeing the finished film, did agree to make a cameo appearance in the final scene of the film, just before the closing credits. The cameo was originally intended to feature psychedelic colours, but due to time and budget constraints, it was left in the normal form (the black background was meant to be replaced with hand drawn images).

The movie's style contrasts greatly with the efforts of Walt Disney (hence the "blue meanies" wear Mickey Mouse ears) and other animated films previously released by Hollywood up until the time. The film uses a style of limited animation that deliberately defies reality and paints a landscape that could never exist in the real world; something that appealed greatly to the escapists of the 1960s. See also Fantastic Planet . The dialogue is littered with puns, double-entendres, and Beatles in-jokes, many scripted by Roger McGough.