Yesterday

Yesterday is considered by many to be the most popular Beatles song ever. It has been covered by 2500 singers, from Elvis Presley to Frank Sinatra. The song speaks to one of the deepest and most universal of human conditions – love, loss, and the longing for happier days…

“Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away

Now it looks as though they’re here to stay

Oh, I believe in yesterday

Why she had to go, I don’t know,

She wouldn’t say

I said something wrong, now I long for yesterday…

Not too many know that the tune that would go on to become the most covered song in history began as something called “Scrambled Eggs” and had less than poetic lyrics. It also began in a dream that Paul McCartney had.

“It fell out of bed,” Paul McCartney once said about the origins of Yesterday. “I had a piano by my bedside, and I must have dreamed it, because I tumbled out of bed and put my hands on the piano keys, and I had the entire tune in my head. It was just all there, a complete thing. I couldn’t believe it. It came too easy.”

According to Rolling Stones magazine, the tune was so complete that Paul was sure he must have unconsciously plagiarized a melody he’d heard somewhere else. So, for months, he allowed the unpolished song to sit on the shelf, occasionally strumming a few bars for George Martin (the Beatles’ producer) or Ringo Starr and asking, “Is this like something you’ve heard before?”

McCartney finished the actual lyrics on a holiday with his girlfriend at the time, actress Jane Asher, creating a frank poem of regret that he has called “the most complete song I have ever written.”

Recording the song, however, was more challenging. After trying several different approaches, George Martin made an unorthodox suggestion. Instead of going with the usual three guitars and drums, how about using violins and cellos? Paul hated the idea, but Martin was persistent,

According to Paul, “We were a little embarrassed by it. We were, after all, a rock & roll band!”

But the Beatles eventually acquiesced. Yesterday shot to the top of the U.S. charts as soon as it was released. The rest, as they say, is history.

The story of Yesterday is fascinating on so many levels?— the mysterious origins of the melody, the length of time it took to complete it, and its incredible ongoing popularity.?What is truly interesting, though, is how a song the Beatles really were not sure about went on to become one of the most covered songs in musical history!

It’s often hard to tell what will work and what won’t. Let’s not be too quick to dismiss a new idea just because we aren’t too sure about it. Who’s to say it won’t turn out to be a hit?