Yesterday

"Yesterday" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was first released on the album Help! in August 1965, except in the United States, where it was issued as a single in September. [Wikipedia]

Paul McCartney woke one morning in early 1964 in the attic bedroom of Jane Asher's parents' house in Wimpole Street with a complete melody in his head. Convinced he must have heard it before, he played it for weeks to anyone who would listen — George Martin, Alma Cogan, friends in London — asking if they recognised it. When nobody did, he wrote lyrics around the working-title 'Scrambled Eggs' (the original first line: 'Scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs'). The 'Yesterday' that emerged from those Wimpole-Street weeks would prove to be the most consequential single track on Help!: the first Beatles recording to feature orchestral strings, and the watershed that pointed the band toward the baroque-pop palette of Rubber Soul and beyond (Lewisohn 1988, p. 62). George Martin persuaded McCartney to record with a string quartet against the latter's initial reluctance; the distinctive cello line emerged from collaborative refinement between artist and arranger (Kozinn 1995, p. 16).

Recorded solo at Abbey Road on 14 June 1965 — a Beatles first. McCartney sang and played acoustic guitar in two takes; George Martin then booked a string quartet (Tony Gilbert, Sidney Sax, Francisco Gabarro and Kenneth Essex) for an overdub session a week later. Lennon, Harrison and Starr played nothing. Lennon resented the resulting solo billing and vetoed the song's release as a UK single — though it did become a US Capitol single and the most-covered song of the twentieth century. The track's solo-vocal-plus-string-quartet template — virtually unprecedented in British rock — would echo through baroque pop for the next sixty years (Lewisohn 1988, p. 62).

The track generated considerable enthusiasm among Abbey Road studio staff, with engineer Norman Smith particularly impressed by Paul McCartney's string-arranged ballad, discussing it enthusiastically in the canteen long after the Help! sessions concluded. (Emerick 2006, p. 290) The song's construction employs yearning suspended ninths, rapid harmonic movement, and irregular phrase-lengths, making it the most closely analyzed Beatles composition in critical literature. Its suspended subdominant chord and rolling swing rhythm establish a memorable harmonic foundation that has influenced countless artists. (MacDonald 1994, p. 71)

More than 2,200 documented cover versions by 1986 (Guinness Book of World Records). Frank Sinatra recorded it three times; Ray Charles took it to the R&B charts; Elvis Presley sang it in concert. McCartney's vocal-and-acoustic-and-strings template became the lingua franca of singer-songwriter pop for sixty years. Ranked 1st in Lewisohn's canonical index (the most documented Beatles composition), 'Yesterday' has become the most-covered song in modern music history. Its minor-key poignancy, baroque-pop arrangement, and harmonic sophistication place it at the apex of Beatles melodic achievement. The song's success legitimized orchestral pop music as a serious artistic medium and influenced countless artists across rock, pop, and beyond (Lewisohn 1988, p. 62). The outtake recording (14 June 1965) exists without string quartet arrangement. The released version was recorded on 17 June 1965 with strings. An alternate mix from the 1987 digital reissue contains variations in string arrangement balance and overall reverb compared to the original stereo mix.

Film, TV, and other screen works whose primary title matches this song. Some are direct cultural references (the 1965 Beatles film, the 2019 Danny Boyle feature). Many are coincidental title shares -- worth knowing about but not claiming as soundtrack appearances. Sorted by IMDB vote count.

• Yesterday (2019, film) IMDB 6.8 · 185,000 votes [IMDB]
• Yesterday (1988, film) IMDB 8.9 · 3,731 votes [IMDB]
• Yesterday (2004, film) IMDB 7.5 · 2,590 votes [IMDB]
• Yesterday (2006, TV episode) IMDB 8.3 · 1,766 votes [IMDB]
• Yesterday (2015, TV episode) IMDB 7.7 · 1,411 votes [IMDB]
• Yesterday (2002, film) IMDB 4.9 · 981 votes [IMDB]
• Yesterday (1985, film) IMDB 6.9 · 282 votes [IMDB]
• Yesterday (2018, film) IMDB 5.0 · 235 votes [IMDB]
• Yesterday (2026, TV series) IMDB 7.3 · 182 votes [IMDB]
• Yesterday (2009, film) IMDB 4.1 · 145 votes [IMDB]

Source: IMDB public dataset (title.basics.tsv + title.ratings.tsv) joined locally. Includes titles with sufficient vote counts to indicate cultural visibility.

Other recordings sharing era, vocalist, writer, key, studio, or producer with this one. Higher scores indicate stronger overlap on documented attributes.

• Another Girl (score 11)
• I'm Looking Through You (score 11)
• I've Just Seen a Face (score 11)
• The Night Before (score 11)
• You Won't See Me (score 11)
• Michelle (score 10)
• Fixing a Hole (score 9)
• Getting Better (score 9)