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Yesterday (song)
Encyclopedia
"Yesterday" is a song originally recorded by The Beatles
for their 1965 album Help!
. The song first hit the United Kingdom top 10 three months after the release of Help!. The song remains popular today with more than 1,600 cover version
s, one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music. The song was not released as a single in the United Kingdom at the time of its release in the United States, and thus never gained number 1 single status in that country. However, "Yesterday" was voted the best song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2
poll of music experts and listeners. In 2000, "Yesterday" was voted the #1 Pop song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone magazine. In 1997, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Broadcast Music Incorporated
(BMI) asserts that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century alone.
"Yesterday" is a melancholy acoustic guitar
ballad
about a break-up
. It was the first official recording by The Beatles that relied upon a performance by a single member of the band, Paul McCartney
. He was accompanied
by a string quartet
. The final recording was so different from other works by The Beatles that the other three band members vetoed the release of the song as a single in the United Kingdom. (However, it was issued as a single there in 1976.) Although credited to "Lennon/McCartney
", the song was written solely by McCartney. In 2002 McCartney asked Yoko Ono
if she would allow reversing the credit on the song to read "McCartney/Lennon". Ono refused.
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.
McCartney's initial concern was that he had subconsciously plagiarised
someone else's work (known as cryptomnesia
). 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."
Upon being convinced that he had not robbed anyone of his melody, McCartney began writing lyrics
to suit it. As Lennon and McCartney were known to do at the time, a substitute working lyric, titled "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. In his biography, Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, McCartney recalled: "So first of all I checked this melody out, and people said to me, 'No, it's lovely, and I'm sure it's all yours.' It took me a little while to allow myself to claim it, but then like a prospector I finally staked my claim; stuck a little sign on it and said, 'Okay, it's mine!' It had no words. I used to call it 'Scrambled Eggs'."
During the shooting of Help!
, a piano was placed on one of the stages where filming was being conducted and McCartney would take advantage of this opportunity to tinker with the song. Richard Lester
, the director, was eventually greatly annoyed by this and lost his temper, telling McCartney to finish writing the song or he would have the piano removed. The patience of the other Beatles was also tested by McCartney's work in progress, George Harrison summing this up when he said: "Blimey, he's always talking about that song. You'd think he was Beethoven or somebody!"
McCartney originally claimed he had written "Yesterday" during the Beatles' tour of France in 1964; however, the song was not released until the summer of 1965. During the intervening time, The Beatles released two albums, A Hard Day's Night
and Beatles for Sale
, both of which could have included "Yesterday". Although McCartney has never elaborated his claims, a delay may have been due to a disagreement between McCartney and George Martin
regarding the song's arrangement, or the opinion of the other Beatles who felt it did not suit their image.
Lennon later indicated that the song had been around for a while before:
McCartney said the breakthrough with the lyrics came during a trip to Portugal
in May 1965:
On 27 May 1965, McCartney and Asher flew to Lisbon
for a holiday in Albufeira
, Algarve, and he borrowed an acoustic guitar from Bruce Welch
, in whose house they were staying, and completed the work on "Yesterday". The song was offered as a demo to Chris Farlowe
prior to The Beatles recording it, but he turned it down as he considered it "too soft".
on 14 June 1965, immediately following the taping of "I'm Down
," and four days before McCartney's 23rd birthday. There are conflicting accounts of how the song was recorded, the most quoted one being that McCartney recorded the song by himself, without bothering to involve the other band members. Alternative sources, however, state that McCartney and the other Beatles tried a variety of instruments, including drums
and an organ
, and that George Martin later persuaded them to allow McCartney to play his Epiphone Texan
steel-string acoustic guitar
, later on editing-in a string quartet for backup. Regardless, none of the other band members were included in the final recording. However, the song was played with the other members of the band in concert during 1966, in G major instead of F major.
McCartney performed two take
s of "Yesterday" on 14 June 1965. Take 2 was deemed better and used as the master
take. A string quartet was overdubbed
on take 2 and that version was released. Take 1, without the string overdub, was later released on the Anthology 2
compilation. On take 1, McCartney can be heard giving chord changes to George Harrison
before starting, but George does not appear to actually play. Take 2 had two lines transposed from the first take: "There's a shadow hanging over me"/"I'm not half the man I used to be", though it seems clear that their order in take 2 was the correct one, because McCartney can be heard, in take 1, suppressing a laugh at his mistake.
George Martin later said:
steel-string acoustic guitar
backed by a string quartet
in one of the Beatles' first use of session musicians, "Yesterday" has two contrasting sections, differing in melody and rhythm, producing a sense of disjunction.
The first section ("Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away...") opens with an F chord
(the 3rd of the chord is omitted, so although it sounds major the major tonality is only implied), then moving to Em7 before resolving to A7 and then to D-minor. In this sense, the opening chord is a decoy; as musicologist Alan Pollack points out, the home key (F-major) has little time to establish itself before "heading towards the relative D-minor." He points out that this diversion is a compositional device commonly used by Lennon and McCartney, which he describes as "delayed gratification".
The second section ("Why she had to go I don't know...") is, according to Pollack, less musically surprising on paper than it sounds. Starting with Em7, the harmonic progression quickly moves through the A-major, D-minor, and (closer to F-major) B, before resolving back to F-major, and at the end of this, McCartney holds F while the strings descend to resolve to the home key to introduce the restatement of the first section, before a brief hummed closing phrase.
Pollack described the scoring as "truly inspired", citing it as an example of "[Lennon & McCartney's] flair for creating stylistic hybrids"; in particular, he praises the "ironic tension drawn between the schmaltzy content of what is played by the quartet and the restrained, spare nature of the medium in which it is played."
