Disco de The Beatles: “Yellow Submarine”

Makes me laugh when I read bad reviews about any Beatles album.

Although the original Soundtrack to "Yellow Submarine" may not rank at the top of my fave Beatles albums list, it is more representative of the original movie than the more recent re-release that came out with the DVD release.

True, the title track and "All You Need Is Love" WERE previously available on other albums. But the four new tracks were fantastic additions to The Beatles' catalog.... with the exception of MAYBE Paul's silly "Altogether Now". But, as the official review stated, "Beatles throw-aways are any other band's greatest hits!" (paraphrased).

George gets to shine on the Yellow Sub soundtrack. "Only A Northern Song" has a similar melody line and structure as his song from two years prior, "If I Needed Someone", but with a much more psychadelic flavor. "It's All Too Much" is one of Harrison's best tracks ever - with The Beatles or solo. On this track, you can detect the influence his buddy Eric Clapton was having on him by 1968.

John's "Hey, Bulldog" is another one of those Lennon masterpieces that somehow got over-looked, much like "Across The Universe" has always been. It contains one of the most recognizable and iconic guitar/piano/bass licks ever recorded. It also features some of Paul McCartney's best bass work.

"Altogether Now" is a fun song. Not the best Beatles track, but one that is such a part of the whole "Yellow Sub" vibe that it's shortfalls are more than forgiven. As a some-time songwriter myself, I'd have been proud to be able to say that I wrote it!

The instrumentals are just that - instrumentals used as background music for the movie. They are classic George Martin and, just as he worked so well with The Beatles, they work well along side The Beatles' songs.

No Beatles record collection is complete without "Yellow Submarine".

What if the Beatles had released this album without the movie. And if they themselves had written the orchestral music on the B-side. And released this as an epic semi-progressive rock tale about a Yellow Submarine. Then this might have been a real classic album in the progressive rock genre, almost a year before King Crimson appeared.

But when we know that these songs were just thrown together, 2 of them previously released, 2 of them from the archives being Sgt Pepper-rejects, and the orchestral score of course being written by George Martin for a film, then it's considered a disappointment. Even if the music in both cases sounds exactly the same. Isn't that an interesting thought?

My advise is this: take YELLOW SUBMARINE with a grain of salt and find that it's an interesting mix between whacky psychedelic rock and lovely classical sounding music. And all in a good spirit. The result is actually not too far from TALES OF MYSTERY AND IMAGINATION by Alan Parsons Project.

I must agree with the review of april 7th, this album is 5 stars all the way,after all, any album with "Its all to much" on it deserves it!

It is a pretty well known fact that the Yellow Submarine album is the weakest of the 13 studio productions the band did in its short tenure. Out of the six songs that were recorded by the Beatles, only four are original. All You Need Is Love was originally released as a single and appeared on the Magical Mystery Tour album as the final song and Yellow Submarine originally appeared on Revolver. Both of those songs are pretty good, even though most people have had their fair share of Yellow Submarine by now, and both of those albums are infinitely better than this release.

Of the four songs that are original, only one of them is worth the effort of listening to, Hey Bulldog. It is a really good song that has a kickin' piano riff (one of the few Beatles songs that does) and shows the band having fun. While not one of the best songs they recorded, it is very enjoyable. I wish it appeared on The White Album or even Abbey Road just so I wouldn't have to mess with this album.

As for the other three songs, they range from mediocre to meandering to interesting.

All Together Now takes the mediocre award. It is nothing but the words "all together now" being sung with increasing volume and speed, pretty much. The further into the song, the more people join in. The song is even less lyrically challenging than Hello Goodbye off of Magical Mystery Tour which is kind of an accomplishment in its own right.

It's All Too Much takes the meandering award. It is the fourth longest Beatles song, only beaten by Hey Jude, I Want You (She's So Heavy), and Revolution 9. Hey Jude was a jab at songs with fade outs, I Want You (She's So Heavy) was a jam session song with a pretty interesting ending, and Revolution 9 (while not a good Beatles song) was an interesting Musique concrète piece. What does It's All Too Much do with its six minutes? Not much. It never goes anywhere and is highly repetitive, and not in a good way. It's just kind of there. Not worth the attention.

And Only A Northern Song takes the interesting award. The story behind the song is intriguing as Harrison was getting ripped off by a music publisher, Northern Song, and decided to lambaste them. But the song itself isn't all that great. Recorded for Sgt. Pepper before being cut, it has a psychedelic vibe with the distorted trumpet, but it gets annoying after a bit. It is a marked improvement over It's All Too Much and All Together Now however.

Now the second half of the album is made up of the incidental music that George Martin wrote and arranged for the movie Yellow Submarine. And ironically, Martin's material is more interesting than the Beatles' work outside of Hey, Bulldog. Had this just been released as an EP with the orchestral music, I have a feeling this album wouldn't be as lampooned and would have been a better release over all since the music Martin wrote is pretty good and keeps your interest. March of the Meanies is a particularly good track.

For this remastered release, everything sounds amazing. The separation of instruments is very good, you won't have a hard time distinguishing between what is playing. The balance is also very good, every voice is clear sounding and the instrumentals ring. Definitely doesn't sound like it was recorded in the 1960's.

Hey Bulldog and the seven wonderful tracks by George Martin are the saving graces of this album and it comes out as nothing more than average. It is still a must have for any Beatles collector however.

I first purchased this soundtrack album on vinyl. That was perfect, because all of the Beatles' tracks were on one side - I didn't have to bother with the soundtrack tracks (I hope not to offend anyone who likes those tracks). The CD really only contains four distinct Beatles songs - "Only A Northern Song", "Hey Bulldog", "All Together Now", and "It's All Too Much". These songs are worth it (especially if you can get a break on the CD price). "Yellow Submarine" and "All You Need Is Love" are excellent Beatles classics, but are available on other mainline Beatles discs. If you're a serious Beatles collector like I've been, get this to complete your collection, but try to get a good price.