"Yellow Submarine" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
US picture sleeve
|
||||
Single by The Beatles | ||||
from the album Revolver and Yellow Submarine | ||||
A-side | "Eleanor Rigby" | |||
Released | 5 August 1966 | |||
Format | 7" | |||
Recorded | 26 May and 1 June 1966, EMI Studios, London |
|||
Genre | ||||
Length | 2:38 | |||
Label | ||||
Writer(s) | Lennon–McCartney | |||
Producer(s) | George Martin | |||
The Beatles singles chronology | ||||
|
"Yellow Submarine" is a 1966 song by the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, with lead vocals by Ringo Starr. It was included on the Revolver (1966) album and issued as a single, coupled with "Eleanor Rigby". The single went to number one on every major British chart, remained at number one 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". In the US, the song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and became the most successful Beatles song to feature Starr as lead vocalist.
It became the title song of the animated United Artists film, also called Yellow Submarine (1968), and the soundtrack album to the film, released as part of the Beatles' music catalogue. Although intended as a nonsense song for children, "Yellow Submarine" received various social and political interpretations at the time.
McCartney was living in Jane Asher's parents' house when he found the inspiration for the song: "I was laying in bed in the Ashers' garret ... I was thinking of it as a song for Ringo, which it eventually turned out to be, so I wrote it as not too rangey in the vocal, then started making a story, sort of an ancient mariner, telling the young kids where he'd lived. It was pretty much my song as I recall ... I think John helped out. The lyrics got more and more obscure as it goes on, but the chorus, melody and verses are mine." The song began as being about different coloured submarines, but evolved to include only a yellow one.
In a joint interview in March of 1967, McCartney and Lennon reported that the creation of the song's melody was a collaboration. They recalled that Lennon had already written the verses' melody when McCartney first brought in the chorus, and they decided to combine the two elements into one song.