ABOUT THE SONG
In January 1964 Paul woke up with the chords and rough melody of the tune in his head, which he immediately worked out on piano. It sounded good right away. What was unusual was that after this initial burst of inspiration, he continued to tinker with the song for over 18 months. This is a phenomenal amount of time to spend on a song during a period when it was not uncommon to write something on a Tuesday, record it on Wednesday, and have it off to the pressing plant by the weekend.
Just about everyone around Paul became sick and tired of Yesterday before it was finished. While he was finessing it on the set of “Hard Days Night”, director Richard Lester got so bored of McCartney’s endless fussing that he lost his temper and told Paul to “finish the bloody thing or I’ll have the piano removed from the set.”
Around that time George Harrison was heard to say "Blimey, he’s always talking about that song you’d think he was Beethoven or somebody!"
Yesterday is not really a Beatles song. It is a Paul McCartney solo record. He’s the only Beatle who appears on it, accompanied by a string quartet of anonymous non-Beatles. During the recording George Martin almost finished The Beatles five years early when he suggested to Brian Epstien the possibility of releasing “Yesterday” as Paul’s solo single. The ever astute Epstien emphatically and intelligently said No.
“Whatever we do we are not splitting up The Beatles.”
Yesterday is literally a power ballad. It is Vladimir Putin’s favorite Beatles song. No surprise there. Yesterday has a power to captivate and enslave all who hear it. Just like Vlad.
Yesterday was also the point at which The Beatles stopped being just a four-piece Rock And Roll Band and became sculptors of audio landscapes. They had begun to compose Loudspeaker Paintings, using the recording studio itself as a musical instrument.
The string quartet was recorded in less than 2 hours. Guess what they were paid?
Five Guinnies each. ($7.50).
There are more than 3000 performances of "Yesterday", the most covered song in the history. I offer a compilation of 63 of them including the one recorded as The Beatles song and a live performance by Paul McCartney. Enjoy!
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By: Shahen Gasparyan
