Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 14, 17 June 1965
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith
Released: 6 August 1965 (UK), 13 September 1965 (US)
Paul McCartney: vocals, guitar
Tony Gilbert: violin
Sidney Sax: violin
Kenneth Essex: viola
Francisco Gabarro: cello
Available on:
Help!
1
Anthology 2
Love
Written by Paul McCartney, Yesterday holds the record as the most covered song in history, according to the Guinness Book of Records.
Well, we all know about Yesterday. I have had so much accoladde for Yesterday. That's Paul's song and Paul's baby. Well done. Beautiful - and I never wished I'd written it.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Paul McCartney is said to have composed the melody in a dream while staying at the family home of Jane Asher in Wimpole Street, London.
The melody came to McCartney fully-formed, although he was initially unsure of its originality.
I was living in a little flat at the top of a house and i had a piano by my bed. I woke up one morning with a tune in my head and I thought, 'Hey, I don't know this tune - or do I?' It was like a jazz melody. My dad used to know a lot of old jazz tunes; I thought maybe I'd just remembered it from the past. I went to the piano and found the chords to it, made sure I remembered it and then hawked it round to all my friends, asking what it was: 'Do you know this? It's a good little tune, but I couldn't have written it because I dreamt it.'
Anthology
The song's working title was Scrambled Eggs; its second line was "Oh my baby how I love your legs. George Martin claims to have first heard the song at the George V hotel in Paris in January 1964.
Paul said he wanted a one-word title and was considering Yesterday, except that he thought it was perhaps too corny. I persuaded him that it was all right.
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
If McCartney did compose Yesterday in early 1964, it would have been left off two Beatles albums before they recorded it. McCartney's authorised biographer Barry Miles put the date of composition at May 1965, during the filming of Help!, when he was known to have been experimenting with the song's lyrics.
We were shooting Help! in the studio for about four weeks. At some point during that period, we had a piano on one of the stages and he was playing this 'Scrambled Eggs' all the time. It got to the point where I said to him, 'If you play that bloody song any longer have the piano taken off stage. Either finish it or give up!'
A Hard Day's Write, Steve Turner
The Shadows' guitarist Bruce Welch recalled McCartney completing the lyrics in June 1965. McCartney took a holiday at Welch's Portuguese villa, where he is said to have settled on the title Yesterday.
I was packing to leave and Paul asked me if I had a guitar. He'd apparently been working on the lyrics as he drove to Albufeira from the airport at Lisbon. He borrowed my guitar and started playing the song we all now know as Yesterday.
A Hard Day's Write, Steve Turner
Although famously arranged for guitar and string quartet, McCartney considered having the BBC Radiophonic Workshop do a futuristic electronic version of Yesterday.
It occurred to me to have the BBC Radiophonic Workshop do the backing track to it and me just sing over an electronic quartet. I went down to see them... The woman who ran it was very nice and they had a little shed at the bottom of the garden where most of the work was done. I said, 'I'm into this sort of stuff.' I'd heard a lot about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, we'd all heard a lot about it. It would have been very interesting to do, but I never followed it up.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
In the studio
Initial recording for Yesterday took place on 14 June 1965, after the band completed I've Just Seen A Face and I'm Down. Paul McCartney recorded his guitar and vocals simultaneously in just two takes.
After attempting an unrecorded arrangement of Yesterday with John Lennon on Hammond organ, George Martin suggested to McCartney that they use a string quartet - a first for The Beatles.
McCartney was initially skeptical, and insisted the musicians perform without vibrato. McCartney and Martin worked on the score together, with the majority written by Martin.
Writing a song out with George Martin was nearly always the same process. For Yesterday he had said, 'Look, why don't you come round to my house tomorrow? I've got a piano, and I've got the manuscript paper. We'll sit down for an hour or so, and you can let me know what you're looking for'...He would say, 'This is the way to do the harmony, technically.' And I'd often try to go against that. I'd think, 'Well, why should there be a proper way to do it?'
Yesterday was typical. I remember suggesting the 7th that appears on the cello. George said, 'You definitely wouldn't have that in there. That would be very un-string-quartet. I said, 'Well? Whack it in, George. I've got to have it.'