The tonic key
of the song is F major (although, since McCartney tuned his guitar down a whole step, he was playing the chords as if it were in G), where the song begins before veering off into the key of D minor. It is this frequent use of the minor, and the ii-V7 chord progression
(Em and A7 chords in this case) leading into it, that gives the song its melancholy aura. The A7 chord is an example of a secondary dominant
, specifically a V/vi chord. The G7 chord in the bridge is another secondary dominant, in this case a V/V chord, but rather than resolve
it to the expected chord, as with the A7 to Dm in the verse, McCartney instead follows it with the IV chord, a B. This motion creates a descending chromatic line of C–B–B–A to accompany the title lyric.
The string arrangement reinforces the song's air of sadness, in the groaning cello
line that connects the two halves of the bridge
, notably the "blue
" seventh in the second bridge pass (the E played after the vocal line, "I don't know / she wouldn't say") and in the descending run by the viola
that segues the bridge back into the verses, mimicked by McCartney's vocal on the second pass of the bridge. This viola line and the high A sustained by the violin
over the final verse are the only elements of the string arrangement attributable to McCartney rather than George Martin.
When the song was performed on The Ed Sullivan Show
, it was done in the above-mentioned key of F, with McCartney as the only Beatle to perform, and the studio orchestra providing the string accompaniment. However, all of The Beatles played in a G-major version which was used in the Tokyo concerts during their 1966 tours.
When McCartney appeared on The Howard Stern Show, he stated that he owns the original lyrics to "Yesterday" written on the back of an envelope
. McCartney later performed the original "Scrambled Eggs" version of the song, plus additional new lyrics, with Jimmy Fallon
and The Roots
on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
.
' version of "Georgia on My Mind
", but closed his article by saying that despite the similarities "Yesterday" is a "completely original and individual [work]."
In July 2003, British musicologists
stumbled upon superficial similarities between the lyric and rhyming schemes of "Yesterday" and Nat King Cole
's "Answer Me, My Love
" (originally a German song by Gerhard Winkler and Fred Rauch called Mütterlein), leading to speculation that McCartney had been influenced by the song. McCartney's publicists denied any resemblance between "Answer Me, My Love" and "Yesterday". "Yesterday" begins with the lines: "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they're here to stay." In its second stanza, "Answer Me, My Love" has the lines: "You were mine yesterday. I believed that love was here to stay. Won't you tell me where I've gone astray".
Although McCartney was particularly enamored with the song, he had a much harder time convincing the other members of the band that it was worthy of an album place, the main objection being that it did not fit in with their image, especially considering that "Yesterday" was extremely unlike other Beatles songs at the time. This feeling was so strong that the other Beatles—Lennon, Harrison and Ringo Starr
—refused to permit the release of a single in the United Kingdom. This did not prevent Matt Monro
from recording the first of many cover versions of "Yesterday" to come. His version made it into the top ten in the UK charts soon after its release in the autumn of 1965.
The Beatles' influence over their US record label, Capitol
, was not as strong as it was over EMI
's Parlophone
in Britain. A single was released in the US, pairing "Yesterday" with "Act Naturally
", a track which featured vocals by Starr. The single was charting by 29 September 1965, and topped the charts for a full month, beginning on 9 October. The song spent a remarkable total of 11 weeks in the American charts
, selling a million copies within five weeks. "Yesterday" was the most-played song on American radio
for eight consecutive years, its popularity refusing to abate.
"Yesterday" was the third of six number one singles in a row on the American charts, a record at the time. The other singles were "I Feel Fine
", "Eight Days a Week
", "Ticket to Ride
", "Help!
", and "We Can Work It Out
". The record was equalled by The Bee Gees in the 1970s and surpassed by Whitney Houston
in the 1980s. "Yesterday" also marked a turning point in who wrote number one singles for the group. Lennon wrote five through "Help!", whereas afterwards McCartney wrote eight starting with "Yesterday".
On 4 March 1966, "Yesterday" was released as an EP
in the UK, joined by "Act Naturally
" on the A-side with "You Like Me Too Much
" and "It's Only Love
" on the B-side. By 12 March, it had begun its run on the charts. On 26 March 1966, the EP went to number one, a position it held for two months. Later that same year, "Yesterday" was included as the title track for the US-only Yesterday and Today
album, which was originally packaged in the "butcher sleeve".
Ten years later on 8 March 1976, "Yesterday" was released by Parlophone
as a single in the UK, featuring "I Should Have Known Better
" on the B-side. Entering the charts on 13 March, the single stayed there for seven weeks, but it never rose higher than number 8 (however, by this time the song had been featured on no less than three top 5 albums and an EP which topped the charts). The release came about due to the expiration of the Beatles' contract with EMI
, Parlophone's parent. EMI released as many singles by The Beatles as they could on the same day, leading to 23 of them hitting the top 100 in the United Kingdom charts, including six in the top 50.
In 2006, a version of the song was included on the album Love
. The version begins with the acoustic guitar
intro from the song "Blackbird
" only with "Blackbird" transposed down a whole step to F major from its original key G in order to transition smoothly into "Yesterday".
