The
Beatles
"Yesterday"
"Yesterday" is an acoustic ballad written by Paul McCartney, one of
The Beatles. The lyrics tell the tale of a man who has just broken
up in a relationship, and longs to go back to the way things were
"yesterday". It is one of the Beatles' most popular songs. The
first official recording by The Beatles only consisted of Paul
accompanied by a string quartet. Although written by only Paul, it
is accredited to both Paul and John Lennon.
Inspired
by a dream
According to biographers, Paul thought up the melody for this song
in a dream. When he woke up, he rushed to a piano, put his tape
recorder on, and played the tune so he wouldn't forget the melody.
This song seemed so familiar to him, he became paranoid that this
was already an existing song. He said:
"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."
Scrambled
Eggs
The tune was there, but the lyrics weren't. Paul actually called
this song "Scrambled Eggs", and his original lyrics were:
""Scrambled eggs, Oh, baby how I love your legs."
While The Beatles were shooting their movie Help!, Paul
would play on the piano, trying to think of the lyrics to go along
with this melody. The movie director, Richard Lester, was so
annoyed by this he threatened to remove the piano if he didn't
finish writing the song. The lyrics finally came to him when he
went on a trip to Portugal in 1965.
What did the other Beatles think of his song?
Paul loved his new song, but the other Beatles felt it was too different from their current songs. He had a hard time convincing them to even put it on the album because it didn't fit in with their image. The other Beatles even refused to release it as a single in the U.K.
The United States label, Capitol Records, had more control over record decisions, so "Yesterday" was released as the B-side of the single "Act Naturally". It became extremely successful - the song spent 11 weeks on the American charts and sold a million copies in five weeks. "Yesterday" became the mostplayed song on American radio for eight consecutive years. 11 years later the British record label released "Yesterday" in the U.K.
Legacy"Yesterday" is the most recorded song in pop music - the Guinness Book of Records claims there are over 3000 covers to date. It has been covered by many artists. One popular version is a mashup of the rock band Linkin Park, rapper Jay-Z and the original songwriter Paul McCartney singing their songs together at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Click on the artist's name to see their versions:
- Jay-Z, Linkin Park and Paul McCartney ("Encore" / "Numb" / "Yesterday")
- Gladys Knight and the Pips
- Elvis Presley
- Ray Charles
- Boyz II Men (a cappella)
- Frank Sinatra
- Dandy Livingstone (reggae version)
- The Supremes
Photo Credits
Wikipedia
slagheap
MTV
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