40 Fun Facts About Yellow Submarine

Which Beatle sings lead on Yellow Submarine, the band's first UK single to feature him as lead vocalist?

Ringo Starr was handed the tune because Lennon and McCartney wrote it as a children's song for his vocal spot on the album.

Which music-hating invaders turn the people of an undersea paradise into statues in the film Yellow Submarine?

The Blue Meanies open their attack by trapping the local band inside a music-proof glass globe, then drain the countryside of colour.

What is the name of the music-loving undersea paradise that the Beatles sail to rescue in Yellow Submarine?

Pepperland is home to Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, and the Beatles dress up as that group to rally a rebellion.

Which fruit do towering henchmen drop on heads in Yellow Submarine, a nod to the Beatles' own company?

Apples are the weapon of the Apple Bonkers, lanky men in top hats, and the fruit winks at Apple Corps, the firm the Beatles had just founded.

Which cartoon hero did the Beatles picture when they feared Yellow Submarine would be a crudely animated rip-off?

Popeye was a pointed fear, because producer Al Brodax had overseen more than 200 low-budget Popeye shorts for television.

In which country did Paul McCartney eat the iced spoon sweet, nicknamed a submarine, that inspired Yellow Submarine?

Greece was where he holidayed in 1963, and the sweet came in yellow or red depending on its flavour.

Why did Peter Batten, the first voice of George in Yellow Submarine, fail to finish recording the part?

Arrested as a deserter from the British Army of the Rhine, he had voiced about half the film, so another cast member finished the role.

Which Spanish football club took the nickname Yellow Submarine from the Beatles song popular in 1960s Spain?

Villarreal was only a small club when the tune swept the country, sung in Spanish, and the name has stuck to the team ever since.

Which animated series spoofed Yellow Submarine in a 1993 dream sequence that a girl has under anaesthetic?

The Simpsons staged it in the episode Last Exit to Springfield, with Lisa Simpson as the dreamer.

Actors voiced the cartoon Beatles in Yellow Submarine, so where does the real band appear on screen?

A live-action final scene was shot in January 1968, mainly to satisfy a contract that required the band to appear in the film.

On which 1966 Beatles album did the song Yellow Submarine first appear, two years before the animated film?

Revolver came out on the same day as the single, a step Melody Maker reported was meant to head off rival cover versions.

Which Beatles song about loneliness shared a double A-side single with Yellow Submarine in August 1966?

Eleanor Rigby turns up in the film too, playing as the submarine arrives in Liverpool to look for help.

Who composed the orchestral score that fills the whole second side of the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album?

George Martin re-recorded his film score for the record with a 41-piece orchestra, in two three-hour sessions at Abbey Road.

Which Beatles record, released two months earlier, kept the Yellow Submarine soundtrack from topping the US chart?

The White Album held it at number two in America, and the soundtrack had been delayed precisely so the two records would not clash.

Which singalong closes the film Yellow Submarine with its title flashing up on screen in many languages?

All Together Now was taped in a single session in May 1967, and Paul McCartney took its title from a music hall call for crowds to join in.

Which Beatles song does the band sing about Jeremy Hillary Boob, a rhyming scholar met in Yellow Submarine?

Nowhere Man fits Jeremy, who was written as a send-up of polymaths such as the theatre director and physician Jonathan Miller.

Which John Lennon song was cut from the American release of Yellow Submarine and restored only in 1999?

Hey Bulldog was dropped because American audiences were expected to tire of the film's length, and a shorter battle sequence took its place.

Which George Harrison composition on the Yellow Submarine album was recorded for Sgt. Pepper but rejected for it?

Only a Northern Song is a dig at Northern Songs, the Beatles' publishing company, where Harrison was merely a contracted songwriter.

Which Motown group's hit kept the song Yellow Submarine at number two on the US Billboard Hot 100?

The Supremes held the top spot with You Can't Hurry Love, although the Beatles single did reach number one on the rival Cash Box chart.

Which member of the Rolling Stones clinked glasses and blew an ocarina on the Beatles' recording of Yellow Submarine?

Brian Jones was one of a studio party of guests that also included Marianne Faithfull and Pattie Boyd, George Harrison's wife.