, Tose Proeski
, The Mamas and the Papas and Barry McGuire
, The Seekers
, Joan Baez
, Donny Hathaway
, Michael Bolton
, Bob Dylan
, Liberace
, Frank Sinatra
, Matt Monro
, Elvis Presley
, Ray Charles
(1967), Marvin Gaye
, Daffy Duck
, Jan & Dean, The Sylvers
, Wet Wet Wet
, P. P. Arnold
, Plácido Domingo
, The Head Shop
, Billy Dean
, En Vogue
, Muslim Magomayev and Boyz II Men
. In 1976, David Essex
did a cover version of the song for the ephemeral musical documentary All This and World War II
. After Muzak
switched in the 1990s to programs based on commercial recordings, Muzak's inventory grew to include about 500 "Yesterday" covers. At the 2006 Grammy Awards, McCartney performed the song live as a mash-up with Linkin Park
and Jay-Z
's Numb/Encore
. It is Vladimir Putin
's favourite Beatles song.
"Yesterday" won the Ivor Novello Award for 'Outstanding Song of 1965', and came second for 'Most Performed Work of the Year', losing out to another McCartney composition, "Michelle
". The song has received its fair share of acclaim in recent times as well, ranking 13th on Rolling Stone
s 2004 list "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
" and fourth on the magazine's list "The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs" (compiled in 2010). In 1999, Broadcast Music Incorporated
(BMI) placed "Yesterday" third on their list of songs of the 20th century most performed on American radio and television, with approximately seven million performances. "Yesterday" was surpassed only by The Association
's "Never My Love
" and the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Loving Feeling". "Yesterday" was voted Best Song of the 20th Century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll.
"Yesterday", however, has also been criticised for being mundane and mawkish; Bob Dylan
had a marked dislike for the song, stating that "If you go into the Library of Congress
, you can find a lot better than that. There are millions of songs like 'Michelle' and 'Yesterday' written in Tin Pan Alley
". Ironically, Dylan ultimately recorded his own version of "Yesterday" four years later, but it was never released.
Shortly before his death in 1980, Lennon explained that he thought the lyrics did not "resolve into any sense... 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 were yesterday — that much you get — but it doesn't really resolve. ... Beautiful — and I never wished I'd written it." "Paul wrote this great song, 'Yesterday.' It's a beautiful song. I never wished I'd written it, and I don't believe in yesterday... Life begins at 40, so they promise and I believe it. What's going to come?" Lennon made reference to the song on his album Imagine
with the song "How Do You Sleep?". The song appears to attack Paul with the line "The only thing you done was Yesterday, but since you've gone you're just another day", Lennon later admitted in an interview with Playboy that the song was actually an attack on himself as opposed to McCartney.
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
for their 1965 album Help!
Help! (album)
Help! is the title of the fifth British and ninth American album by The Beatles, and the soundtrack from their film of the same name. Produced by George Martin for EMI's Parlophone Records, it contains fourteen songs in its original British form, of which seven appeared in the film...
. The song first hit the United Kingdom top 10 three months after the release of Help!. The song remains popular today with more than 1,600 cover version
Cover version
In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...
s, one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music. The song was not released as a single in the United Kingdom at the time of its release in the United States, and thus never gained number 1 single status in that country. However, "Yesterday" was voted the best song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
poll of music experts and listeners. In 2000, "Yesterday" was voted the #1 Pop song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone magazine. In 1997, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
(BMI) asserts that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century alone.
"Yesterday" is a melancholy acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
about a break-up
Relationship breakup
A relationship breakup, often referred to simply as a breakup, is the termination of a usually intimate relationship by any means other than death. The act is commonly termed "dumping [someone]" in slang when it is initiated by one partner...
. It was the first official recording by The Beatles that relied upon a performance by a single member of the band, Paul McCartney
Paul McCartney
Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
. He was accompanied
Accompaniment
In music, accompaniment is the art of playing along with an instrumental or vocal soloist or ensemble, often known as the lead, in a supporting manner...
by a string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
. The final recording was so different from other works by The Beatles that the other three band members vetoed the release of the song as a single in the United Kingdom. (However, it was issued as a single there in 1976.) Although credited to "Lennon/McCartney
Lennon/McCartney
The Lennon–McCartney songwriting partnership is one of the best-known and most successful musical collaborations in history...
", the song was written solely by McCartney. In 2002 McCartney asked Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
if she would allow reversing the credit on the song to read "McCartney/Lennon". Ono refused.
Origins
According to biographers of McCartney and the Beatles, McCartney composed the entire melodyMelody
A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...
in a dream one night in his room at the Wimpole Street home of his then girlfriend Jane Asher
Jane Asher
Jane Asher is an English actress. She has also developed a second career as a cake decorator and cake shop proprietor.-Early life:...
and her family. Upon waking, he hurried to a piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
and played the tune to avoid forgetting it.
McCartney's initial concern was that he had subconsciously plagiarised
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
someone else's work (known as cryptomnesia
Cryptomnesia
Cryptomnesia occurs when a forgotten memory returns without it being recognised as such by the subject, who believes it is something new and original...
). 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
Police
The police is a personification of the state designated to put in practice the enforced law, protect property and reduce civil disorder in civilian matters. Their powers include the legitimized use of force...
. I thought if no-one claimed it after a few weeks then I could have it."
Upon being convinced that he had not robbed anyone of his melody, McCartney began writing lyrics
Lyrics
Lyrics are a set of words that make up a song. The writer of lyrics is a lyricist or lyrist. The meaning of lyrics can either be explicit or implicit. Some lyrics are abstract, almost unintelligible, and, in such cases, their explication emphasizes form, articulation, meter, and symmetry of...
to suit it. As Lennon and McCartney were known to do at the time, a substitute working lyric, titled "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. In his biography, Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, McCartney recalled: "So first of all I checked this melody out, and people said to me, 'No, it's lovely, and I'm sure it's all yours.' It took me a little while to allow myself to claim it, but then like a prospector I finally staked my claim; stuck a little sign on it and said, 'Okay, it's mine!' It had no words. I used to call it 'Scrambled Eggs'."
