The Beatles: Yellow Submarine
[purchase]
In comments, someone requested this and it's not a bad choice at all. When it came to silliness in the recording studio, The Beatles were up there with the best of 'em. On Yellow Submarine, drummer Ringo Starr sings lead on a tune Paul McCartney wrote as a children's story. It climbed to #1 on the UK charts, #2 in the US.
The special effects included chains, a ship's bell, tap dancing mats, whistles, hooters, a tin bath filled with water, wind, thunderstorm machines, as well as a cash register that was later used on Pink Floyd's "Money". John Lennon blew through a straw into a pan of water to create a bubbling effect, he and McCartney talked through tin cans to create the sound of the captain's orders and Abbey Road assistant engineers John Skinner and Terry Condon twirled chains in a tin bath to create water sounds. After the line, "and the band begins to play", main engineer, Geoffrey Emerick, found a recording of a brass band and slightly changed it so it couldn't be identified, though it is thought to be a recording of Georges Krier and Charles Helmer's 1906 composition, Le Reve Passe. When the overdubs were finished, road manager Mal Evans strapped on a marching bass drum and led everybody in a line around the studio doing the conga dance while banging on a bass drum. The original recording had a spoken word intro by Starr, but later was edited out.
"I was laying in bed in the Jane Asher's garret... I was thinking of it as a song for Ringo, which it eventually turned out to be, so I wrote it as not too rangey in the vocal, then started making a story, sort of an ancient mariner, telling the young kids where he'd lived. It was pretty much my song as I recall... I think John helped out. The lyrics got more and more obscure as it goes on, but the chorus, melody and verses are mine. It's a happy place, that's all. You know, it was just... We were trying to write a children's song. That was the basic idea. And there's nothing more to be read into it than there is in the lyrics of any children's song." - Paul McCartney
Here's a remix that emphasizes the special effects along with a restoration of Ringo's spoken introduction:
The Beatles: Yellow Submarine
[purchase]
The other requested Beatle silly song, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, can be found as part of my recently posted collection of hand clapping songs: put your hands together...