John and George, with their wives and Patti Boyd's sister Jenny, flew out to India on February 15th, 1968, possibly never to return. Paul and Ringo flew out four days later. In their absence, the powers-that-be insisted that they record a single to be released while they were away so as to keep them in the charts and satisfy their fans.
Four recording sessions took place in early February to accomplish this, the result being the single “Lady Madonna” backed with “The Inner Light,” another track composed by John, “Across The Universe,” being put to tape as well. Then, on February 11th, four days before John and George's departure, The Beatles entered the recording studio again for the purpose of shooting a promo film for “Lady Madonna.”
However, John had just written another song, with a slight bit of help from Paul, which ended up being called “Hey Bulldog,” and they decided to use this studio time to record this new song, with the camera crew filming their every move.
Four days later, John and George were off to India.
If John had never returned, “Hey Bulldog” could possibly have been the last John Lennon composition The Beatles had ever recorded, or maybe even the very last Beatles song ever.
"They wanted another song, so I knocked off 'Hey Bulldog,'" Lennon stated in 1980, adding: "It's a good-sounding record that means nothing." With four new songs required by them for the soundtrack to the animated movie "Yellow Submarine,"However, the title of the song apparently was not chosen until the day of its recording. The word “bullfrog” is in the lyrics, but “hey bulldog” is only repeated at the end of the recording after Paul decided to bark like a dog during their vocal overdub, both of them singing into the same microphone.
In his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” engineer Geoff Emerick describes the events of this session. “Even though it was destined to be given to the 'Yellow Submarine' film, 'Hey Bulldog' was a really strong song. The vibe that day was great – all four Beatles were in an exceptionally good mood because they knew they would be heading to India in a matter of days.
