About "Yesterday".

About "Yesterday"

From the original Beatles Album "Help!" (1965)

PAUL 1968: "I just started playing it and this tune came, 'cuz that's what happens. They just, sort of-- they COME, you know. It just came and I couldn't think of any words to it, so originally it was just, 'Scrambled Egg.' It was called 'Scrambled Egg' for a couple of months, until I thought of 'Yesterday.' And that's it. True story."

JOHN 1980: "Paul wrote the lyrics to 'Yesterday.' Although the lyrics don't reslove into any sense, they're good lines. They certainly work, you know what I mean? They're good-- but if you read the whole song, it doesn't say anything; you don't know what happened. She left and he wishes it were yesterday-- that much you get-- but it doesn't really resolve. So, mine didn't used to either. I have had so much accolade for 'Yesterday.' That's Paul's song, and Paul's baby. Well done. Beautiful-- and I never wished I'd written it."

PAUL 1984: "It fell out of bed. I had a piano by my bedside and I... must have dreamed it, because I tumbled out of bed and put my hands on the piano keys and I had a tune in my head. It was just all there, a complete thing. I couldn't believe it. It came too easy. In fact, I didn't believe I'd written it. I thought maybe I'd heard it before, it was some other tune, and I went around for weeks playing the chords of the song for people, asking them, 'Is this like something? I think I've written it.' And people would say, 'No, it's not like anything else, but it's good.'"

PAUL 1986: "The hits are always the ones you thought wouldn't be hits, like 'Yesterday' or 'Mull Of Kintyre.' I didn't want to put them out. We didn't put 'Yesterday' out in England, it was only here (America) that it was a single. We didn't think it was going to be a good idea... so it's crazy how it goes."

PAUL 1988: "We didn't think it fitted our image. In fact, it was one of our most successful songs."