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Yellow Submarine (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

by The Beatles

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The most dashed-off of the Beatles' records, Yellow Submarine doesn't have much to it: the goofy title track and "All You Need Is Love" are reprised from earlier discs, George Martin's trifle of a score to the animated Submarine feature takes up the second half, and that leaves just four relatively insubstantial new tracks. The Beatles' throwaways are anyone else's classics, though: "Hey Bulldog," the last song Lennon and McCartney wrote in full collaboration, has the instinctive urgency of their best work, Paul's singalong "All Together Now" is awfully cute, and more than one band has dedicated its career to trying to replicate what George's guitars are doing on his dazed, pulsing "It's All Too Much." --Douglas Wolk