"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. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, but the Beatles chose not to include it on that album. The group completed the recording two months later, straight after finishing work on Sgt. Pepper.
A Hammond B3 organ. Along with "Within You Without You", "It's All Too Much" and "Blue Jay Way", "Only a Northern Song" was one of several compositions that Harrison wrote on a keyboard instrument during a period when he was otherwise immersed in studying the Indian sitar.
Harrison (right), with music journalist Veljko Despot, outside EMI Studios in February 1967
A still from the sequence for "Only a Northern Song"
Yellow Submarine is the tenth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles, released in January 1969. It is the soundtrack to the animated film of the same name, which premiered in London in July 1968. The album contains six songs by the Beatles, including four new songs and the previously released "Yellow Submarine" and "All You Need Is Love". The remainder of the album is a re-recording of selections from the film's orchestral soundtrack by the band's producer, George Martin.
Yellow Submarine (album)
