Yellow Submarine is a 1966 song by The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon/McCartney), with lead vocals by Ringo Starr. It was included on the Revolver album and issued as a single, coupled with Eleanor Rigby. McCartney was living in Jane Asher's parents' house when he found the inspiration for the song: "I was laying in bed in the Ashers' garret. I was thinking of it as a song for Ringo, which it eventually turned out to be, so I wrote it as not too rangy in the vocal, then started making a story, sort of an ancient mariner, telling the young kids where he'd lived. It was pretty much my song as I recall...I think John helped out. The lyrics got more and more obscure as it goes on, but the chorus, melody, and verses are mine." In 1980, John Lennon talked about the song: "Yellow Submarine is Paul's baby. Donovan helped with the lyrics. I helped with the lyrics too. We virtually made the track come alive in the studio, but based on Paul's inspiration. Paul's idea. Paul's title... written for Ringo." Donovan added the words, "Sky of blue and sea of green". McCartney also said: "It's a happy place, that's all. You know, it was just... We were trying to write a children's song. That was the basic idea. And there's nothing more to be read into it than there is in the lyrics of any children's song." In the United States, the single reached #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1966, where it was held off #1 by The Supremes' You Can't Hurry Love. It sold 1,200,000 copies in four weeks and earned The Beatles their 21st U.S. Gold Record, beating the record set by Elvis Presley.
Though Eleanor Rigby was not the first pop song to deal with death and loneliness, it came as quite a shock to pop listeners in 1966. It took a bleak message of depression and desolation, written by a famous pop band, with a sombre, almost funeral-like backing, to the #11 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 in October 1966. The bleak lyrics were not The Beatles' first deviation from love songs but were some of the most explicit. With a double string quartet arrangement by George Martin and striking lyrics about loneliness, Eleanor Rigby continued the transformation of The Beatles from a mainly pop-oriented act to a more experimental studio-based band. McCartney said he came up with the name Eleanor from actress Eleanor Bron, who had starred with The Beatles in the film Help!. Rigby came from the name of a store in Bristol, Rigby & Evens Ltd, Wine & Spirit Shippers, that he noticed while seeing his then-girlfriend Jane Asher act in The Happiest Days Of Your Life. He recalled in 1984, "I just liked the name. I was looking for a name that sounded natural. Eleanor Rigby sounded natural." However, it has been pointed out that the graveyard of St. Peters Church in Liverpool, where John Lennon and Paul McCartney first met, contains the gravestone of an individual called Eleanor Rigby. Paul McCartney has admitted he may have been unconsciously influenced by the name on the gravestone.
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