Yesterday (song)

Lore & Background

According to biographers, the entire melody came to McCartney in a dream one night in his room at the Wimpole Street home of his then-girlfriend Jane Asher and her family. Upon waking, he hurried to a piano and played the tune to avoid forgetting it. Initially he was concerned 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.'

The working title was 'Scrambled Eggs', with placeholder lyrics. During the shooting of Help!, a piano was placed on one of the stages, and McCartney tinkered with the song, annoying director Richard Lester. The patience of the other Beatles was also tested; George Harrison summed this up when he said: 'Blimey, he's always talking about that song. Lennon later indicated the song had been around for months before completion, and that McCartney wrote nearly all of it.

Reader's Guide

"Yesterday" is significant as the Beatles' first solo performance, featuring only McCartney's vocal and acoustic guitar, together with a string quartet. 1 pop song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone magazine the following year. Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) asserts that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century. The final recording was so different from other works by the Beatles that the band members vetoed its release as a single in the United Kingdom, though other artists quickly recorded versions for single release. The Beatles' recording was issued in the U.K. The song's composition, with a seven-bar main melody and use of secondary dominants, has been noted for its melancholic aura and stylistic hybridity.

Did You Know?

• The working title of 'Yesterday' was 'Scrambled Eggs'.
• McCartney initially feared he had subconsciously plagiarised the melody and asked people in the music business if they had heard it before.
• The song was offered as a demo to Chris Farlowe before the Beatles recorded it, but he turned it down as he considered it 'too soft'.

The Dream and the Scrambled Eggs Era

The melody arrived fully formed in a dream while McCartney was staying at the Wimpole Street home of his then-girlfriend Jane Asher and her family. He rushed to a piano upon waking to capture the tune before it slipped away. Yet for roughly a month, he was consumed by anxiety that he had unconsciously lifted the melody from someone else's work, going around the music industry asking people if they recognized it—describing the process as akin to handing something in to the police. Once he was satisfied no one claimed it, he turned to lyrics. Following the Lennon-McCartney habit of using placeholder words, the working title became "Scrambled Eggs," with a throwaway opening verse about loving scrambled eggs. The song lingered in the band's sessions for months, becoming a running joke. During the filming of Help!, McCartney would tinker with it on a piano placed on set, much to the frustration of director Richard Lester, who threatened to have the instrument removed, and George Harrison quipped that McCartney talked about it as though he were Beethoven.

A Solo Voice in a Band of Four

What makes the track remarkable is that McCartney is the only Beatle to appear on it. His vocal and acoustic guitar, backed by a string quartet, constituted essentially the band's first solo performance—a stark departure from their usual ensemble sound. The result was so unlike anything the Beatles had previously released that the other members actually vetoed its issuance as a single in the United Kingdom. Ironically, other artists quickly recorded their own versions for single release while the Beatles' own recording sat on the album Help!

The Portugal Breakthrough and Finding the Title

McCartney recalled mulling over the tune and suddenly hearing one-word syllable openings—da-da da, yes-ter-day, sud-den-ly, fun-il-ly—and from there the rhyme scheme of "a" sounds (say, nay, today, away, play, stay) fell into place naturally.

A Legacy Measured in Millions of Performances

The song's cultural footprint is staggering. Interpretations of its meaning vary: it is commonly read as a melancholic ballad about lost love, though McCartney later suggested the line "I said something wrong" might stem from a childhood memory of mocking his mother for sounding "posh." The song's enduring popularity ensures it remains a touchstone of popular music, a piece that transcended its origins as a Beatles album track to become a global standard.