Written by: George Martin
Recorded: 22, 23 October 1968
Producers: George Martin, John Burgess, Ron Richards
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Released: 17 January 1969 (UK), 13 January 1969 (US)
Available on:
Yellow Submarine
March Of The Meanies was one of seven original orchestral pieces by George Martin, which appeared in the soundtrack to the Yellow Submarine animated film.
Although the film had its world premiere at the London Pavilion on 17 July 1968, the soundtrack LP didn't emerge for a further six months. Among the reasons were that The Beatles wished to concentrate on the White Album; another was that George Martin insisted in re-recording the score, which was done over two sessions at Abbey Road on 22 and 23 October 1968.
The seven instrumentals were performed by the 41-piece George Martin Orchestra, conducted by the composer himself, with John Burgess and Ron Richards co-producing.
March Of The Meanies is based around an insistent rhythm, driven initially by a marimba, over which strings and brass are given strident melodic passages.
Once all the music had been recorded, we dubbed it onto the film, and even then there was more messing about. In some places we cut out the music because sound-effects worked better - in others we eliminated sound effects because what I had written sounded better. Yet, in spite of everything, that score proved enormously successful and earned me a load of fan mail.
All You Need Is Ears