During the shooting of Help!
Help! (film)
Help! is a 1965 film directed by Richard Lester, starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—and featuring Leo McKern, Eleanor Bron, Victor Spinetti, John Bluthal, Roy Kinnear and Patrick Cargill. Help! was the second feature film made by the Beatles and is a...
, a piano was placed on one of the stages where filming was being conducted and McCartney would take advantage of this opportunity to tinker with the song. Richard Lester
Richard Lester
Richard Lester is an American film director based in Britain. Lester is notable for his work with The Beatles in the 1960s and his work on the Superman film series in the 1980s.-Early years and television:...
, the director, was eventually greatly annoyed by this and lost his temper, telling McCartney to finish writing the song or he would have the piano removed. The patience of the other Beatles was also tested by McCartney's work in progress, George Harrison summing this up when he said: "Blimey, he's always talking about that song. You'd think he was Beethoven or somebody!"
McCartney originally claimed he had written "Yesterday" during the Beatles' tour of France in 1964; however, the song was not released until the summer of 1965. During the intervening time, The Beatles released two albums, A Hard Day's Night
A Hard Day's Night (album)
A Hard Day's Night is the third studio album by The Beatles, released on 10 July 1964 as the soundtrack to their film A Hard Day's Night. The American version of the album was released two weeks earlier, on 26 June 1964 by United Artists Records, with a different track listing...
and Beatles for Sale
Beatles for Sale
Beatles for Sale is the fourth studio album by the English rock band The Beatles, released in late 1964 and produced by George Martin for Parlophone. The album marked a minor turning point in the evolution of Lennon and McCartney as lyricists, John Lennon particularly now showing interest in...
, both of which could have included "Yesterday". Although McCartney has never elaborated his claims, a delay may have been due to a disagreement between McCartney and George Martin
George Martin
Sir George Henry Martin CBE is an English record producer, arranger, composer and musician. He is sometimes referred to as "the Fifth Beatle"— a title that he often describes as "nonsense," but the fact remains that he served as producer on all but one of The Beatles' original albums...
regarding the song's arrangement, or the opinion of the other Beatles who felt it did not suit their image.
Lennon later indicated that the song had been around for a while before:
McCartney said the breakthrough with the lyrics came during a trip to Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
in May 1965:
On 27 May 1965, McCartney and Asher flew to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
for a holiday in Albufeira
Albufeira
Albufeira is a Portuguese municipality in the Faro District, Algarve region. Its name came from the Arabic: البحيرة . The city has a population of 13,646. The municipality has a population of 35,281 inhabitants and a total area of 140.6 km²...
, Algarve, and he borrowed an acoustic guitar from Bruce Welch
Bruce Welch
Bruce Welch OBE, is an English guitarist, songwriter, producer and singer, best known as a member of The Shadows.-Biography:...
, in whose house they were staying, and completed the work on "Yesterday". The song was offered as a demo to Chris Farlowe
Chris Farlowe
Chris Farlowe is an English rock, blues and soul singer. He is best known for his hit single "Out of Time", which rose to #1 in the UK Singles Chart in 1966, and his association with Colosseum and the Thunderbirds.Outside his music career, Farlowe collects war memorabilia.-Career:Inspired by Lonnie...
prior to The Beatles recording it, but he turned it down as he considered it "too soft".
Recording
The track was recorded at Abbey Road StudiosAbbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...
on 14 June 1965, immediately following the taping of "I'm Down
I'm Down
"I'm Down" is a song by the Beatles written by Paul McCartney and first released as the B-side to the single "Help!" in 1965.-Composition:...
," and four days before McCartney's 23rd birthday. There are conflicting accounts of how the song was recorded, the most quoted one being that McCartney recorded the song by himself, without bothering to involve the other band members. Alternative sources, however, state that McCartney and the other Beatles tried a variety of instruments, including drums
Drum kit
A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
and an organ
Organ (music)
The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...
, and that George Martin later persuaded them to allow McCartney to play his Epiphone Texan
Epiphone Texan
The Epiphone Texan is an acoustic flattop guitar of the Jumbo type. Recent models have an integrated light-weight internal electric pickup fitted; the original model was acoustic only.-History:...
steel-string acoustic guitar
Steel-string acoustic guitar
A steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound...
, later on editing-in a string quartet for backup. Regardless, none of the other band members were included in the final recording. However, the song was played with the other members of the band in concert during 1966, in G major instead of F major.
McCartney performed two take
Take
A take is a single continuous recorded performance. The term is used in film and music to denote and track the stages of production.-Film:In cinematography, a take refers to each filmed "version" of a particular shot or "setup"...
s of "Yesterday" on 14 June 1965. Take 2 was deemed better and used as the master
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
take. A string quartet was overdubbed
Overdubbing
Overdubbing is a technique used by recording studios to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded performance....
on take 2 and that version was released. Take 1, without the string overdub, was later released on the Anthology 2
Anthology 2
Anthology 2 is a compilation album by The Beatles, released by Apple Records in March 1996. It is the second of the three-volume Anthology collection, all of which tie-in with the televised special The Beatles Anthology. The opening track is "Real Love", the second of the two recordings that...
compilation. On take 1, McCartney can be heard giving chord changes to George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
before starting, but George does not appear to actually play. Take 2 had two lines transposed from the first take: "There's a shadow hanging over me"/"I'm not half the man I used to be", though it seems clear that their order in take 2 was the correct one, because McCartney can be heard, in take 1, suppressing a laugh at his mistake.
