Wayback Wednesday: Paul McCartney
On June 14th, 1965, Paul McCartney recorded one of the most memorable songs ever….Yesterday. Paul said the music came to him in a dream, and he wrote the tune down immediately so he wouldn’t forget it.
Paul thought the tune might have been unconsciously “borrowed” from some existing song, but he kept asking band members and others whether they recognized the melody and no one did. The lyrics took longer for Paul to figure out. He used the working title “Scrambled Eggs” while composing the words we all know today.
On June 14th, the Beatles had recorded a rocking, uptempo song..”I’m Down”, with Paul doing a screaming vocal. Then Paul, with his acoustic guitar, recorded 2 takes of “Yesterday”. The second take was chosen for the record. Producer George Martin added the string quartet on June 17th, with an additional vocal track by Paul. None of the other Beatles were on the final product.
It was released here in the U.S. on September 13th, and went to Number One for 4 weeks, beginning on October 9th. But “Yesterday” was not released as a single in the U.K., since the group thought it did not fit with their image. Matt Monro made the first cover version of it, which went to the Top 10 in the U.K. that fall. It’s since become the most covered song in the world! Here’s Paul performing this incredible song live in 2004…enjoy!
