Customer Reviews

Yellow Submarine (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

5 star:		(45)
4 star:		(34)
3 star:		(46)
2 star:		(24)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As to avoid any confusion, this review is specifically for the remastered version of "Yellow Submarine" since many past reviews are appearing here.

I began my quest to obtain all of the Beatles' remastered CD's with this one per my son's request; he loves the movie as well the music, so this one was an obvious choice for him!

With all of the hype surrounding the release of the remasters, I went into it with a lot of expectations, & after hearing the opening of the title track, my wife & I were believers immediately; our collective "WOW!" reaction was all it took!

The difference between this & the original 1990 CD issue is literally like night & day; the sound is greatly improved & the clarity is incredible. Of course, the technology to achieve this was not there in 1990, so for what it was, it was good; but this is astounding!

If the band tracks are not enough to convince you, listen to George Martin's orchestral score beginning with "Pepperland"; in short, it will take your breath away! Lush strings, horns & percussion all come to the forefront like never before; the sound is so beautiful & crystal clear that you feel as if you're there in the studio with them.

Do not hesitate to buy all of the remasters...I certainly won't!

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".

The 1999 Yellow Submarine Songtrack is not the 1969, 1990, 2009 Yellow Submarine Soundtrack. Names are similar and confusing. The 1999 reissue is a totally different alternate Yellow Submarine album. It lacks the George Martin Orchestral tracks but adds in a number of then popular Beatles songs, some associated with the film, to make a sort of greatest hits album. Remember the "Yellow Submarine (1969)" film story is also "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)" too and is "continued" series of songs from that album. The 1999 track listing is virtually totally different from the 1990 or 2009 CDs or 1969 LP. Only sharing about 6 songs. Amazon has the reviews all jumbled up and mixed up. I have not compared the actual sound of the CDs yet. Though since 1999 is between 1990 and 2009, the sound might be an intermediate improvement over the ancient LP (at least for the 6 songs. It like most reissues is surely remixed to some extent. Sure, the regular Yellow Submarine Film Soundtrack albums are short on actual Beatles songs (should be priced as an "CD-EP"), but there are some good ones. Can't rate any Beatles (official album) less than 4 or 5. Buy both albums.

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.

This album, released in 1969, may have the least original material. However, it is a good buy.
Two songs are rereleases, the two being All You Need Is Love, and the title track. Seven tracks are instrumentals from the film, by George Martin.
The four orignal Beatles tracks alone, however, are splendid.
The First is Only A Northern Song. Penned by Harrison, it was intened for Sgt. Pepper.
The Second is All Togther Now. A cheesy song by Paul, it is sung to the beat of a jump rope tune. It was used in a verizon commercial.
Hey Bulldog is third. THis track was the last REAL lennon/mccartney song. It is a good rocker, with John in good voice.
Last is It's All Too Much. A real roch anthem by George, it is one of the longest Beatles' songs, at over 6 minutes.
All in all, it a great package. Not for beginners, but for everyone else.

While the 2009 remasters are as close as we aged original Beatle fans will get to our beloved vinyls, I recall being disappointed with the muddiness of "Baby Your a Rich Man" (on the "Magical Mystery Tour" LP), "All You Need is Love", "Only A Northern Song", "All Too Much" and a few other LP tracks way back in the 60's. While the 2009 remasters are great, the muddiness evident in these select tracks has carried over to the 2009 remasters. If you want to hear the lads singing in your living room instead of through a sock, may I suggest you pick up "Songtrack" instead of the remastered compilation offered here. All six of the lad's contributions on this CD are remixed and enhanced with much greater clarity on the "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" CD, including many other remixed tracks from other albums. Now that I've experienced the vitality of so many of these "cleaned up" tracks on Songtrack, it's hard to go back to the old LP's or even the new remasters to listen to them since they sound so much more alive on "Songtrack". Compare for yourself. I know many pundits for authenticity don't like to mess with the original recordings but nothing is added or taken away from the lad's performances in "Songtrack". If anything, you can hear them better. As for George Martin's instrumentals, they're great in the context of the movie, but since they are at times reactive to what's going on on the screen and we can't see the screen on an audio CD, it just doesn't stand alone as a listening experience. It's like watching a Road Runner cartoon with a burned out projector lamp. Those opposed to remixing perhaps should take note; the same engineers and project coordinator who gave us the 2009 remasters (Allan Rouse, Paul Hicks and Steve Rooke) also gave us Songtrack. Evidently they too knew what needed to be done.

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!

I've been a Beatles fan for 35 years, but side one (the Beatles songs) of "Yellow Submarine" is pretty weak, with the exception of "Hey Bulldog," which gets by on sheer fun. The real treat is George Martin's exquisite score, some of which appears on the second part of the disc. Now that the Beatles' songtrack has been released, I'd love to see a more complete release of George Martin's finest work to date.

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.

Ok, i am pretty tired of people bashing this album for containing a whole side of George Martin composed orchestra tunes. I think they are fabulous tunes. If people are bashing those they are bashing Martin, the man who composed the strings to Yesterday and LOVE's While My Guitar Gently Weeps. People need to get off this album, its strictly a fun one, nothing more and nothing less. Yes there are 2 tunes that were on previous albums, but the 4 new cuts make up for that as 3 of them are very psychedelic, and all together now is just a fun tune that fits the film perfectly.

the orchestral score sounds great in remastered form, as do the other tunes but hey bulldog still suffers from separation in the verses in john's vocals. everything is so much richer and more clarity in the percussion and bass makes this album even better.

this is a must own as is all of the beatles studio albums. just get both boxes : )