The Beatles – Yellow Submarine (1969)

In the town where I was born, lived four lads who shook the world. Having decided a year or so ago (when I was 64 - I can keep this nonsense going all night!) that it's time I investigated beyond the hits I grew up with, it made perfect sense to remove this from Oxfam's CD racks for a couple of quid.

A bit of an anomaly as a Beatles album, it's the soundtrack to the film Yellow Submarine, combining two number 1 hit singles from a couple of years earlier, four songs composed for the film (or at least which first saw the light of day in the film) and George Martin's incidental music.

So, what stands up? Obviously the silly, jolly singalong Yellow Submarine is a great listen, and the song section ends with the psychedelic classic All You Need Is Love.

These bookend the original songs, of which, for me, the George Harrison songs are the stand outs. Only A Northern Song was one I hadn't previously heard, and I love its dreamy quality, while the opening chaos of It's All Too Much takes us into a fine song, despite the quite muddy backing. By contrast the two Lennon / McCartney songs, All Together Now and Hey Bulldog feel a bit throwaway, with only the former really getting away with it.

The orchestral soundtrack pieces by George Martin do, I'm sure, work in the context of incidental music, but I'm sure there are thousands of vinyl copies of this album where side A is worn out and side B is pristine, having only been played once.

It's really a mini-album, with very little new material from The Beatles, but it does include enough classics to keep it interesting.

Link to album tracks

3* - the Beatles' songs are certainly worth revisiting, even if the soundtrack isn't