Ringo Starr turns Octopus's Garden into a colourful children's book - complete with never-before-heard rendition of the song

Saturday, October 19, 2013

It is one of those popular Beatles songs that appeals across generations. Octopus's Garden, like Maxwell's Silver Hammer or Yellow Submarine, have the sort of merry tunes and simple lyrics that please music lovers from nursery to nursing home and all those in between.

When I play the song, from the 1969 Abbey Road album, to my three-year-old son Leo, the story-like lyrics captivate him. And now those lyrics, conjured up by Ringo Starr in 1968 while holidaying in Sardinia on Peter Sellers' yacht, have been turned into the words of a children's book. The children's fantasy journey sees them hide in giant whelk shells, swim with a blue whale and ride on the back of a fleet of turtles before joining the octopus in his garden and adorning him with jewels. The book comes with a CD featuring a reading by Ringo Starr and a never-before-heard version of the song.