From: bchs1k@menudo.uh.edu (Edward S. Chen)
Subject: Re: The worst Beatles compilations? (was: Re: The Old Mixmaster)
Organization: University of Houston
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1992 02:14:21 GMT

In article <5265@transfer.stratus.com> bad@pismo.sw.stratus.com (Bruce Dumes) writes:
>In article <1992Jul29.175337.16207@news.columbia.edu> brennan@cunixf.cc.columbia.edu (Joseph Brennan) writes:
>>
>>Shall we raise the issue of the "Yellow Submarine" album?  Why did we
>>need to buy a whole LP for 4 new songs?  And now it's a high-priced CD!
>>
>
>I've wondered whether the Beatles had anything to do with this release
>or whether it was marketing.  Many sources lead one to believe that the
>Beatles, especially Paul, wanted to make sure that people got their
>money's worth when they bought a Beatle record.  Surely the Yellow Submarine
>album is not representative of this.
>

Going to George Martin, from _All You Need is Ears_:

   When it came to marketing the soundtrack album, which the producers wanted,
there were more problems.  The Beatles were still holding themselves remote
from the whole enterprise, and simply left us to our own devices.  So I told
the film people: "Obviously, the thing to do is to let the Beatles issue 
whatever they want of their own songs.  I'll issue my stuff separately, because
I don't want to ride on their backs."
   The Beatles decided to issue an EP of their four new songs from the film.
For their part, the film people wanted to put out an LP of the background
score, with voices from the film, and with narration.  This was to tell the
story of "Yellow Submarine", and was to be assembled by the man who had written
the original story - Erich Segal, later to make his name and fame with "Love
Story."  I had worked very closely with him on the script of the film, and 
the record was to be a combination of words and music, rather like "Peter and
the Wolf."  We were about to start work on that, when suddenly the Beatles
changed their collective mind.  "No, we don't want to do that", they said.
"We want a long playing record."  What they had realized, of course, was that
EP's didn't sell in America, while LP's did.  What's more, they probably
realized by then that, in spite of their lack of interest or co-operation, the
film was likely to be the success it eventually proved to be.

[Martin then details how they came to the eventual line-up, and why he chose
to re-record his orchestral material.]

There is an interesting post script to this story in _The Book_:

Friday, 17 January:

[Much deleted]

The Beatles were mildly criticized at the time of this LP for giving less then
their usually excellent value-for-money.  Lovely though George Martin's score
was, fans of the group were having to buy a full priced album for just four
"new" songs by the group (even the most recent was 11 months old), two of the
six titles "Yellow Submarine" itself, and "All You Need is Love" - having long
been released.  The group evidently took the criticism to heart, for there
remains in the EMI library a master tape for a seven-inch mono EP, to run at
LP speed, 33.333 rpm, compiled and banded on 13 March 1969 by Abbey Road
employee Edward Gadsby-Toni, with the following line-up: Side A: "Only a
Northern Song"; "Hey Bulldog"; "Across the Universe". Side B: "All Together
Now"; "It's All Too Much". (Note the bonus incluion of "Across the Universe",
long finished and mixed but, as of March 1969, still awaiting issue on the
World Wildlife Fund charity album.)

The EP was never issued.  Perhaps the Beatles, never too enamored with any
part of the "Yellow Submarine" project, felt that they were better off
washing their hands of the whole affair.

<ESC>



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