Everyone knows 'Yellow Submarine'. The guy at the bus stop. The little kid at camp. The random person you happen to ask on the street. In fact, when someone says 'Beatles' these days, most people are likely to think immediately, 'Yellow Submarine'! or boast that it's their favourite Beatles song when it's really the only one that they actually know.

But if you think about, besides the movie...why is this? As much as I love Ringo, 'Yellow Submarine' does not have the best vocals, nor are the lyrics particularly inspiring. In terms of sound, it's fun, but nothing we haven't heard before during the days of Sgt. Pepper.

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'...but no, it's got to be a kiddie song that sounds like Paul wrote it when he was either tripping or bored.

(Incidentally, what are your own thoughts about the song?)

We all live in one.

*gasp* That must be it!

At the end of the day I think most people respond to a simple catchy melody. Words are of little consequence (how many people bellow along to songs with no idea what the actual vocals are, or what they mean.) Most people only know the chorus of YS and wing the rest.It's a primate thing, like football chanting or drumming. If people can sing along they're happy.
That's why you have to smile when you see all these aspiring songwriters agonising over deep complex lyrics that no one is going to give a sh*t about anyway. Macca knows what sells to the masses.

Oh and my thoughts. On its own on the radio now it sounds a bit rubbish. But as a track on Revolver and thinking it's 1966 it's cool. Sounds quite druggy. It's always struck me as a radio friendly version of Dylans "Rainy Day Woman #12 & 35."
And as a single it's a perfect counterpoint to the gloom of Eleanor Rigby. Hats off Mr McCartney. A man who truly knew what he was doing.

Great to hear your viewpoint, Kevin. I've no doubt that you're right about "how many people bellow along to songs with no idea what the actual vocals are, or what they mean". For me, lyrics have always been incredibly important. I'm one of those people who soaks up lyrics and can recite them years later; they get in my brain for good. Which is why I find inane, empty lyrics annoying.

Personally I like YS because it's so much fun! I like the silly voices and sound effects and whole silly mood of it. Fun and happy is great! The overall Beatles impression is fun, happy, and silly--certainly it was in their Beatlemania phase, and I think that's probably how most regular listeners still perceive them.

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!!

I think is a funny song, I remember when I was a kid and I heard it in the Spanish version of Sesame Street.   I just loved the tune....  It makes me happy.

It can be used in response to the classic Beatle-fan/non fan question:

"So do you like the Beatles?"
"Aren't they the band who did Yellow Submarine?"

Anyway, my thoughts: I love this song. It should be the Beatle fan national anthem. I can see it now, people joining hands and singing the chorus...  

Oh Hell, let's sing...

We all live in a Yellow Submarine...

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!!

I can see what you mean when you say you love the song but despise it at times. We all love it, but it seems like it can be easily used to tease! Which I hate...

Maybe it's such a popular song because, like some people are saying, you can sing along to it and it's just plain fun! I'm sure little kids love it, especially. And I admit that before I was a Beatles fan, if you asked me to name one of their songs, the only one I'd be able to name would be Yellow Submarine, being a little kid. And I get the feeling that if I asked the clueless people at school to name a song, they'd name YS. It's hard to put a finger on exactly why this is true. It's a fun song and I love it, but it's not their best.

I think its such an innocent and catchy tune, that it relates well to children more so than adults. I like the song for what it is, but its not one of my favorite Beatle tunes by a long shot.

A co-worker and my oldest brother always sing and make fun of that song when they're trying to get a rise out of me about the Beatles. I never really stopped to think about it, but damn,,,,,it just might be their most popular tune.

I like Yellow Submarine...
As you guys said, it's such a fun, happy song... very peaceful and "friendly" ("everyone of us is all we need") and all  

And it reminds me of the movie (which is something that I like being reminded of!   )

I like your Beatle-fan-national-anthem idea, Flaming Pie!!  

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

DaveRam

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  

I like the National Anthem idea. It's a happy tune, and most anthems are quite solemn, Can you imagine the England football team standing to attention before a match at Wembley, with the crowd singing 'we all live in a yellow submarine'!! Better still, now that we have to have somebody semi-famous on the pitch singing it for us, maybe we could have it sung by Lesley Garrett dressed up as a Blue Meanie!

I can imagine it BlueMeanie think it would be a fantastic national anthem , would love to see the England team singing it at Wembly

DaveRam

Yay, Russia! *pumps fist*

Quoted from Kaleidoscope_Eyes

"we all live in a yellow submarine..." poor clastrophobics  

Not necessarily claustrophobic. If we ALL live in a yellow submarine, what can that be but a metaphor for Earth? I find it a peaceful image, personally, Earth swimming serenely through the black sea of space, with everyone onboard singing, "We all live in a yellow submarine..."  

Quoted from harihead

Yay, Russia! *pumps fist*

Actually, my favourite National Anthem is the Soviet Union. Last year a friend of mine found an old Russian 10" vinyl pressing of it. Rousing stuff. We played it at midnight on New Years Eve! The Danes are strange people.

Quoted from BlueMeanie

Actually, my favourite National Anthem is the Soviet Union. Last year a friend of mine found an old Russian 10" vinyl pressing of it. Rousing stuff. We played it at midnight on New Years Eve! The Danes are strange people.

No offence to anyone here, but have you noticed that (with the exception of ex Brit Empire nations) the further south you go the sillier the national anthems become?

The National Anthem of Chile is like a Concerto in 3 movements! Hillarious.

i think the reason it is so popular among the non beatles fans as its the type of song that is introduced to kids in there first year music along with ob-la-di ob-la-da,so more people will have heard it than say anything off of any other album, you could ask any kid that went to my school what beatle songs they know and if they aint a beatles fan theyll say ys or ob-la-di cause we learnt it in music.

and all of what kevin wrote aswell.