Yesterday

Song Meaning and Background of Yesterday by The Beatles

The greatest ballad by Paul McCartney is the most recorded song ever, according to a Guinness World Record. Seven years after it was released, 1,186 different musicians, including Frank Sinatra recorded renditions of the song.

Before the Beatles even arrived in America, in January 1964, McCartney performed the song for George Martin in a hotel room in Paris under the working title "Scrambled Eggs," but he would not record it for another year and a half.

McCartney admitted, "We were a little ashamed by it. We played rock and roll. In America, "Yesterday" became Number One, and in his own words, it was "the most complete song I have ever written."

Except for the United States, where it was released as a single in September, it was first made available on the album Help! in August 1965. On the American charts, the song peaked at number one. Later, it made its debut on the US album Yesterday and Today in June 1966 after first appearing on the UK EP Yesterday in March 1966.

Biographers claim that one night in his room at the residence of his then-girlfriend Jane Asher and her family, McCartney wrote the entire tune in a dream. He hurried to a piano as soon as he awoke to play the song so he wouldn't forget it. Though initially worried that he had unintentionally copied someone else's work. McCartner 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."

Lyrics of Yesterday by The Beatles

Yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away.

Now it looks as though they're here to stay.

Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be.

There's a shadow hanging over me.

Oh, yesterday came suddenly.

Why she had to go?

I don't know, she wouldn't say.

I said something wrong.

Now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday love was such an easy game to play.

Now I need a place to hide away.

Oh, I believe in yesterday.

Why she had to go?

I don't know, she wouldn't say.

I said something wrong.

Now I long for yesterday.

Yesterday love was such an easy game to play.

Now I need a place to hide away.

Oh, I believe in yesterday.

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