YELLOW SUBMARINE
Apple PMCO 7070 (MONO) / PCSO 7070 (STEREO)
FORMAT RELEASE DATE SIDE 1 MATRIX SIDE 2 MATRIX PARTS
MONO 23 Jan 1969 XEX 715-1 XEX 716-1 UK
STEREO 23 Jan 1969 YEX 715-1 YEX 716-1 UK
STEREO Apr 1981 YEX 715-2 OR YEX 716-2 OR AU
STEREO 24 Aug 1987 PCSO 7070 A-2 AP
MASTERED ON COPPER
PCSO 7070 B-2 AP
MASTERED ON COPPER
AU*
STEREO 14 Nov 1988 PCSO 7070D-A PCSO7070D-B AU
*Yellow vinyl pressing; mastered direct to copper
MATRIX INFORMATION

Machine Stamped - Hand Written
ORIGIN CODE CIRCULATED SLEEVE DETAILS
AUST A1 Jan 1969 Mono + stereo catalogue numbers; flipback sleeve
AUST A2 Dec 1969 Stereo catalogue number only; non-flipback sleeve
AUST A3 Nov 1988 "DIGITALLY REMASTERED" footer on rear cover
SLEEVE INFORMATION
APPLE - Mono
AU7070M1
23 Jan 1969
APPLE - Stereo
AU7070S1A
23 Jan 1969
NZ DK GREY 1-BOX
AU7070S3
1981
BLACK 1-BOX B
AU7070S2B
Jul 1987
BLACK 1-BOX A
AU7070S2A
Apr 1982
GENERAL ALBUM INFORMATION
As per the UK release, Yellow Submarine was the last Beatles album to be released in Australia in mono (not actually a unique mono mix but a 'fold-down' of the stereo tapes).

Bruce Hamlin's book, The Beatles Records in Australia, states that only around 1300 copies of the mono edition were sold in Australia. As sales of mono albums had dropped significantly relative to stereo albums, EMI (Australia) had commenced deleting mono records, where there was a stereo alternative, from December 1968. Despite having such a limited production run, at least two mono label variations of Yellow Submarine were published.

The Acceptance Sheet for the Australian Yellow Submarine specifies the use of Parlophone labels; an error that was picked-up and corrected prior to production. It seems that the New Zealand acceptance sheet also specified Parlophone labels but the error went unnoticed and first NZ pressings of Yellow Submarine went out with Parlophone labels - this was despite the fact that The Beatles had already been issued on the Apple label.

The Australian sleeve, while similar to the UK sleeve, has several distinctive differences:
1) A blue/green hill (UK = grey)
2) Font, colour and placement of the "NOTHING IS REAL" text, i.e. blue instead of green, and placed slightly more left.
3) The two 'Blue Meanies', at bottom-right, are grey instead of blue.
4) Rear-sleeve has one red horizontal line (reconstructed locally) and one black line (red on the UK sleeve).
5) Derek Taylor's italicised blurb is horizontally centred (at left on UK sleeve).

Upon its 'yellow vinyl' and CD reissue in August 1987, the album spent 7 weeks on the charts, reaching #53.

Sometime around early 1987, a number of sleeves were printed with an obvious printing error. On these sleeves the entire artwork, front and back, was shifted up about 1.5cm, resulting in John's arm and head being partially cut off and a white band across the bottom of the sleeve. The error did not appear on subsequent print runs.
PAGE LAST UPDATED: 30 DECEMBER 2022