Yesterday

One of my all-time favorite Beatles songs today... "Yesterday" is probably Paul's most famous song, and cemented his role as the Beatles' balladeer. 

There is a great deal of information available for this song--such as the fact it holds the Guinness world record for most covers (around 1,600 recorded versions) of any song ever written ever, or the fact it's been voted #1 song (of the 20th century, of all time, etc.) on multiple occasions, despite never having been released as a single in the UK. Reportedly, that last one was because, since the song was purely Paul's work, the other three Beatles vetoed allowing it to be released as an official single. (It finally was, however, in the UK in 1976.)

Paul was apparently inspired to write the music of the song in a dream. Waking up, he wrote the melody down quickly to avoid forgetting it, but initially feared he'd accidentally plagiarized it (cryptomnesia). After showing it around and establishing its originality, he was relieved. 

However, "Yesterday" wasn't the song's original title.

As Lennon and McCartney were known to do at the time, a substitute working lyric, entitled "Scrambled Eggs" (the working opening verse was "Scrambled Eggs/Oh, my baby how I love your legs"), was used for the song until something more suitable was written.

John, George and Ringo were very reluctant to let the song be included in their repertoire. They felt that since it featured only one Beatle (Paul was accompanied only by a string quartet), it didn't mesh well with the image they had constructed of "The Beatles". However, fans worldwide disagreed, and "Yesterday" was the most-played song on American radio for eight straight years. Not bad. :P

I personally love this song. It's sad, yet sweet, and has been the anthem for more than a few break-ups, I would imagine. Surprisingly, I haven't heard that many covers of the song--the only one I know I've heard was from the movie Bean. :P

Well, that's it for the song, and we're also done with Help!. I'll watch the movie ASAP and tell you what I thought. In the meantime, I'll see you tomorrow with a new song and a new album. :)

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Heard It Tally: 15
Songs Completed: 84