Only a Northern Song

"Only a Northern Song" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 soundtrack album Yellow Submarine. Written by George Harrison, it was the first of four songs the band provided for the 1968 animated film Yellow Submarine, to meet their contractual obligations to United Artists. The song was recorded mainly in February 1967, during the sessions for Sgt. [Wikipedia]

Only a Northern Song is a song by The Beatles, written by Harrison and led on vocal by George Harrison. George dig at Northern Songs publishing; recorded for Pepper, shelved. George Harrison's composition for Sgt Pepper arrived with a pointed title reflecting his contractual status: despite co-owning Apple, he held no share in Northern Songs Ltd, the publishing company co-owned by Dick James and the other three Beatles. The title's self-conscious wryness captured his frequent difficulty in finding names for his compositions, and the song ultimately found release not on Pepper but on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album in January 1969, years after its Pepper-era recording (Lewisohn 1988, p.97). Recorded for Sgt. Pepper in February 1967 but deemed unsuitable, the song was finally used for Yellow Submarine as part of the film's contractual requirement for previously unreleased or shelved material (Kozinn 1995, p.158, 167).

The session work falls within the band's Yellow Submarine (1969) period, recorded 13 Feb 1967 at EMI Studios. George Martin produced; Geoff Emerick (1967 sessions); George Martin orchestral score side B engineered. For session-by-session detail, see Mark Lewisohn's account on p.97 of The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions (excerpt below). The February 1967 session featured vocal and bass-guitar overdubs onto a previously recorded rhythm track from 8 February, with ADT applied to Lennon's lead vocal. Following a rough remix, the four-track tape underwent two reduction mixes, the second being selected as the master for future overdubbing that would not be attempted for nearly a month (Lewisohn 1988, p.97).

The studio strategy compensated for Lennon's reluctance to participate: Paul, Ringo, and George completed multiple takes of the backing track, with session effects proving critical to the recording's sonic character - a stark contrast to Harrison's later "Within You Without You" (Emerick 2006, p.433, 466, 502). The song signals how quickly McCartney and Harrison could shift creative roles; its dark texturing set it apart within Pepper's brighter aesthetic, ultimately destined for the Yellow Submarine cartoon as a shelved Pepper relic (MacDonald 1994, p.113).

In the canonical discography it appears on the LP Yellow Submarine. Documented alternate versions include 2009 Stereo Remasters. Mono and stereo histories vary by era — see the dedicated section below. George Harrison vocals appear in 28 canon songs (2 in Yellow Submarine era), making this among his primary vocal vehicles. The delayed release and eventual soundtrack placement exemplifies Beatles publishing complexity and the era's editorial selectivity regarding song usage (Lewisohn 1988, p.97).

• Writing for Billboard in 2001, Bill Holland grouped "Only a Northern Song" with the Byrds' "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" and early-1970s releases by the Kinks and Joni Mitchell, as songs that constitute the first wave of musical statements in which artists "accuse or indict their industr...
• As with most of the Beatles' post-Sgt.
• Pepper 1967 recordings, their contributions to Yellow Submarine have traditionally been held in low regard by the band's biographers. Mark Lewisohn describes the group's 20 April overdubs on "Only a Northern Song" as "a curious session" and writes that their work over this period "display[...
• In his book Psychedelia and Other Colours, Rob Chapman says that "Only a Northern Song" is one of the "most misunderstood and maligned" Beatles tracks, and that analyses such as MacDonald's miss "vital nuances", including a transcendent quality beyond Harrison's sarcasm over his publishing concerns...
• Chapman says it would have been a welcome companion to "Within You Without You" on Sgt.
• Among more recent reviews of Yellow Submarine, Peter Doggett, writing for Mojo, credits Harrison's two compositions with "[doing] much to rescue the album from oblivion", and he describes "Only a Northern Song" as "gloriously ironic".{{cite book|last=Doggett|first=Peter|year=...