Yellow Submarine

A contractual obligation more than an artistic one. Yellow Submarine, the animated film by King Features Syndicate (with character design by Heinz Edelmann), arrived in 1968 needing four new Beatles songs — the rest of its soundtrack drawn from existing recordings (Revolver's Yellow Submarine, the All You Need Is Love single, songs left over from Magical Mystery Tour). The accompanying LP arrived in January 1969 with side one a Beatles record only in the most dutiful sense, and side two an instrumental score by George Martin.

The four newly-cut songs (Only a Northern Song, All Together Now, Hey Bulldog, It's All Too Much) were recorded between February 1967 and February 1968 — Only a Northern Song was a Pepper out-take; Hey Bulldog was cut on 11 February 1968 during a filmed session for the Lady Madonna promo (the 'session' became the basis of the Hey Bulldog video itself). George Martin's orchestral score for side two was cut at CTS Studios in October 1968 with a session orchestra.

Hey Bulldog is the genuine treasure: a piano-riff rocker from the band at full strength (Lennon and McCartney trading vocal phrases over Ringo's pounded snare). Only a Northern Song is George's barbed dig at his own publishing deal with Northern Songs Ltd. All Together Now is a children's singalong on banjo-uke. It's All Too Much is feedback-laden George psychedelia stretched to six-and-a-quarter minutes.

Released 17 January 1969. UK number three. The film, by contrast, surprised everyone by being good — its visual design has been one of the most-imitated stylebooks in animation ever since.

The LP is conventionally regarded as the band's least-essential studio release of the canon, but the film and its visual identity (Edelmann's pop-art Edwardian primaries) became one of the band's most enduring brand assets — the basis for an industry of T-shirts, lunchboxes, posters and everything else that has kept Apple Corps afloat in its non-musical capacity.