Quoted from Andy Smith

Yellow Submarine was always sung to me when i was at school to tease me, as they
knew i was a fan. It seemed to be the only Beatles song that the kids knew, but they
knew nothing on the fabs! of course, it's so "DAM CATCHY"  (bit like Dance Tonight!),
(yes, macca again! ).
i rememeber saying to someone when i was at school what music i liked & of course it
was the fabs ... and then he goes, 'Oh yeah!, we all live in a Yellow Submarine!'
i love the song but despise it at times!!

wow, sorry to hear that.  I have a 4-year old son, and I'm constantly exposing him to Beatles music, and he LOVES it.  I hope he doesn't go through what you went through.  Maybe I should stop.

I was born in 1958, and YS is the ony Beatle song I can remember being aware of.

I used to hate it, but like it quite well now. They seemed to be having a good time.

I think the reason why it was (and still is?) popular is becasue that it was embraced by more nations, ie more nations allowed to play it as it was all so neutral which tied up well with the whole "Love and Peace in the West and East" *having said that, I think I got my dates wrong and that slogan wrong... oh well*. Infact it seems to have the same popularity reasons as All You Need is Love. Its the whole "positive" image the world needs.

Frankly, I dont see anything special about it. If I weren't a Beatle fan and you'd say to me "Beatles..." I would say "All You Need is Love"

Quoted from 679

I always thought it would make a great national anthem for England ?

Why England in particular? Are you claiming special submarine status just because the Beatles were born there?

I really liked your comment, Kaleidoscope_Eyes, about it being "embraced by more nations, ie more nations allowed to play it as it was all so neutral". Really interesting perspective. Thanks.

Quoted from harihead

Why England in particular? Are you claiming special submarine status just because the Beatles were born there?

I should damn well hope so!

Quoted from Kevin

I was born in 1958, and YS is the ony Beatle song I can remember being aware of.

Really? The Beatles were everywhere when I was a kid. But then I was brought up in the throws of Beatlemania. Wasn't there much of a fuss when they came to New Zealand? There was a bomb hoax on the plane wasn't there?

^It's wierd. I can remember going to see a movie (Help! I think), drawing pictures and starting a band called The Bugs with my mate (we only got as far as putting our name on our biscuit tin/bass drum.) I remember plastic Beatle wigs and seeing Get Back listed in the charts. Oh, and going to see Yellow Submarine and not understanding it. And seeing the breakup on the news. But I have no recollection of the visit or any other  songs.
I was much more aware of The Monkees, probably thanks to TV. I would have recognised Micky Dolenz before John Lennon.

I remember when I had my first eye operation, when I was six, my mum brought me in this Beatles toy. It had the four Fabs heads with no hair. It was encased in plastic and was full of iron filings which you had to move with a magnetic pen to make their hair!

Now that's cool! I remember having the Corgi Yellow Submarine toy, but was much more impressed with my James Bond Aston Martin with the ejecting Japanese Man.

Quoted from Kevin

but was much more impressed with my James Bond Aston Martin with the ejecting Japanese Man.

I had one of those! Did yours have the bulletproof shield at the back?

Quoted from BlueMeanie

I had one of those! Did yours have the bulletproof shield at the back?

Yes. And machine guns coming out the front. Oh the joy. If you want to get all nostalgic Hamleys have them for 13 quid.
http://www.hamleys.com/invt/0000000969295

Quoted from harihead

Why England in particular? Are you claiming special submarine status just because the Beatles were born there?

Quoted from BlueMeanie

I should damn well hope so!

Oh, good. I thought England was being surrounded by Yellow Tide or something. (I grew up in Florida and we used to have these algae attacks along our shoreline...)

I was born in '58 and the first (only?) Beatles song I remember hearing on the radio was "I Want to Hold Your Hand". My older sister was much more into them than I was; I was rebelling against her taste, you see. Everything else I recall came from my sister's record player. "Eight Days a Week" I didn't particularly care for; I really enjoyed "Come and Get It" and LOVED the group's name. Badfinger; how can you go wrong? I really only got interested when she started playing George's "Living in the Material World"-- I heard that quite a lot, but the blue-faced boy just baffled me. Fortunately I didn't have to buy the album myself; I just stole hers to play it.

Quoted from 679

I always thought it would make a great national anthem for England ?

DaveRam

I think this is the best idea I've heard since sliced bread?

Quoted from The Fox Drummer

So why is Yellow Submarine so incredibly popular? And why has it become the one song that people relate the Beatles to? One would think 'She Loves You', something brilliant such as 'A Day In The Life' or 'All You Need Is Love'...

People should never use Y.S. as the one song to represent the Beatle's complete oeuvre..this would be a massive mistake since this ditty is widely known as a "throw-away" novelty  tune that  Paul dreamed-up" (quite literally) for Ringo,  simply to give Mr. Starr more space on Revolver, where it first appeared.

Quoted from harihead

I really liked your comment, Kaleidoscope_Eyes, about it being "embraced by more nations, ie more nations allowed to play it as it was all so neutral". Really interesting perspective. Thanks.

I had Russia in mind when I wrote it...

A national anthem...? "we all live in a yellow submarine..." poor clastrophobics