George Martin later said:
Chart performance
| Chart (1965) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 1 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 1 |
| Australia Singles Chart | 2 |
| German Singles Chart | 6 |
| UK Singles Chart | 8 |
| Austrian Top 40 | 10 |
| Dutch Top 40 | 26 |
| Spanish Singles Chart | 44 |
| Chart (1976) | Peak position |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
8 |
| Chart (2010) | Peak position |
| Poland (ZPAV Polish Music Charts The Polish Music Charts are two official album charts and seven singles charts in Poland, provided by ZPAV, the Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry . The first, the Top 100, is a monthly chart based on data received from the album companies... ) |
5 |
Composition and structure
Ostensibly simple, featuring only McCartney playing an Epiphone TexanEpiphone Texan
The Epiphone Texan is an acoustic flattop guitar of the Jumbo type. Recent models have an integrated light-weight internal electric pickup fitted; the original model was acoustic only.-History:...
steel-string acoustic guitar
Steel-string acoustic guitar
A steel-string acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the classical guitar, but strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound...
backed by a string quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
in one of the Beatles' first use of session musicians, "Yesterday" has two contrasting sections, differing in melody and rhythm, producing a sense of disjunction.
The first section ("Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away...") opens with an F chord
Chord (music)
A chord in music is any harmonic set of two–three or more notes that is heard as if sounding simultaneously. These need not actually be played together: arpeggios and broken chords may for many practical and theoretical purposes be understood as chords...
(the 3rd of the chord is omitted, so although it sounds major the major tonality is only implied), then moving to Em7 before resolving to A7 and then to D-minor. In this sense, the opening chord is a decoy; as musicologist Alan Pollack points out, the home key (F-major) has little time to establish itself before "heading towards the relative D-minor." He points out that this diversion is a compositional device commonly used by Lennon and McCartney, which he describes as "delayed gratification".
The second section ("Why she had to go I don't know...") is, according to Pollack, less musically surprising on paper than it sounds. Starting with Em7, the harmonic progression quickly moves through the A-major, D-minor, and (closer to F-major) B, before resolving back to F-major, and at the end of this, McCartney holds F while the strings descend to resolve to the home key to introduce the restatement of the first section, before a brief hummed closing phrase.
Pollack described the scoring as "truly inspired", citing it as an example of "[Lennon & McCartney's] flair for creating stylistic hybrids"; in particular, he praises the "ironic tension drawn between the schmaltzy content of what is played by the quartet and the restrained, spare nature of the medium in which it is played."
The tonic key
Tonic (music)
In music, the tonic is the first scale degree of the diatonic scale and the tonal center or final resolution tone. The triad formed on the tonic note, the tonic chord, is thus the most significant chord...
of the song is F major (although, since McCartney tuned his guitar down a whole step, he was playing the chords as if it were in G), where the song begins before veering off into the key of D minor. It is this frequent use of the minor, and the ii-V7 chord progression
Chord progression
A chord progression is a series of musical chords, or chord changes that "aims for a definite goal" of establishing a tonality founded on a key, root or tonic chord. In other words, the succession of root relationships...
(Em and A7 chords in this case) leading into it, that gives the song its melancholy aura. The A7 chord is an example of a secondary dominant
Secondary dominant
Secondary dominant is an analytical label for a specific harmonic device, prevalent in the tonal idiom of Western music beginning in the common practice period...
, specifically a V/vi chord. The G7 chord in the bridge is another secondary dominant, in this case a V/V chord, but rather than resolve
Resolution (music)
Resolution in western tonal music theory is the move of a note or chord from dissonance to a consonance .Dissonance, resolution, and suspense can be used to create musical interest...
it to the expected chord, as with the A7 to Dm in the verse, McCartney instead follows it with the IV chord, a B. This motion creates a descending chromatic line of C–B–B–A to accompany the title lyric.
The string arrangement reinforces the song's air of sadness, in the groaning cello
Cello
The cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
line that connects the two halves of the bridge
Bridge (music)
In music, especially western popular music, a bridge is a contrasting section which also prepares for the return of the original material section...
, notably the "blue
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
" seventh in the second bridge pass (the E played after the vocal line, "I don't know / she wouldn't say") and in the descending run by the viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
that segues the bridge back into the verses, mimicked by McCartney's vocal on the second pass of the bridge. This viola line and the high A sustained by the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
over the final verse are the only elements of the string arrangement attributable to McCartney rather than George Martin.
When the song was performed on The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show
The Ed Sullivan Show is an American TV variety show that originally ran on CBS from Sunday June 20, 1948 to Sunday June 6, 1971, and was hosted by New York entertainment columnist Ed Sullivan....
, it was done in the above-mentioned key of F, with McCartney as the only Beatle to perform, and the studio orchestra providing the string accompaniment. However, all of The Beatles played in a G-major version which was used in the Tokyo concerts during their 1966 tours.
When McCartney appeared on The Howard Stern Show, he stated that he owns the original lyrics to "Yesterday" written on the back of an envelope
Envelope
An envelope is a common packaging item, usually made of thin flat material. It is designed to contain a flat object, such as a letter or card....
. McCartney later performed the original "Scrambled Eggs" version of the song, plus additional new lyrics, with Jimmy Fallon
Jimmy Fallon
James Thomas "Jimmy" Fallon, Jr. is an American actor, comedian, singer, musician and television host. He currently hosts Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, a late-night talk show that airs Monday through Friday on NBC...
and The Roots
The Roots
The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...
on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon
Late Night with Jimmy Fallon is an American late-night talk show hosted by Jimmy Fallon on NBC. The show premiered on March 2, 2009, as the third incarnation of the Late Night franchise originated by David Letterman....
