Yesterday (song)

The song "Yesterday" by Paul McCartney was originally recorded by The Beatles for their album Help! in 1965. According to the Guinness Book of Records, "Yesterday" has the most cover versions of any song ever written, while BMI asserts that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century alone. The song remains popular today with more than 3000 recorded cover versions, the first hitting the United Kingdom top 10 three months after the release of Help!.

"Yesterday" was the first official recording by The Beatles that relied upon a performance by a single member of the band, although the background accompaniment of a string quartet was added a few days later during the editing stage. It is a ballad about lost love and differed greatly from other works by the Beatles, leading the other three members of the band to veto the song's release as a single in the United Kingdom. Although written solely by McCartney, due to a prior agreement with Lennon, suggested by the Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, the song was credited to both himself and John Lennon as "Lennon/McCartney". McCartney later attempted to have the credit changed to "Paul McCartney and John Lennon" for his live album, Back in the World, but backed down in the face of protests from Beatles fans and Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono. [1] (http://www.triumphpc.com/mersey-beat/beatles/lennon-mccartney.shtml)

Origins

According to biographers of McCartney and the Beatles, McCartney composed the entire song in a dream one night at the London flat in Wimpole Street belonging to his then girlfriend, Jane Asher. Upon waking, he hurried to a piano, turned on a tape recorder, and played the tune to avoid letting it slip into the recesses of his mind.

McCartney's initial concern was that he had subconsciously plagiarised someone else's work. As he put it, "For about a month I went round to people in the music business and asked them whether they had ever heard it before. Eventually it became like handing something in to the police. I thought if no-one claimed it after a few weeks then I could have it".

Upon being convinced that he had not robbed anybody of his melody, McCartney began hammering out lyrics to suit it. As the Beatles were known to do at the time, a substitute working lyric, entitled "Scrambled Eggs", was used for the song until something more suitable was written:

   Scrambled Eggs,
   Have an omelette with some Muenster cheese,
   Put your dishes in the washbin please,
   So I can clean the scrambled eggs.

   Join me, do,
   There's a lot of eggs for me and you,
   I've got ham and cheese and bacon too,
   So go get two and join me do.

   Fried or sunny side,
   Just aren't right,
   The mix-bowl begs,
   Quick, go get a pan, and we'll scramble up some eggs, eggs, eggs, eggs.

   Scrambled eggs,
   Good for breakfast, dinner time or brunch,
   Don't buy six or twelve, buy a bunch,
   And we'll have a lunch on scrambled eggs.

A common, mythical variation on this lyric often found is "Scrambled eggs / Oh my darling you've got lovely legs". Jane Asher makes a reference to this in her book Things He Said Today: "Don't believe that part about 'how I loved your legs.' That's bunk. My legs are horrid."

During the shooting of Help! (the movie), a piano was placed on one of the stages where filming was being conducted. McCartney would take advantage of this opportunity to perform "Scrambled Eggs" accompanied by the piano. Richard Lester was greatly annoyed by this, and eventually lost his temper, telling McCartney to finish writing the song, or he would have the piano removed.

McCartney originally claimed he had written "Yesterday" during the Beatles' tour of France in 1964; however, the song was not released until the summer of 1965. During the intervening time, the Beatles released two albums, Beatles For Sale and A Hard Day's Night, both of which could have included "Yesterday". Although McCartney has never elaborated his claims, it is likely that the reason for such a long delay, if it existed, was a disagreement between McCartney and George Martin regarding the song's arrangement, or, equally likely, the distaste of the other Beatles for the song.

Lennon later indicated that the song had been around for a while before: "The song was around for months and months before we finally completed it. Every time we got together to write songs for a recording session, this one would come up. We almost had it finished. Paul wrote nearly all of it, but we just couldn't find the right title. We called it 'Scrambled Eggs' and it became a joke between us. We made up our minds that only a one-word title would suit, we just couldn't find the right one. Then one morning Paul woke up and the song and the title were both there, completed. I was sorry in a way, we'd had so many laughs about it."

In July 2003, British musicologists stumbled upon remarkable similarities between the lyric and rhyming schemes of "Yesterday" and Nat King Cole's "Answer Me", leading to speculation that McCartney had been influenced by the song. [2] (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/3050614.stm) Others speculate that McCartney may have subconsciously based "Yesterday" on Ray Charles' version of "Georgia On My Mind". [3] (http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/VOLUME05/Oldsweetsongs.html)

The release

While on holiday in Portugal at The Villa of Shadows in June 1965, McCartney completed the finishing touches on the lyric, which touched upon the death of his mother. Two days after returning home, the track was laid down at Abbey Road Studios on the 14th and 17th June 1965. There are conflicting accounts of how the song was recorded, the most quoted one being that McCartney recorded the song by himself, without bothering to involve the other band members. Alternative sources, however, state that McCartney and the other Beatles tried a variety of instruments, including drums and an organ, and that George Martin later persuaded them to allow McCartney to play his acoustic guitar, later on editing in a string quartet for backup.

Although McCartney had fallen in love with the song, he had a much harder time convincing the other members of the band that it was worthy of an album place, the main objection being that it did not fit in with their image, especially considering that "Yesterday" was extremely unlike other Beatles' songs at the time. This feeling was so strong that John, George and Ringo refused to permit the release of a single in the United Kingdom. This did not prevent Matt Monro from recording the first of many cover versions of "Yesterday" to come — his version made it into the top ten in the UK charts soon after its release in the autumn of 1965.

