"All Together Now"

"All Together Now" is a song by The Beatles. The songwriting credit is Lennon/McCartney. The song was recorded during the band's Sgt. Pepper period, but remained unreleased until the track was included on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack by Apple Records.

Origins

Lennon and McCartney had no qualms about writing children's songs, and "All Together Now" typifies the kind of song sung in the school playground by girls in games with a skipping rope. The lyrics of the song are very simple, and similar to "Yellow Submarine" in that regard.

The song appears in an animated sequence in the film Yellow Submarine, and is also introduced by The Beatles themselves in a postscript to the film.

Recording

The song was performed in a skiffle style with acoustic guitar with bass and a bass drum. Banjo, harmonica and finger cymbals were added to the instrumental mix. McCartney sang the lead vocal while Lennon and George Harrison sang backing vocals and a chorus consisting of whoever appears in the studio. As with the song "Yellow Submarine," Harrison provides no guitar to the track, instead adding harmonica. Lennon, unusually, plays banjo. The song ends with an old fashioned hand-pumped car horn.

The track was recorded on 12 May 1967 at Abbey Road Studios and mixed the same day, but was not released until 13 January 1969, when it appeared on the soundtrack album. George Martin was absent from this session, leaving Geoff Emerick in charge of the control room.The song took less than six hours to record and was recorded in nine takes, with the ninth one being the "best."

Personnel

Paul McCartney: Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar

John Lennon: Ukulele, Harmonica, Double-Tracked Lead Vocals, Chorus Vocals.

George Harrison: Bass Guitar, Harmonica, Chorus Vocals.

Ringo Starr: Drums, Percussion, Chorus Vocals.

Cultural legacy

Football fans in the UK have sung the song during football matches. Verizon Wireless used the song in commercials in 2002.

The title All Together Now was also used for a discography of Beatle-related records written by Harry Castleman and Walter Podrazik, and published by Pierian Press in 1975.

The song is the final track in the 1995 Muppet album, Kermit Unpigged, where Kermit the Frog finally manages to get his friends together to sing the song.

The documentary DVD of the Cirque du Soleil show Love is titled All Together Now.

Album: Yellow Submarine (1969), Yellow Submarine Songtrack (1999)
Released: 13 January 1969 (US), 17 January 1969 (UK)
Recorded: Abbey Road Studios, 12 May 1967
Genre: Skiffle
Length: 2:10
Label: Apple Records
Writer: Lennon/McCartney
Producer: George Martin

Wikipedia