.
Resemblance to other songs
In 2001, Ian Hammond speculated that McCartney subconsciously based "Yesterday" on Ray CharlesRay Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
' version of "Georgia on My Mind
Georgia on My Mind
"Georgia on My Mind" is a song written in 1930 by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell . It is the official state song of the U.S. state of Georgia. Gorrell wrote the lyrics for Hoagy's sister, Georgia Carmichael. However, the lyrics of the song are ambiguous enough to refer either to the state or...
", but closed his article by saying that despite the similarities "Yesterday" is a "completely original and individual [work]."
In July 2003, British musicologists
Musicology
Musicology is the scholarly study of music. The word is used in narrow, broad and intermediate senses. In the narrow sense, musicology is confined to the music history of Western culture...
stumbled upon superficial similarities between the lyric and rhyming schemes of "Yesterday" and Nat King Cole
Nat King Cole
Nathaniel Adams Coles , known professionally as Nat King Cole, was an American musician who first came to prominence as a leading jazz pianist. Although an accomplished pianist, he owes most of his popular musical fame to his soft baritone voice, which he used to perform in big band and jazz genres...
's "Answer Me, My Love
Answer Me, My Love
"Answer Me, My Love" is a popular song, originally written by Gerhard Winkler and Fred Rauch. The English lyrics were written by Carl Sigman in 1953....
" (originally a German song by Gerhard Winkler and Fred Rauch called Mütterlein), leading to speculation that McCartney had been influenced by the song. McCartney's publicists denied any resemblance between "Answer Me, My Love" and "Yesterday". "Yesterday" begins with the lines: "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they're here to stay." In its second stanza, "Answer Me, My Love" has the lines: "You were mine yesterday. I believed that love was here to stay. Won't you tell me where I've gone astray".
Release
Ringo Starr
Richard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
—refused to permit the release of a single in the United Kingdom. This did not prevent Matt Monro
Matt Monro
Matt Monro was an English singer who became one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s...
from recording the first of many cover versions of "Yesterday" to come. His version made it into the top ten in the UK charts soon after its release in the autumn of 1965.
The Beatles' influence over their US record label, Capitol
Capitol Records
Capitol Records is a major United States based record label, formerly located in Los Angeles, but operating in New York City as part of Capitol Music Group. Its former headquarters building, the Capitol Tower, is a major landmark near the corner of Hollywood and Vine...
, was not as strong as it was over EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
's Parlophone
Parlophone
Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...
in Britain. A single was released in the US, pairing "Yesterday" with "Act Naturally
Act Naturally
"Act Naturally" is a song written by Johnny Russell and Voni Morrison, originally recorded by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, whose version reached number 1 on the Billboard Country Singles chart in 1963, his first chart-topper...
", a track which featured vocals by Starr. The single was charting by 29 September 1965, and topped the charts for a full month, beginning on 9 October. The song spent a remarkable total of 11 weeks in the American charts
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, selling a million copies within five weeks. "Yesterday" was the most-played song on American radio
Music radio
Music radio is a radio format in which music is the main broadcast content. After television replaced old time radio's dramatic content, music formats became dominant in many countries...
for eight consecutive years, its popularity refusing to abate.
"Yesterday" was the third of six number one singles in a row on the American charts, a record at the time. The other singles were "I Feel Fine
I Feel Fine
"I Feel Fine" is a riff-driven rock song written by John Lennon and released in 1964 by The Beatles as the A-side of their eighth British single. The song is notable for the use of feedback on a recording for the first time by any musician...
", "Eight Days a Week
Eight Days a Week (song)
"Eight Days a Week" is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, based on Paul's original idea, recorded by The Beatles and released on their December 1964 album Beatles for Sale.-Inspiration:...
", "Ticket to Ride
Ticket to Ride
"Ticket to Ride" is a song by The Beatles from their 1965 album, Help!. It was recorded 15 February 1965 and released two months later. -Composition:...
", "Help!
Help! (song)
"Help!" is a song by The Beatles that served as the title song for both the 1965 film and its soundtrack album. It was also released as a single, and was number one for three weeks in both the United States and the United Kingdom....
", and "We Can Work It Out
We Can Work It Out
"We Can Work It Out" is a song by The Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. It was released as a "double A-sided" single with "Day Tripper", the first time both sides of a single were so designated in an initial release...
". The record was equalled by The Bee Gees in the 1970s and surpassed by Whitney Houston
Whitney Houston
Whitney Elizabeth Houston is an American singer, actress, producer and a former model. Houston is the most awarded female act of all time, according to Guinness World Records, and her list of awards include 1 Emmy Award, 6 Grammy Awards, 30 Billboard Music Awards, 22 American Music Awards, among...
in the 1980s. "Yesterday" also marked a turning point in who wrote number one singles for the group. Lennon wrote five through "Help!", whereas afterwards McCartney wrote eight starting with "Yesterday".
On 4 March 1966, "Yesterday" was released as an EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
in the UK, joined by "Act Naturally
Act Naturally
"Act Naturally" is a song written by Johnny Russell and Voni Morrison, originally recorded by Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, whose version reached number 1 on the Billboard Country Singles chart in 1963, his first chart-topper...
" on the A-side with "You Like Me Too Much
You Like Me Too Much
"You Like Me Too Much" is a song by The Beatles written by George Harrison, that was recorded on 17 February 1965. It was first released on the Help! album in the United Kingdom and on Beatles VI in the United States, both in 1965....
" and "It's Only Love
It's Only Love
"It's Only Love" is a song written mostly by John Lennon, and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was first released by The Beatles in 1965, on the Help! album in the United Kingdom, and on the Rubber Soul album in the United States....
