Hey Bulldog

Following the wishes of the Beatles, manager Brian Epstein had made sure in early 1967 that their participation in the animated film Yellow Submarine would be minimal.  All that was required of the group was to give the producers four new songs to debut with the feature.  By the start of 1968, the film was nearing completion, yet only three original songs had been delivered for inclusion in the story.  Meanwhile, the Beatles were so happy with what they had seen of the film that they agreed to shoot a live action sequence for the end of the movie in January, even miming to McCartney's number All Together Now.

On February 11th, 1968, an opportunity presented itself to add a fourth song into the mix, late though it was.  The Beatles happened to be in the studio to shoot a promotional clip for their latest single Lady Madonna.  Rather than pretend to be playing that song, they chose to actually make a recording while being filmed.  And, for the occasion, Lennon had this fun little piano-based rocker which would end up serving both purposes.

It took ten takes to get the best backing track, with John on piano, George on guitar, Ringo on drums and Paul shaking two tambourines.  Moving on to overdubs, Paul played a bass line, George added a stinging electric guitar solo and Ringo played an additional drum part.  The highlight for the film crew featured John and Paul standing at a single microphone to record their vocals, which turned into a free for all during the extended fade out.  It was Paul's barking at this point that lead to the song's title becoming Hey Bulldog.  One final overdub saw John double-tracking his lead vocal in a few places.

Once this film was edited, it looked for all the world as if the group was actually recording Lady Madonna, even though John was seen playing piano instead of Paul.  It easily fooled everyone at the time.  Years later, in 1999, the footage was re-edited and matched back alongside Hey Bulldog to promote the re-release of Yellow Submarine on VHS and DVD.  Both of these promotional clips can be viewed in the collection 1+.

A sequence utilizing the song was added to the film Yellow Submarine, but British fans thought the movie was overlong, prompting the producers to cut the sequence before the film made its American premiere.  It has since been restored in subsequent re-releases of the feature.

As for the song itself, it was a highlight of the 1969 soundtrack album Yellow Submarine.  It was one of the few late-career songs featured on the 1976 compilation Rock and Roll Music.  And, naturally, it is on the 1999 Yellow Submarine Songtrack.  A rare treat is the mono version of the song, available only on The Beatles in Mono box set.