Hey Bulldog: Introduction
“Hey Bulldog” is a Beatles’ song which is on their 1968 soundtrack album, “Yellow Submarine”. It is also on their “Yellow Submarine Songtrack” album, too
In Detail
- Publisher: Northern Songs
- Release Date: January 13, 1969
- Recorded: February 11, 1968
- Studio: EMI Studios, London
- Genre: Psychedelic rock, pop rock, hard rock, acid rock
- Track Duration: 3:14
- Record Label: Apple
- Songwriters: Lennon-McCartney
- Producer: George Martin
- Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Performers And Instruments
- John Lennon: double-tracked vocal, piano, guitar, talking
- Paul McCartney: harmony vocal, bass, tambourine, barks, talking
- George Harrison: lead guitar
- Ringo Starr: drums, also spoken word
Where To Find “Hey Bulldog”
You can still buy this song on the following albums:
Hey Bulldog: Background
Written mostly by John Lennon but given a helping hand by Paul McCartney in the studio, it’s one of the few Beatles’ songs based on a piano riff.
“I remember [Hey Bulldog] as being one of John’s songs and I helped him finish it off in the studio, but it’s mainly his vibe. There’s a little rap at the end between John and I, we went into a crazy little thing at the end.
We always tried to make every song different because we figured, ‘Why write something like the last one? We’ve done that.’ We were on a ladder so there was never any sense of stepping down a rung or even staying on the same rung; it was better to move one rung ahead.”
Paul McCartney
The original song title started out as “Hey Bullfrog,” but this changed after Paul McCartney started to make some bark noises for no apparent reason. A few days earlier, McCartney played the drums on a Paul Jones song called “The Dog Presides.”
That song included dogs barking, so perhaps he was thinking about that at the time. Be that as it may, the title of the song changed midway through it with the consent of Lennon.
Recording Studio
The Beatles began recording “Hey Bulldog” on February 11, 1968, in Studio Three of the EMI Studios, London, during the 4.00 p.m.–2.00 a.m. session. They recorded 10 takes that day, with the last of those being suitable for the master copy. They overdubbed, mixed, and completed the song during the same session.
George Harrison was using a new fuzz box and his amp was full blast, making his guitar scream. Then, as the song ends, the band members ad-lib, thereby creating the crazy fade-out.
On the soundtrack album, the song is the fourth track on side one, between “All Together Now” and “It’s All Too Much” while on the songtrack album, it sits in second place in between “Yellow Submarine” and “Eleanor Rigby.”
“Hey Bulldog” features in a segment of the 1968 animated film “Yellow Submarine.“
Take A Listen
Finally, what do you think about this song?