So why is The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine on this best 1,000 albums ever thing?
Yellow Submarine is a bit of a tricky album to figure out, let alone how to quantify and rank for this already pretty wacko best 1,000 albums ever thing.
It’s a Beatles studio album that doubles as a soundtrack for the animated film, Yellow Submarine, but only includes four “original” Beatles songs, in addition to “All You Need Is Love,” which had previously been released as a single, and the title track, “Yellow Submarine,” which had been released as part of the Revolver album.
The rest of Yellow Submarine is composed of orchestral score pieces composed by Beatles producer George Martin.
Here’s a film trailer for Yellow Submarine – pretty trippy and a little ahead of its time in some ways, I’d venture.
When it comes down to it, when I stop and examine those… let’s call them five Beatles tracks – I’m surely including the masterpiece that is “All You Need Is Love” in there – this submarine surfaces into the Top 300 of the best 1,000 albums ever.
“All You Need Is Love” is one of those Beatles songs that feels so iconic that it feels almost sacrilegious in some way to discuss it in normal music review-ish terms. With that being said, I’ll state that it’s simply gorgeous psychedelic rock with an iconic chorus and universal message of love and acceptance.
In other words: it ain’t bad.
I find “Only a Northern Song” to be a divine, slightly melancholy smasher. There’s really interesting background on it in Wikipedia about how the lyrics reflect George Harrison’s “displeasure at being merely a contracted songwriter to the Beatles’ publishing company, called Northern Songs.” And also, note the use of the glockenspiel!
“Hey Bulldog” is a John Lennon special, a snappy upbeat number with great Lennon vocals and a fun, driving beat. This is also close to the hardest rock that The Beatles ever get into.
As for the title track itself, it’s not my favorite Beatles song, but there’s no denying its compulsively catchy sing-along powers. I dare say it’s in your head RIGHT NOW.
There’s some good stuff on the George Martin orchestral score half of Yellow Submarine, though obviously it’s completely different material. Here’s “March of the Meanies.”
Pop culture stuff that has something to do with The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine
Get Back is a fabulous docuseries that tracks The Beatles’ recording sessions in early 1969 in what feels like close to real time.
One of my favorite scenes involves Ringo Starr unveiling a draft version of “Octopus’s Garden” to George Harrison. It’s a sweet and fun song, but I always found it kind of interesting that, given the oceanic-ish theme, it wasn’t included on Yellow Submarine. Get Back, of course, helps orient us to the timeline that its creation comes after Yellow Submarine, both soundtrack and film.
“Octopus’s Garden” eventually gets included on Abbey Road, which many people believe to be The Beatles’ greatest album of all.
Will the best 1,000 albums ever concur? Stick around and find out!
Some stats & info about The Beatles – Yellow Submarine
- What kind of musical stylings does this album represent? British Bands, Rock Music, Psychedelic Rock, British Invasion
- Rolling Stone’s greatest 500 albums ranking – not ranked!
- All Music’s rating – 3 out of 5 stars
- When was Yellow Submarine released? 1969
- My ranking, the one you’re reading right now – #292 out of 1,000
The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine on Spotify
A lyrical snippet from The Beatles’ Yellow Submarine that’s evocative of the album in some way, maybe
In the town where I was born, lived a man who sailed to sea.
What does the “best 1,000 albums ever” mean and why are you doing this?
Yeah, I know it’s audacious, a little crazy (okay, maybe a lot cray cray), bordering on criminal nerdery.
But here’s what it’s NOT: a definitive list of the Greatest Albums of All-Time. This is 100% my own personal super biased, incredibly subjective review of what my top 1,000 albums are, ranked in painstaking order over the course of doing research for nearly a year, Rob from High Fidelity style. Find out more about why I embarked on a best 1,000 albums ever project.