Which George Harrison song, first running over eight minutes, plays over the closing celebration in Yellow Submarine?

It's All Too Much celebrated Harrison's experiences with LSD and was taped away from Abbey Road, at De Lane Lea Studios.

The Beatles filmed their Yellow Submarine cameo in January 1968 shortly before travelling to which country?

India was next on the band's calendar, and with the schedule and budget tight the planned psychedelic backdrop was dropped for plain black.

In which city did Yellow Submarine have its world premiere in July 1968, with all four Beatles attending?

London hosted it at the Pavilion cinema, and the band marked the release with a submarine-themed disco where every guest wore yellow.

Which studio financed and distributed Yellow Submarine, having earlier released the Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night?

United Artists was owed another Beatles picture, and the band, unhappy with their previous film, chose a cartoon because it needed so little from them.

Yellow Submarine co-writer Erich Segal, a Yale classics teacher, later wrote which bestselling 1970 novel?

Love Story began as a film script Segal could not sell, until a literary agent suggested he turn it into a novel.

Which Czech-born German illustrator, often confused with Peter Max, designed the psychedelic look of Yellow Submarine?

Heinz Edelmann switched the visual technique roughly every five minutes to keep audiences engaged, so the film never settles into one cartoon style.

Which Toronto-born animator, a veteran of the Beatles TV cartoon series, directed the film Yellow Submarine?

George Dunning supervised a crew of more than 200 for 11 months, pushing for a more ambitious film than the simple children's cartoon first planned.

Which British comedian voiced Jeremy Hillary Boob, the Lord Mayor and Max in the film Yellow Submarine?

Dick Emery took all three parts, and each Beatle reportedly liked the voices given to the other three but not his own.

Which Liverpool poet wrote many of the puns in Yellow Submarine's dialogue without receiving a screen credit?

Roger McGough had a personal link to the band too, being married to Thelma Pickles, a former girlfriend of both Lennon and McCartney.

Which then-unreleased Beatles song was added as a bonus to a Yellow Submarine EP mastered in 1969 but never issued?

Across the Universe was meant to sweeten a record criticised as poor value, since the album had offered only four new Beatles songs.

Which menace sent by the villains' chief in Yellow Submarine does John defeat by singing All You Need Is Love?

The Dreadful Flying Glove is the villains' fiercest weapon, and John Lennon later claimed the idea for it as his own.

In Yellow Submarine, which sea do the Beatles cross while the song When I'm Sixty-Four plays?

Sea of Time comes early in a voyage that goes on to cross seas of science, monsters and holes before reaching its goal.

Which character does the elderly Lord Mayor send away in the submarine to fetch help in Yellow Submarine?

Fred was voiced by Lance Percival, who had already played two of the Beatles in their American TV cartoon series.

Which Pixar filmmaker has credited Yellow Submarine with generating wider interest in animation as a serious art form?

John Lasseter made the point because animation in the West was then generally treated as a children's medium.

Which filmmaker planned a motion-capture remake of Yellow Submarine for Disney before the studio abandoned it in 2011?

Robert Zemeckis lost the project after the motion-capture film Mars Needs Moms flopped, and he later said it was probably better not remade.

Which animation technique did Bill Sewell use for the Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds sequence in Yellow Submarine?

Rotoscoping yielded more than thirty minutes of images for the number, which then had to be cut down to its length in the film.

Which household object did George Harrison swirl water in to make ocean waves on the song Yellow Submarine?

A bathtub did the job, while the studio store cupboard was raided for chains, bells, whistles and a cash till.

Which Scottish singer contributed a line of lyrics about sky and sea to the Beatles song Yellow Submarine?

Donovan later said the song showed the Beatles as prisoners of their own fame, reacting with an uplifting communal tune.

Which British songwriting honour did Yellow Submarine win for the highest certified sales of a 1966 single?

An Ivor Novello Award went to this song alone, even though it had shared its single with a second A-side.

To which South American country does Max suggest the defeated villains should flee in the film Yellow Submarine?

Argentina is a dark joke for a family cartoon, alluding to the Nazis who fled there after the Second World War.