Yellow Submarine Songtrack contained 15 remixed Beatles songs originally featured in the 1968 film Yellow Submarine.
The 1969 soundtrack album Yellow Submarine has always been something of an anomaly in The Beatles’ canon. Indeed, many fans do not consider it to be a proper album.
The album contained four Beatles songs unavailable elsewhere (‘Only A Northern Song’, ‘All Together Now’, ‘Hey Bulldog’, ‘It’s All Too Much’), two older songs (‘Yellow Submarine’, ‘All You Need Is Love’), and seven orchestral recordings written by George Martin.
After the release of the original album, the Beatles received criticism for its poor value for money. As a result, they briefly considered issuing an EP of the four original songs plus ‘Across The Universe’, to make the new songs more affordable for fans not wanting the orchestral extras, but the idea came to nothing.
Restoration and relaunch
The Yellow Submarine film was re-released in cinemas and for home video for its 30th anniversary on 13 September 1999 in the United Kingdom, and the following day in the USA.
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, the holders of the film’s rights at that time, used digital restoration techniques for the visuals. The new print also had sound remixed in Dolby 5.1, and restored ‘Hey Bulldog’, which was previously shown only in Europe. The home video and DVD release also included the 1968 documentary A Mod Odyssey.
To coincide with the 1999 reissue, Apple Corps released a brand new stereo remix of all the songs featured in the film. With George Martin having retired, the new stereo and 5.1 mixes were created by Peter Cobbin, a sound engineer at Abbey Road Studios. The remixed audio was released as Yellow Submarine Songtrack. This was the first Beatles remix project since Anthology, and paved the way for the Love album and Giles Martin’s remixes of The Beatles’ other albums.
Thirty years after she first set sail as the flagship of The Sixties, The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine is to be relaunched this September – and now the voyage is even more of a trip.The classic movie will be re-released as you’ve not seen it before; every scene has been computer-renovated and the sound has been remastered in 5.1 Surroundsound. The new Yellow Submarine will be released for home video and DVD for the first time on September 13th.
Coming with the home video release is a new Beatles Yellow Submarine Songtrack. The Songtrack is the album fans have wanted for 30 years – as it features all 15 of the classic Beatles songs from the movie. And each track has been not only remastered but is now remixed… as you can shortly hear.
The new movie will be premiered in Liverpool on August 30th, when 150,000 people celebrate Yellow Submarine Day. Watch out too for a Yellow Submarine Eurostar, Yellow Submarine taxis and a mass of wild merchandise. And there’s a seven-foot Blue Meanie out there somewhere…
The songs
Yellow Submarine Songtrack contained 15 Beatles songs, all presented in new stereo mixes.
Gone was George Martin’s film score, but added to the tracklisting were nine additional Beatles songs heard in the film but not on the 1969 soundtrack: ‘Eleanor Rigby’, ‘Love You To’, ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’, ‘Think For Yourself’, ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’, ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’, ‘Baby You’re A Rich Man’, ‘When I’m Sixty-Four’, and ‘Nowhere Man’.
It’ll be the Yellow Submarine album that the fans have wanted for thirty years, because this will be all The Beatles music from the film for the first time. It doesn’t sound completely different, but the songs will sound like you’ve not heard them before.
Apple Corps and MPL spokesman
Of the album’s 15 songs, four – ‘Love You To’, ‘Think For Yourself’, ‘Only A Northern Song’, and ‘It’s All Too Much’ – are by George Harrison, with the rest by Lennon-McCartney.
Ringo Starr sings lead vocals on two of the songs: the title track ‘Yellow Submarine’, and ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’.
Two songs – ‘Think For Yourself’ and ‘Nowhere Man’ – were recorded in 1965. Three – ‘Yellow Submarine’, ‘Eleanor Rigby, and ‘Love You To’ – were from 1966, and only one – ‘Hey Bulldog’ was taped in 1968. The other nine songs dated from 1967.
The release
Yellow Submarine Songtrack was released on 13 September 1999. In the USA it was issued the following day, to coincide with the film’s relaunch.
The album was released on on yellow vinyl and standard black vinyl, with tracks 1-9 on side one, and 10-15 on side two.
To coincide with the release, Apple Corps distributed a newly clip of The Beatles recording ‘Hey Bulldog’ in February 1968. The footage had originally used to promote the ‘Lady Madonna’ single, but was newly-rediscovered in 1999 and edited to fit the ‘Hey Bulldog’ audio.
Yellow Submarine Songtrack entered the UK charts at number eight. It sold 19,000 copies in its first week, and was awarded Gold status in early October 1999.
In the United States, the album sold 67,000 copies in its first week, and entered the Billboard chart at number 15. It also made the top ten in Austria, Belgium, and Japan.
On 20 March 2012, Apple Corps announced that the Yellow Submarine film had been restored by hand for DVD and Blu-ray release. The restoration was supervised by Paul Rutan Jr and his team, which included Chris Dusendschon, Rayan Raghuram and Randy Walker.
The film’s soundtrack album will be reissued on CD on the same date. The film has been restored in 4K digital resolution for the first time – all done by hand, frame by frame.
Yellow Submarine Songtrack was reissued on CD on 4 June 2012 (the following day in North America), along with the DVD and Blu-ray of the film.
Re-mixes of Yellow Submarine and Eleanor Rigby make the CD well worth buying. But! make sure you save your old copy of Yellow Submarine because the stereo version of Only A Northern Song sounds completely different from the mono mix on the original soundtrack. It’s good to have both.