| "Only a Northern Song" | |
|---|---|
 Cover of the Northern Songs sheet music (licensed to Sonora Musikförlag) | |
| Song by the Beatles | |
| from the album Yellow Submarine | |
| Released | 13 January 1969 |
| Recorded | 13–14 February and 20 April 1967 |
| Studio | EMI, London |
| Genre | Psychedelia |
| Length | 3:25 |
| Label | Apple |
| Songwriter(s) | George Harrison |
| Producer(s) | George Martin |
"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.
Harrison wrote "Only a Northern Song" out of dissatisfaction with his status as a junior songwriter with the Beatles' publishing company, Northern Songs. The lyrics and music convey his disenchantment at how the company retained the copyright for the songs it published, and at how, following its public listing in 1965, the major shareholders profited more from his compositions than he did. The recording features a Hammond organ, played by Harrison, and an overdubbed montage of assorted sounds including trumpet blasts and spoken voices, anticipating John Lennon's 1968 sound collage "Revolution 9". Due to the difficulty in assembling the completed track from two tape sources, "Only a Northern Song" remained a rare song from the Beatles' post-1963 catalogue that was unavailable in true stereo until 1999. That year, it was remixed for inclusion on the album Yellow Submarine Songtrack.
The song has received a varied response from reviewers; while Ian MacDonald dismisses the track as a "self-indulgent dirge",[1] the website Ultimate Classic Rock identifies it as one of the Beatles' best works in the psychedelic genre. A version of the song with a different vocal part, and omitting the sound collage overdubs, was issued on the Beatles' 1996 outtakes compilation Anthology 2. Gravenhurst and Yonder Mountain String Band are among the artists who have covered "Only a Northern Song".
- ^ MacDonald 2005, p. 236.