Ringo Sings Yellow Submarine in Pepperland

BDJ's Cellar Full of Remixes

Having to fulfil a three-picture deal that John, Paul, George and Ringo had with United Artists, Brian Epstein had been looking for one last project to make the third film (after A Hard Day’s Night and Help!).
The group had no interest in making another movie, however. They weren’t fans of films after making Help! Plus, they had started work on the White Album, which was taking up a lot of their attention.
So, Epstein went to Al Brodax, a producer who had been involved with the animated TV adventures of the Beatles, wondering if a feature-length cartoon might do the trick. This alienated the four Beatles even more, as they hated the TV series, but at least they didn’t have to be involved. But it fulfilled their contract with the production company, so they went along.
The Beatles involvement in the film was limited to a live-action cameo appearance in the final scene, which was filmed on 25 January 1968 prior to the band's departure to India. This was to fulfill their contractual obligation of appearing ‘live’ in the film. The cameo was originally intended to feature a post-production psychedelic background and effects, but because of time and budget constraints, a blank, black background remained in the final film.
The Beatles decided to supply the music of the film with some leftovers and rejected songs. Only 4 songs were not released earlier. John Lennon’s song, “Hey Bulldog,” stands out, a true rocker would have fitted well on the White Album. Ironically, this song was cut from the American release altogether.
The film ‘Yellow Submarine’ would also feature a lot of new orchestral music from Martin, filling the complete Side Two of the soundtrack album!
Martin was no mean composer himself, as displayed in his cleverly constructed score for Yellow Submarine. As well as quoting JS Bach, the score also showed touches of Ravel, Stravinsky and Holst. After serving in the Royal Navy during World War Two, he had consolidated his grounding in music, studying composition, conducting and orchestration at the Guildhall School of Music. He also took up the oboe to ‘earn a bit of living’ – in later years.
The score for the film was recorded at Olympic Sound Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra, but I could not find the date for those sessions. Anyone? It must have been in the period February - July 1968, since the movie was released in July 1968.
Note that the actual soundtrack of the film is a different recording altogether from what we hear on the LP/CD “Yellow Submarine”: Martin re-recorded the soundtrack with a 41-piece orchestra on 22 and 23 October 1968 in the EMI studios. Stereo mixing and editing were done 24 and 25 October, with Martin producing, Geoff Emerick as engineer and Mike Sheady assisting. “It was more convenient to do so,” George Martin explains, “and no more costly since the original orchestra would have had to be paid twice anyway if we had used the soundtrack for the record.”
The seven pieces of music Martin provided for the soundtrack (combined in six tracks on the US album), are in order:
- ‘Pepperland’ - a string section breakdown, harp, and an arrangement. that just slides along and sounds like classic movie music.
- ‘Sea of Time’ - Full of references to Within You, Without You’ and using some Indian instrumentation. The song devolves into a Mary Poppins like breakdown before breaking into a lovely waltz.
-‘Sea of Holes’ - Has an ‘Underwater’ feel and backwards effects, something you don’t normally (ever) hear on classical recordings.
-‘Sea of Monsters’ - Ominous yet happy, trilling flutes dueling with moaning cellos, then coming back to the ‘Pepperland’ motif, then to what sounds like an Elgar march, into a crazy western theme. Wild backwards effects end it out. There’s also a reference to J.S.Bach’s Air on the G String.
- ‘March of The Meanies’ - A march theme, with surging strings and horns, very evocative and ...cinematic?
- ‘Pepperland Laid Waste’ - Sad and dreamy strings that explodes into a staccato Bernard Hermann - Hitchcockian type thing.
- ‘Yellow Submarine in Pepperland’ – is an arrangement of the Beatles song. A pretty upbeat and glorious ending. Yellow Submarine was recorded by the Beatles much earlier, on May 26, 1966 at Abbey Road, London, England with special effects overdubbed June 1, 1966. It was included on the US and UK versions of Revolver. It was also a double ‘A’ side single with ‘Eleanor Rigby’ released in 1966, so to the Beatles did not give much away……
The George Martin arrangement on the soundtrack has gained admiration as time passes. However, Lennon didn’t much like it: “Brian made a mistake by letting George Martin put in all those fills in 'Yellow Submarine,' the 'Sea Of Holes' shit,” remarked Lennon at the time. “He recorded all this terrible shit that went out with our LP, you know. If you check it out, it's a whole sort of joke. George Martin is on one side of our album. Oh, we didn't notice that.”
But the public disagreed with Lennon. The “Yellow Submarine” soundtrack album soared up the charts. It peaked at the #2 position on the Billboard album chart during the final week that the “White Album” was at #1. The soundtrack album stayed on the Billboard charts for a total of 25 weeks and was certified as a gold record selling over a million copies.
And with George Martin's orchestral score on side two of the album, it undoubtedly proved to be his biggest money maker as far as royalties are concerned, not to mention that the album became a permanent fixture in the Beatles catalog throughout all repackaging reissues and box sets. In 1999, United Artists and Apple Records digitally remixed the audio of the film for a theatrical and home video re-release. A soundtrack album for this version was also released, which featured the first extensive digital stereo remixes of Beatles material. The film's rights have reverted to Apple who reissued the film in June 2012 on DVD and Blu-ray. And 2018 saw the release of The Beatles Yellow Submarine (50th Anniversary) edition.
And now in 2019, we present here a brand-new remix of ‘Yellow Submarine in Pepperland’. Paul-René Lee suggested to combine Ringo’s vocal version with Martin’s instrumental track. This works surprisingly well, showing that Ringo sang this well, and Martin made a beautiful arrangement. We also added the ‘effects’, even some that were not included on Revolver. A pretty upbeat and glorious remix!