Ringo Starr: The Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’ Wouldn’t Have Worked if the Submarine Was Purple

The Beatles‘ “Yellow Submarine” was unquestionably a highlight of Ringo Starr’s career but he said it wouldn’t have been as popular if its lyrics were slightly different. He thought fans would have been put off if the submarine was “deep purple.” Interestingly, The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” originally started with a 30-second intro that was very different from anything in the final version of the song. Ringo said the tune came from a period in the Fab Four’s career where they were heavily influenced by a very 1960s muse: drugs.

Paul McCartney decided The Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’ should focus on the color yellow

During a 2022 interview with USA Today, Ringo discussed his recollections of The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” from 1966. “The boys used to write a song for me and they’d present whatever they thought would be good for me,” he said. “They had this song and they decided to liven it up.

“I think Paul thought of [a yellow submarine],” he added. “It could have been in a green submarine, but a yellow submarine is much better. Or a deep purple submarine, that would have been like, ‘What are they talking about now?’ But, yeah, it was a Ringo song, like ‘With a Little Help from My Friends’ was a Ringo song.” If “Yellow Submarine” was about a deep purple submarine, future listeners might have seen its lyrics as a reference to the hard-rock band Deep Purple, which didn’t debut until 1968.

The Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’ was going to feature a spoken word clip from Ringo Starr

According to the 2015 book Ringo: With a Little Help, “Yellow Submarine” originally featured a spoken word intro from Ringo. The intro was a 30-second spoken word clip and included the sounds of feet marching. That did not appear in the final version of the tune. In an interesting coincidence, “Yellow Submarine” came out around the same time as Donovan’s “Atlantis,” a nautical-themed fantasy song that starts with a spoken-word intro.

“Yellow Submarine” appeared on the album Revolver. Ringo revealed his take on that album. “I think the drugs were kicking in a little more heavily on this album,” he opined. “I don’t think we were on anything major yet; just the old usual — the grass and the acid … we never did it to a great extent at the session. We were really hard workers. We worked like dogs to get it right.”

Where the song stands in the Fab Four’s discography

“Yellow Submarine” remains one of the Fab Four’s most beloved songs. The band released plenty of other novelty tunes, such as “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” “You Know My Name (Look Up the Number),” and “When I’m Sixty-Four.” They also released several other children’s songs, such as “Octopus’s Garden,” “Hello, Goodbye,” and “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” However, “Yellow Submarine” stuck more in the cultural memory than the rest. It would probably still be a big deal today even without its terrific film adaptation.

The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” is a lot of fun and it still might’ve worked if it was about a deep purple submarine.