Listen to Unearthed, Mellow “Yellow Submarine” Demo Sung by John Lennon

Earlier this month, Beatles fans got to listen to the band work out the song “Tomorrow Never Knows” from original Revolver takes.

Now, the latest unearthed offering from the former Mop Tops comes in the form of a mellow demo of the song “Yellow Submarine,” sung, not by Ringo Starr, but by John Lennon.

The offering comes from the new Revolver box set, a deluxe reissue of the 1966 album. That box set includes a myriad of demos, outtakes, and more, including the version of “Yellow Submarine,” which you can check out below. The teaser was released on Friday (October 21).

Of course, on Revolver, the song is sung in a goofy way by Starr, almost like a kid’s song. But here, Lennon sings the song in a more melancholy manner. In this version, Lennon sings over an acoustic guitar, offering the lyrics, In the place where I was born / No one cared, no one cared.

In a recent interview with USA Today, Starr talked about “Ringo Songs,” saying, “The boys used to write a song for me and they’d present whatever they thought would be good for me. They had this song and they decided to liven it up. I think Paul thought of [a yellow submarine]. It could have been in a green submarine, but a yellow submarine is much better. Or a deep purple submarine, that would have been like, ‘What are they talking about now?’ But, yeah, it was a Ringo song, like ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ was a Ringo song.”

Producer Giles Martin, son of Beatles producer George Martin, took the lead on the Revolver reissue, along with Sam Okell. Martin said of this demo, “I had no idea it existed. It was a complete discovery and I was surprised. One of the thrills I get when doing this is for people to experience the same thing I experience. Going through the cobwebs and finding the gold—that’s what I want to transfer to other people.”

Check out the rediscovered track below.

Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images