" on the B-side. By 12 March, it had begun its run on the charts. On 26 March 1966, the EP went to number one, a position it held for two months. Later that same year, "Yesterday" was included as the title track for the US-only Yesterday and Today
Yesterday and Today
Yesterday and Today is the ninth Capitol release by The Beatles and the eleventh overall American release. It was issued only in the United States and Canada...
album, which was originally packaged in the "butcher sleeve".
Ten years later on 8 March 1976, "Yesterday" was released by Parlophone
Parlophone
Parlophone is a record label that was founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch was formed in 1923 as "Parlophone" which developed a reputation in the 1920s as a leading jazz label. It was acquired in 1927 by the Columbia Graphophone Company which...
as a single in the UK, featuring "I Should Have Known Better
I Should Have Known Better
"I Should Have Known Better" is a song composed by John Lennon , and originally released by The Beatles on the United Kingdom version of A Hard Day's Night, their soundtrack for the film of the same name....
" on the B-side. Entering the charts on 13 March, the single stayed there for seven weeks, but it never rose higher than number 8 (however, by this time the song had been featured on no less than three top 5 albums and an EP which topped the charts). The release came about due to the expiration of the Beatles' contract with EMI
EMI
The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
, Parlophone's parent. EMI released as many singles by The Beatles as they could on the same day, leading to 23 of them hitting the top 100 in the United Kingdom charts, including six in the top 50.
In 2006, a version of the song was included on the album Love
Love (The Beatles album)
Love is a Grammy Award-winning soundtrack remix album of music recorded by The Beatles, released in November 2006. It features music compiled and remixed as a mashup for the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name...
. The version begins with the acoustic guitar
Acoustic guitar
An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
intro from the song "Blackbird
Blackbird (song)
"Blackbird" is a Beatles song from the double-disc album The Beatles . Blackbird was written by Paul McCartney, but credited to Lennon–McCartney.-Origins:...
" only with "Blackbird" transposed down a whole step to F major from its original key G in order to transition smoothly into "Yesterday".
Reception
"Yesterday" is one of the most recorded songs in the history of popular music; its entry in Guinness World Records states that, by January 1986, 1,600 cover versions had been made, by an eclectic mix of artists including Marianne FaithfullMarianne Faithfull
Marianne Evelyn Faithfull is an award-winning English singer, songwriter and actress whose career has spanned five decades....
, Tose Proeski
Toše Proeski
Todor Toše Proeski was a Macedonian multi-genre singer, songwriter and actor. He was popular across the entire Balkan area and all around Eastern Europe, and locally he was considered a top act of the Macedonian music scene...
, The Mamas and the Papas and Barry McGuire
Barry McGuire
Barry McGuire is an American singer-songwriter best known for the hit song "Eve of Destruction", and later as a pioneering singer and songwriter of Contemporary Christian Music.-Early life:...
, The Seekers
The Seekers
The Seekers are an Australian folk-influenced pop music group which were originally formed in 1962. They were the first Australian popular music group to achieve major chart and sales success in the United Kingdom and the United States...
, Joan Baez
Joan Baez
Joan Chandos Baez is an American folk singer, songwriter, musician and a prominent activist in the fields of human rights, peace and environmental justice....
, Donny Hathaway
Donny Hathaway
Donny Edward Hathaway was an American soul singer-songwriter and musician. Hathaway contracted with Atlantic Records in 1969 and with his first single for the Atco label, "The Ghetto, Part I" in early 1970, Rolling Stone magazine "marked him as a major new force in soul music."His collaborations...
, Michael Bolton
Michael Bolton
Michael Bolton is an American singer and songwriter. Bolton originally performed in the hard rock and heavy metal genres from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s, both on his early solo albums and those recorded as the frontman of the band Blackjack...
, Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
, Liberace
Liberace
Wladziu Valentino Liberace , best known simply as Liberace, was a famous American pianist and vocalist.In a career that spanned four decades of concerts, recordings, motion pictures, television and endorsements, Liberace became world-renowned...
, Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
, Matt Monro
Matt Monro
Matt Monro was an English singer who became one of the most popular entertainers on the international music scene during the 1960s...
, Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Ray Charles
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson , known by his shortened stage name Ray Charles, was an American musician. He was a pioneer in the genre of soul music during the 1950s by fusing rhythm and blues, gospel, and blues styles into his early recordings with Atlantic Records...
(1967), Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye
Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr. , better known by his stage name Marvin Gaye, was an American singer-songwriter and musician with a three-octave vocal range....
, Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck
Daffy Duck is an animated cartoon character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons, often running the gamut between being the best friend and sometimes arch-rival of Bugs Bunny...
, Jan & Dean, The Sylvers
The Sylvers
The Sylvers were a popular R&B/soul and disco family group during the 1970s. Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, the family would later relocate to Watts, California.- Beginnings :...
, Wet Wet Wet
Wet Wet Wet
Wet Wet Wet are a Scottish pop rock band that formed in the 1980s. They scored a number of hits in the British charts and around the world. The band is composed of Marti Pellow , Tommy Cunningham , Graeme Clark and Neil Mitchell...
, P. P. Arnold
P. P. Arnold
P. P. Arnold is an American-born soul singer who enjoyed considerable success in the United Kingdom in the 1960s and beyond.-Early life:...
, Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo
Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
, The Head Shop
The Head Shop
The Head Shop is a psychedelic rock band from New York that released one eponymous album on Epic in 1969. The album cover features a swirling group of multi-colored boxes that surround a black-and-white image of a shrunken head...
