Yesterday at 50
Looking back on McCartney's first small masterpiece
Well, we all know about 'Yesterday.' I have had so much accolade for 'Yesterday.' That is Paul's song, of course, and Paul's baby. Well done. Beautiful-- and I never wished I had written it." -John Lennon, Playboy Interview 1980
We were very new to America and I had to do “Yesterday” on my own and I’d never done this—I had always had the band. So I was standing there and the floor manager--the guy on the curtain--came up to me and said: “Are you nervous?” I said, no. He said, “Well you should be, there’s 73 million people watching.” -Paul McCartney on Late Nite with David Letterman
This weekend marks the 50th anniversary of the recording of Paul McCartney’s “Yesterday,” the most covered song of the last half century. If rock and roll had a human timeline, then perhaps you could think of the early days of Elvis and Little Richard as fevered adolescence and the 60s as rebellious early adulthood. In that sense, “Yesterday” fits squarely between the two—youthful, philosophical, simple, but otherwise unassailable. Love it or not, it's quite catchy--good words, good chords, and easy to remember. Our only collective regret would be that it has been covered so much that it’s hard to hear it fresh.
If you compare "Yesterday" with the early contemplative –and equally philosophical—songs of Ray Davies and Pete Townshend, it doesn’t seem so out of place to English pop music circa 1965. Like England itself, “Yesterday” is evergreen—slightly lush—and though it might not be a true Lennon & McCartney composition, it was one of many indications from The Beatles that year that growing up was complicated and a little looking back might not be a bad idea. Some of their other titles that year included “Help” “We Can Work It Out” and “In My Life”.
It might not be everyone’s favorite Beatles song (including The Beatles themselves) but with cover versions by a dizzying number of artists including guitarist Al Caiola, Sam Cooke's childhood pal Lou Rawls, Perry Como, Johnny Mathis, Sarah Vaughan, Brenda Lee, Jerry Butler, Ace Cannon, Tom Jones, Ray Charles, and Vince Guaraldi, after "Yesterday", no one could claim The Beatles were only a silly little rock and roll band. For one thing, that silly little rock and roll group was now rich. By 1965, the Beatles could finally afford to live in their own homes away from each other.
Source: Epiphone
