The Yellow Submarine & other 50-year-olds

The animated film, featuring Beatles music and the Beatles themselves, tells the story of Pepperlandia, an undersea paradise that was invaded by the Blue Meanies who hate music.

The Yellow Submarine, the animated film featuring Beatles music and the Beatles themselves, is turning 50 years old this year. The musical fantasy inspired by Ringo Starr’s composition of the same title, first hit the theaters on July 1968 and a version that was restored frame by frame with a remixed soundtrack, is set to have a special theatrical run this year to commemorate the event. 

Directed by George Dunning using a process called limited animation, The Yellow Submarine tells the story of Pepperlandia, an undersea paradise that was invaded by the Blue Meanies who hate music. These bad guys imprisoned the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band in a music-proof glass globe and rendered the people immobile. The King sent out his servant Young Fred to bring back The Beatles and rescue Pepperlandia. So the Fab Four were soon on board The Yellow Submarine and on the way to a fun psychedelic adventure.

I do hope a local distributor picks this up. The Yellow Submarine is available on video and on demand but there is nothing like the experience of watching a film like this in a theater. It will be sweet, delightful and I am sure also sad. No more John, no more George, no more Beatles. Boo hoo hoo. But there is always the music. I am also sure there will be massive sing-alongs of Beatles tunes from the soundtrack in theaters.  Eleanor Rigby, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, With A Little Help From My Friends, All You Need Is Love, Nowhere Man, When I’m Sixty-Four and many others.

Still on The Beatles. The group released the White Album in November 1968.  Although already on the point of breaking up, the group still managed to turn in 30 new songs, several of them masterpieces. Back In The U.S.S.R., Obladi-Oblada, Blackbird, I Will, Sexy Sadie, Julia, Birthday, Happiness Is A Warm Gun and one of the most beautiful Beatle recordings ever, the George Harrison composition, While My Guitar Gently Weeps.

More on 1968.  Some of the tunes playing on the radio, TV shows and jukeboxes at that time were: Hey Jude by the Beatles; Honey by Bobby Goldsboro; Mrs. Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel; Hello I Love You by The Doors; I Heard It Through The Grapevine by Marvin Gaye; Judy In Disguise (With Glasses) by John Fred & His Playboy Band; Love Is Blue by Paul Mauriat; Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay by Otis Redding; This Guy’s In Love With You by Herb Alpert; Little Green Apples by Bobby Russell.

By The Time I Get To Phoenix by Glen Campbell; Do You Know The Way To San Jose by Dionne Warwick; Light My Fire by Jose Feliciano; Walk Away Renee by The Four Tops; Mony Mony by Tommy James & The Shondells; The Look Of Love by Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66; MacArthur Park by Richard Harris; Yummy Yummy Yummy by The Ohio Express; I’ve Gotta Get A Message To You by The Bee Gees; and Both Sides Now by Judy Collins. 

The Pinoy’s favorite albums of the year were The Graduate, the motion picture soundtrack featuring the music of Simon & Garfunkel with The Sound Of Silence, Mrs. Robinson; Magical Mystery Tour, the soundtrack of a TV movie of the same title by The Beatles with A Fool On The Hill, Strawberry Fields Forever; Bookends also by Simon & Garfunkel with America, A Hazy Shade Of Winter; Waiting For The Sun by The Doors, with Hello I Love You; By The Time I Get To Phoenix by Glen Campbell; The Beat Of The Brass by Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass includes This Guy’s In Love With You; Blooming Hits by Paul Mauriat and his Orchestra with Love Is Blue; Beggar’s Banquet by The Rolling Stones with Sympathy For The Devil; and James Taylor by James Taylor with Carolina On My Mind. 

Hereabouts, things were happening that would soon translate into massive upheavals in the local music industry. As proof of her growing popularity, the name of the TV show Nora & Eddie Show, starring Jukebox King Eddie Peregrina and Nora Aunor, was changed into The Nora Aunor Show. The future Superstar also had a hit single, Moonlight Becomes You; Jose Mari Chan was recording his debut album Deep In My Heart; and two young guitarists, Wally Gonzales and Ed Fortuno, formed a rock group that they called The Juan de la Cruz Band. This would later include Mike Hanopol and Joey Smith.