, Billy Dean
Billy Dean
William Harold "Billy" Dean, Jr. is an American country music singer and songwriter. Billy Dean first gained national attention after appearing on the television talent competition Star Search...
, En Vogue
En Vogue
En Vogue is an American female R&B vocal group from Oakland, California assembled by music producers Denzil Foster and Thomas McElroy.The group has won more MTV Video Music Awards than any other female group in MTV history, a total of seven, along with four Soul Train Awards, six American Music...
, Muslim Magomayev and Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men
Boyz II Men is an American R&B vocal group best known for emotional ballads and a cappella harmonies. They are the most successful R&B group of all time, having sold more than albums worldwide. In the 1990s, Boyz II Men found fame on Motown Records as a quartet, but original member Michael McCary...
. In 1976, David Essex
David Essex
David Essex OBE is an English musician, singer-songwriter and actor. Since the 1970s, Essex has attained nineteen Top 40 singles in the UK , and sixteen Top 40 albums...
did a cover version of the song for the ephemeral musical documentary All This and World War II
All This and World War II
All This and World War II is a 1976 musical documentary that juxtaposes Beatles songs, performed by a number of musicians, with World War II newsreel footage and 20th Century Fox films from the 1940s...
. After Muzak
Muzak
Muzak Holdings LLC is a company based in metro Fort Mill, South Carolina, United States, just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. Founded in 1934, Muzak Holdings is best known for distribution of background music to retail stores and other companies....
switched in the 1990s to programs based on commercial recordings, Muzak's inventory grew to include about 500 "Yesterday" covers. At the 2006 Grammy Awards, McCartney performed the song live as a mash-up with Linkin Park
Linkin Park
Linkin Park is an American rock band from Agoura Hills, California. Formed in 1996, the band rose to international fame with their debut album, Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond by the RIAA in 2005 and multi-platinum in several other countries...
and Jay-Z
Jay-Z
Shawn Corey Carter , better known by his stage name Jay-Z, is an American rapper, record producer, entrepreneur, and occasional actor. He is one of the most financially successful hip hop artists and entrepreneurs in America, having a net worth of over $450 million as of 2010...
's Numb/Encore
Numb/Encore
"Numb/Encore" is a song by American rapper Jay-Z and rock band Linkin Park from their album Collision Course, . It was released as a single on November 16, 2004, by Warner Bros. and Roc-A-Fella Records...
. It is Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Putin
Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin served as the second President of the Russian Federation and is the current Prime Minister of Russia, as well as chairman of United Russia and Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Union of Russia and Belarus. He became acting President on 31 December 1999, when...
's favourite Beatles song.
"Yesterday" won the Ivor Novello Award for 'Outstanding Song of 1965', and came second for 'Most Performed Work of the Year', losing out to another McCartney composition, "Michelle
Michelle (song)
"Michelle" is a love ballad by The Beatles, mainly written by Paul McCartney, with the middle eight co-written with John Lennon. It is featured on their Rubber Soul album. The song departs from most of The Beatles' other recordings in that some of the lyrics are in French...
". The song has received its fair share of acclaim in recent times as well, ranking 13th on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
s 2004 list "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" was the cover story of a special issue of Rolling Stone, issue number 963, published December 9, 2004, a year after the magazine published its list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time"....
" and fourth on the magazine's list "The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs" (compiled in 2010). In 1999, Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music Incorporated
Broadcast Music, Inc. is one of three United States performing rights organizations, along with ASCAP and SESAC. It collects license fees on behalf of songwriters, composers, and music publishers and distributes them as royalties to those members whose works have been performed...
(BMI) placed "Yesterday" third on their list of songs of the 20th century most performed on American radio and television, with approximately seven million performances. "Yesterday" was surpassed only by The Association
The Association
The Association is a pop music band from California in the folk rock or soft rock genre. During the 1960s, they had numerous hits at or near the top of the Billboard charts and were the lead-off band at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival...
's "Never My Love
Never My Love
"Never My Love" is a pop standard written by American siblings Donald and Richard Addrisi and best known from a hit 1967 recording by The Association. The Addrisi Brothers had two Top 40 hits as recording artists, but their biggest success was as the songwriters of "Never My Love"...
" and the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Loving Feeling". "Yesterday" was voted Best Song of the 20th Century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll.
"Yesterday", however, has also been criticised for being mundane and mawkish; Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
had a marked dislike for the song, stating that "If you go into the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, you can find a lot better than that. There are millions of songs like 'Michelle' and 'Yesterday' written in Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley
Tin Pan Alley is the name given to the collection of New York City music publishers and songwriters who dominated the popular music of the United States in the late 19th century and early 20th century...
". Ironically, Dylan ultimately recorded his own version of "Yesterday" four years later, but it was never released.
Shortly before his death in 1980, Lennon explained that he thought the lyrics did not "resolve into any sense... 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 were yesterday — that much you get — but it doesn't really resolve. ... Beautiful — and I never wished I'd written it." "Paul wrote this great song, 'Yesterday.' It's a beautiful song. I never wished I'd written it, and I don't believe in yesterday... Life begins at 40, so they promise and I believe it. What's going to come?" Lennon made reference to the song on his album Imagine
Imagine (album)
Imagine is the second album by John Lennon. Recorded and released in 1971, the album tended toward songs that were gentler, more commercial and less avant-garde than those on his critically acclaimed previous album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. The album is considered the most popular of his works...
with the song "How Do You Sleep?". The song appears to attack Paul with the line "The only thing you done was Yesterday, but since you've gone you're just another day", Lennon later admitted in an interview with Playboy that the song was actually an attack on himself as opposed to McCartney.