“Yellow Submarine” by The Beatles

"Yellow Submarine" was Ringo Starr's turn at the microphone on the Beatles' 1966 album Revolver, a children's song Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote for him, and it went out on a double A-side with "Eleanor Rigby", about as far-out a pairing as a pop single has offered. The band cut the basic track in late May 1966, then threw a session that was half party: nautical sound effects, crowd chatter and a sing-along chorus, the kind of lunacy George Martin knew from his work with the Goons. Brian Jones blew an ocarina, Mal Evans thumped a bass drum, and Marianne Faithfull and Pattie Boyd were among the voices in the crowd.

It topped the charts in Britain, and before long the counterculture was waving it at Vietnam War demonstrations as an anti-authority anthem. Two years later it floated off into an animated film of its own.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.