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TL;DR:

  • Ringo Starr failed to work real bubble noises into The Beatles’ Abbey Road.
  • George Harrison gave Ringo at least a little bit of help writing the song in question.
  • A studio engineer revealed what George thought about the track.
The Beatles' Ringo Starr in a suit
Ringo Starr | John Pratt / Stringer

A song from The Beatles‘ Abbey Road features bubbly sounds but they are not the sounds of actual bubbles. Ringo Starr tried to incorporate bubble sounds into the song but he failed. Subsequently, he had to find a convincing substitute.

A studio engineer said the atmosphere in the studio wasn’t ‘bubbly’ when The Beatles made ‘Abbey Road’

Geoff Emerick served as a sound engineer on a few of The Beatles’ albums, including Abbey Road. During a 2014 interview with MusicRadar, Emerick said he was surprised Abbey Road turned out to be the final album the Fab Four recorded.

“As far as I understood it, we’d be working on another record in the new studio I was building at Apple,” he said. “The band was getting along better. The mood wasn’t bubbly and fun all the time, but it was a hell of a lot better than during the previous year.”

How Ringo Starr tried to work bubble noises into The Beatles’ ‘Octopus’s Garden’

Subsequently, Emerick said Ringo failed to work bubble sounds into his song “Octopus’s Garden.” “There’s this fun bit where you hear bubbles, as if you’re underwater,” Emerick said. “Ringo tried blowing bubbles into a glass of water which we mic’d very close.

“In the end, I recorded his vocals, fed them into in a compressor and triggered them with this pulse-like tone that created a wobbly, ‘bubbly’ sort of sound,” Emerick added.

While Ringo is the sole credited writer of “Octopus’s Garden,” Emerick said he received some help on the track. “George worked a bit on this song with Ringo, but I’m not sure how much he contributed,” Emerick remembered. “Ringo always felt shy about showing any of his songs to the other guys, but George was very keen on this number, so that helped. And it was a really good song — one of Ringo’s best.” In addition to being written by Ringo, “Octopus’s Garden” is one of the rare tracks featuring him as the lead vocalist.

How the song and ‘Abbey Road’ performed on the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom

“Octopus’s Garden” was never a single, so it never charted on the Billboard Hot 100. Meanwhile, Abbey Road was a monster hit. It topped the Billboard 200 for 11 weeks, staying on the chart for a total of 483 weeks. It lasted longer on the chart than any of the group’s other studio albums.

According to The Official Charts Company, “Octopus’s Garden” never charted in the United Kingdom either. On the other hand, Abbey Road reached No. 1 for 17 weeks. It stayed on the chart for 97 weeks. Abbey Road lasted longer on the chart than any of The Beatles’ other albums except for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.

“Octopus’s Garden” captures the fun side of the ocean even if it doesn’t contain actual bubble sounds.

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