In America, the Beatles' influence on their record label, Capitol, was not as strong. A single was released there, pairing "Yesterday" with "Act Naturally" on Side B. The single was charting by 29 September 1965, and topped the charts for a full month, beginning on October 9. The song spent a remarkable total of 11 weeks in the American charts, selling a million copies within five weeks. Notably, "Yesterday" was the most-played song on American radio for eight consecutive years, its popularity refusing to abate.

On March 4 1966, "Yesterday" was released as an EP in America, joined by "Act Naturally" on Side A, as well as Can't Buy Me Love / I Feel Fine on Side B. By 12 March it had begun its run on the charts. On March 26 1966, the EP went to number one, a position it held for two months.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom, Help! debuted at number one on August 14 1965 (the first album in history to do so), and continued to top the charts for nine weeks. McCartney also used "Yesterday" for vengeance – a couple of years earlier, the mother of his ex-girlfriend, Iris Caldwell, accused McCartney of having no feelings. McCartney phoned her and said, "You know that you said I had no feelings? Watch telly on Sunday and then tell me I've got no feelings." The following Sunday, the Beatles appeared on "Blackpool Night Out" on BBC, and performed "Yesterday" live for the first time.

On March 8, 1976, "Yesterday" was released by Parlophone as a single in the United Kingdom, featuring "I Should Have Known Better" on Side B. Entering the charts on March 13, the single stayed there for seven weeks, but it never rose higher than number 8 in the charts. The release actually came about due to the expiration of the Beatles' contract with EMI, Parlophone's parent. EMI released as many singles by the Beatles as they could on the same day, leading to 23 of them hitting the top 100 in the United Kingdom charts, including no less than six in the top 50.

Awards, accolades and brickbats

"Yesterday" has achieved recognition as being the most recorded song in the history of popular music; its entry in the Guinness Book of Records suggests over 3000 different cover versions to date, by an eclectic mix of artists including Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Wet Wet Wet, Plácido Domingo, and Boyz II Men. Astonishingly, "Yesterday" laid claim to this record only two years after its release in 1965.

It won an Ivor Novello Award for the 'Outstanding Song of 1965', and came second in their award for 'Most Performed Work of the Year', ironically losing out to another McCartney composition, "Michelle".

The song has received its fair share of acclaim in recent times as well. MTV and Rolling Stone magazine have both declared "Yesterday" to be the greatest song since 1963. In 1999, BMI placed "Yesterday" third on their list of most performed songs of the 20th century, with approximately seven million performances. "Yesterday" was surpassed only by The Association's "Never My Love" and the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Loving Feeling".

"Yesterday" has also received its own share of derisive comments. Bob Dylan had a marked dislike for the song, stating that "If you go into the Library of Congress, you can find a lot better than that. There are millions of songs like 'Michelle' and 'Yesterday' written in Tin Pan Alley". Ironically, Dylan recorded his own version of "Yesterday" four years later, but it was never released.

John Lennon himself snubbed "Yesterday" in "How Do You Sleep?", a song on his Imagine album, released a few years after the Beatles broke up. Lennon tells McCartney "The only thing you done was yesterday / and since you're gone you're just another day", just one of several condescending comments in the song. Lennon also did a humorous take of the song while recording in the mid-70s, where he altered the lines, "Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be, there's a shadow hanging over me" to "Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be, 'cause now I'm an amputee". The 30 second clip was later released on the John Lennon Anthology in 1998.

Melody and lyric

The tonic key of the song is F major, where the song begins, before veering off into the relative minor key of D. It is this frequent use of the minor, and the dominant A seventh chord leading into it, that gives the song its melancholy aura. The string arrangement also adds to this feeling, especially in the groaning cello melody that connects the two halves of the bridge (on the line, "I don't know / she wouldn't say") as well as the descending line by the violin that segues the chorus back into the verses. This simple idea is so striking, McCartney mimics it with his vocal on the second pass of the chorus.

As stated before, McCartney modified the original nonsensical lyric about breakfast to cover a much more sombre topic and fit the reflective melody. Although the lyric is rather vague, it could be interpreted to reveal sadness about a lost loved one. When the song was written, the lyric was considered unusual for a McCartney composition. Until then, the majority of McCartney's songs had been positive and upbeat; Lennon was considered the Beatle with the more introspective and sad lyrics. A sample of the song is available.

References

• beatles-discography.com's information on the Beatles' American singles (http://www.beatles-discography.com/beatles_american_singles.html). Retrieved Dec. 9, 2004.
• beatles-discography.com's information on the Beatles' British singles (http://www.beatles-discography.com/beatles_british_singles.html). Retrieved Dec. 9, 2004.
• beatles-discography.com's information on the Beatles' songs beginning with 'Y' (http://www.beatles-discography.com/y.html). Retrieved Dec. 9, 2004.
• BMI's list of the 20th century's 100 most-performed songs (http://www.bmi.com/awards/1999/top100.asp). Retrieved Dec. 9, 2004.
• Mallick, Heather (Nov. 22, 2000). Past Perfect (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/series/songs/RVMALL.html). The Globe and Mail.

External links

• Alan Pollack's analysis of "Yesterday" (http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/y.html)
• Allmusic.com's review of "Yesterday" (http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=33:qsjn7ip6g77r)
• Song lyrics and trivia (http://www.stevesbeatles.com/songs/yesterday.asp)

		Missing image Jk_beatles_paul.jpg Paul McCartney	The Beatles
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