"All Together Now" is a song by The Beatles written primarily by Paul McCartney^[1][2] and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song was recorded during the band's Magical Mystery Tour period, but remained unreleased until it was included on the Yellow Submarine soundtrack.^[3]

McCartney described the song as a children's sing-along with the title phrase inspired by the music hall tradition of asking the audience to join in.^[1] He also described a "subcurrent" in the song, a dual-meaning where "we are all together now."^[1] According to music critic Tom Maginnis of Allmusic, McCartney created the song "to match the same light-hearted spirit" of "Yellow Submarine".^[4] "Yellow Submarine", the song, was from the prior year, 1966.

This song was composed by McCartney for use in the worldwide telecast of the UK segment of "Our World" TV special. "All Together Now" appears in an animated sequence in the film Yellow Submarine, and is also introduced by the Beatles themselves in a final live-action scene of the film, during which translations of "All Together Now" into various languages appear written on-screen (likely a nod to its inception as part of the aforementioned international show segment).

Recording [link]

The track was recorded on 12 May 1967 at Abbey Road Studios and mixed the same day, but was not released until 13 January 1969, when it appeared on the soundtrack album.^[3] George Martin was absent from this session, leaving recording engineer Geoff Emerick in charge of the control room.^[5] The song took less than six hours to record and was recorded in nine takes, with the ninth one being the "best."^[5]

Personnel [link]

• Paul McCartney – lead vocals, bass guitar, handclaps
• John Lennon –double-tracked lead vocals (middle eight), ukulele, harmonica, handclaps
• George Harrison – backing vocals, acoustic guitar, handclaps
• Ringo Starr – backing vocals, drums, finger cymbals, handclaps

Personnel per Ian MacDonald^[3]

Mark Lewisohn reported that the "party-style" backing vocals were provided by "whoever happened to be around."^[5]

Cover versions [link]

"All Together Now" has been covered by various artists. Versions intended for children have been released by the Sugarbeats,^[6] the Bingo Kids^[7] and others.^[8][9]

A German group, Joy Unlimited, did a heavy funk-rock version that music critic Richie Unterberger of Allmusic described as "an oddball obscure Beatles' cover."

The Muppets covered the song as the final track for their 1994 album Kermit Unpigged.

Rapper/singer Andre 3000 of the duo OutKast covered it for inclusion in a Nike commercial that ran during the 2010 NBA Finals.

Kenny Loggins covered it on his 2009 album All Join In.

In 2011, Sprint began using versions of the song to promote its wireless services in the U.S. Portuguese mobile phone company Optimus has also used it this year as part of a new advertising campaign.

Tally Hall performed a cover of this in conjunction with Casey Shea and Speak as a planned encore at the 7th Street Entry stop on their Good & Evil tour.

See also [link]

• All Together Now, a feature-length documentary about the Cirque du Soleil project Love

Notes [link]

References [link]

External links [link]

• All Together Now on I Am The Beatles
• All Together Now on The Beatles Bible