Anthology
The strings were overdubbed on 17 June, and Paul attempted the vocals again. He didn't use headphones, and the original vocal track leaked from the studio speakers to the second recording, giving the impression of double-tracked singing.
The string players went uncredited on Help!, the album Yesterday first appeared on. Rather than being a regular quartet, the other players were recruited by violinist Tony Gilbert especially for the session.
Yesterday's legacy
The Beatles never allowed Yesterday to be released as a single in the UK, fearing that it would affect their image. The song did, however, become a part of the band's full live set during their 1966 world tour.
I wouldn't have put it out as a solo Paul McCartney record. We never entertained those ideas. It was sometimes tempting; people would flatter us: 'Oh, you know you should get out front,' or, 'You should put a solo record out. But we always said no. In fact, we didn't release Yesterday as a single in England at all, because we were a little embarrassed about it - we were a rock 'n' roll band.
Anthology
In 1980 John Lennon explained how he was often mistakenly credited with having written the song.
I go to restaurants and the groups always play Yesterday. Yoko and I even signed a guy's violin in Spain after he played us Yesterday. He couldn't understand that I didn't write the song. But I guess he couldn't have gone from table to table playing I Am The Walrus.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
In the same interview Lennon spoke of McCartney's skills as a lyricist.
A couple of lines he's come up with show indications he's a good lyricist, but he just never took it anywhere. He wrote the lyrics to Yesterday. Although the lyrics don't resolve into any sense, they're good lines. They certainly work. You know what I mean? They're good - but if you read the whole song, it doesn't say anything; you don't know what happened. She left and he wishes it was yesterday - that much you get - but it doesn't really resolve. So, mine didn't use to resolve, either...
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
Yesterday was issued as a US single in September 1966. Newspapers at the time commentated that "Paul McCartney is number one without the other Beatles". It swiftly became the most-played song on American radio, a position it held for eight consecutive years.
Since its release there have been over 3,000 cover versions of Yesterday.
Related articles:
- Recording, mixing: Yesterday, Act Naturally, Wait
- Recording: I've Just Seen A Face, I'm Down, Yesterday
- Got To Get You Into My Life
- Any Time At All
- The Beatles receive ten Grammy Awards nominations
Opposing to 'lemmon juice', here comes the master piece from the 'pure oil'. Despite it came from a dream, only a genious mind could make such a beautiful song and lyrics full of love and memories. Fabulous.
Apparently, at one point, these were the complete working lyrics:
http://www.futilitycloset.com/2005/10/11/original-lyrics-for-yesterday/
That's actually an April Fools myth, based on a non-existent book purportedly by Jane Asher called Things He Said Today. Scroll to the bottom of this page for the source: http://www.beatlesagain.com/barchive/yesterdy.html
I always hear the lyrics as being about the death of Paul's mother. She died "suddenly" of breast cancer and when told by his father that she had died, Paul replied"what are we going to do without her money". She was a nurse who earned more than Paul's dad. Paul said he always regretted that remark and his brother Michael says Paul left the kitchen crying. Paul was 13 at the time and kids make remarks like that to deflect the shock and pain. But this explains the lines in Yesterday:
"Why she had to go/ I don't know she wouldn't say/ I said something wrong / now I long for yesterday". In most situations people say something wrong first and then the person leaves. In this case Paul's mom never said goodbye or even explained her illness. She simply died suddenly and then Paul made the remark that he long regretted. Her death left a shadow over his life. A very powerful confessional lyric from Paul in 1965(10 years after her death). Paul does not explain this publicly because yesterday is so accepted as a love song. It might be seen differently as a song about a mother dying. To me though it makes the song and the melody more poignant.
Yes, Masterpiece blah blah blah...
I'm sorry, this tune is #1 on the Most Whiny Song Ever list. For fun, try singing it while `fake-crying' and you'll see what I mean.
Funny song when you break down the lyrics. The protagonist of the song is totally clueless as to exactly why his girl left him, claiming she wouldn't tell him ("Why she had to go, I don't know, she wouldn't say.."). He does, however, know it was because of something he said ("I said something wrong..."). He has no clue as to what, exactly, he uttered that caused her to leave (how could he possibly not know?!). Finally, he whines about it, crying that, without her, he's not "half the man I used to be." Boy, this guy really needs to grow a pair!