The Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’ Was Once a Sad John Lennon Song

The son of a famous producer found a demo of The Beatles‘ “Yellow Submarine” with John Lennon singing the lead vocal. The demo includes some morose lyrics. Ringo Starr revealed that other members of the band decided to “liven up” the song before they had him sing it.

Producer George Martin’s son compared The Beatles’ ‘Yellow Submarine’ demo to gold

In 2022, USA Today reported John moped a lot in a demo of The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine.” In the demo, he sangs lines like “In the place where I was born, no one cared, no one cared,” “and the name that I was born, no one cared,” and “in the town where I come from, no one cared.”

Giles Martin, son of Fab Four producer George Martin, discussed the demo. “I had no idea it existed,” he said. “It was a complete discovery and I was surprised. One of the thrills I get when doing this is for people to experience the same thing I experience. Going through the cobwebs and finding the gold — that’s what I want to transfer to other people.”

Martin felt the sad version of “Yellow Submarine” didn’t have as much appeal as the version we all know and love. “It wouldn’t have been as commercial in that original form, and you can hear them working together and pushing each other in different directions,” Martin said. “Which, of course, was their downfall in the end. But at this stage, they were delighted by the way they were creatively pushing each other.”

Ringo Starr compared the song to a famous track from ‘Sgt. Pepper’

Ringo, who performed the lead vocal on the final version of the song, discussed the track’s evolution. “The boys used to write a song for me and they’d present whatever they thought would be good for me,” he recalled. “They had this song and they decided to liven it up.” Ringo said the happy rendition of “Yellow Submarine” suited him in much the same way “With a Little Help from My Friends” did.

Ringo also ruminated on the color of the submarine. In his recollection, it was Paul McCartney’s idea that the submarine should be yellow. Ringo said it just as easily could have been green or deep purple. He said fans might’ve balked at the thought of a deep purple submarine.

How ‘Yellow Submarine’ and its parent album performed on the pop charts

“Yellow Submarine” became an international success. The tune climbed to the No. 2 position on the Billboard Hot 100, spending nine weeks on the chart. The song’s parent album, Revolver, was big as well. It topped the Billboard 200 for six of its 94 weeks on the chart.

According to The Official Charts Company, the tune became a hit twice in the United Kingdom. First, it hit No. 1 for four weeks, lasting on the chart for 13 weeks in total. Second, it hit No. 63 and stayed on the chart for two weeks in total. Both times it was released alongside another classic Beatles single: “Eleanor Rigby.”

The Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine” is hard to imagine as a sad song but it was almost exactly that.