"Hey Bulldog" is a song by the English rock bandthe Beatles released on their 1969 soundtrack albumYellow Submarine. Credited to Lennon–McCartney, but written primarily by John Lennon, it was finished in the recording studio by Lennon and McCartney. The song was recorded during the filming of the "Lady Madonna" promotional film, and, like "Lady Madonna", is one of the fewBeatles songs based on a piano riff. It had a working title of "She Can Talk To Me". For many years, "Hey Bulldog" was a relatively obscure and overlooked song in the Beatles' catalogue; it has since been reappraised by fans and a number of critics and musicians as one of the band's best rockers.
Overview
A few days before the recording session in 11 February 1968, Paul McCartney played drums on a Paul Jones rocker called "The Dog Presides", which had barking sound effects. During the Beatles recording, McCartney started to bark without warning. The next lines, initially written as "Hey Bullfrog" by Lennon, were changed mid-song to "Hey Bulldog", which became the song's title. Geoff Emerick, the Beatles' engineer, praised the Beatles' performance on the song. In his book Here, There and Everywhere, he writes: "Paul's bass line was probably the most inventive of any he'd done since Pepper, and it was really well played. Harrison's solo was sparkling, tooone of the few times that he nailed it right away. His amp was turned up really loud, and he used one of his new fuzz boxes, which made his guitar absolutely scream." During these sessions, a film crew photographed the Beatles recording the song at EMI's Abbey Road studios for a promotional film to be released during their scheduled four-month retreat to India. The song was used in a segment of the animated filmYellow Submarine. Initially, it appeared only in some European theatrical prints. It was cut from the American version by the movie's producer Al Brodax as he and the group felt the film was too long. It was restored for the film's 1999 re-release. To promote the reissue, Apple went back to the original footage shot for the "Lady Madonna" promo film and restructured it for use as a promotional clip for "Hey Bulldog". The 1999 clip was included in the three-disc versions of the Beatles' 2015 video compilation 1. McCartney spoke fondly of "Hey Bulldog" in 1994:
