Harrison's contract with James had expired in March 1968, the copyright for "Only a Northern Song" and his second contribution to the film, "It's All Too Much", remained with Northern Songs rather than being assigned to Harrisongs as his four White Album compositions had been. The song's release coincided with a period of acrimony between Dick James and the Beatles, particularly Lennon and McCartney, about whom Lewisohn writes: "If John and Paul still thought they owned their songs [following the flotation of Northern Songs] they were deluding themselves." In March 1969, having become wary of the disharmony within the band and the problems affecting their Apple Corps business empire, James sold his majority shareholding in Northern Songs to Lew Grade's ATV Music, thereby selling on the ownership of the Beatles catalogue. In a contemporary review of Yellow Submarine, Beat Instrumental lamented that it offered little new material by the band, but described "Only a Northern Song" and "It's All Too Much" as "superb pieces" that "redeem" side one. Record Mirrors reviewer said that whereas most of the songs were "simple Beatles stuff", "Only a Northern Song" appeared to be a "technical experiment in how many off-key variations on a solid background tune one can get in, [while] still maintaining a reasonable amount of finesse – and it comes off very well". Recalling the release in his 1977 book The Beatles Forever, however, Nicholas Schaffner dismissed the track as one of the "trifling baubles" the Beatles provided for the film. While adhering to Brodax's account of the song's creation, NME critic Bob Woffinden found "considerable merit" in "Only a Northern Song", and said that Harrison's divergence from his usual, methodical approach to songwriting was one he should pursue more often. In January 1996, the song was issued as the B-side to "It's All Too Much" on a blue-vinyl jukebox single, as part of a series of Beatles releases by Capitol Records' CEMA Special Markets division. By 1999, "Only a Northern Song" remained one of only two post-1963 Beatles songs not to have been made available in true stereo (the other being "You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)"). That year, a stereo version became available when the track was remixed for inclusion on the album Yellow Submarine Songtrack, which accompanied the re-release of the animated film. Harrison was the most active of the former Beatles in promoting the 1999 reissue,