“Yesterday” is one of the biggest and most beloved songs released by The Beatles. The tune was something different from the rock band, and it showed a new, especially thoughtful side of the globe-dominating outfit. Decades after its release, one of the two credited writers on the track has shared how it all came together.
In the latest episode of his podcast, Paul McCartney: A Life in Lyrics, the man himself opened up about the tune and spoke quite a bit about “Yesterday,” admitting that it came to him unconsciously.
“I went to sleep one night and dreamed a tune. Somewhere in my dream I heard this tune. When I woke up, I go I love that tune–it’s great. I love that one,” McCartney stated in the interview. He added that once he was awake and realized he had something special in mind, he “kind of fell out of bed and the piano was right there to the left of my bed and I just sort of thought well I’ll try and work out how this song goes.”
McCartney admitted that when he was first singing what would become “Yesterday,” he assumed that it was something he’d heard before. He simply didn’t believe that he had come up with the melody himself–especially not while he was sleeping.
In the podcast, McCartney shared that for some time after he first created the “Yesterday” tune, he asked around to see where he may have grabbed it from. “The first person I saw was John [Lennon]. I said, ‘What’s this? It’s bugging me. What’s this song?’. He goes ‘I don’t know’,” the superstar revealed, bringing his friend and former bandmate into the conversation.
After Lennon wasn’t helpful when realizing where “Yesterday” originated, McCartney spoke to The Beatles’ producer, George Martin. Even the pioneering studio expert, who the singer-songwriter insisted had a much better memory for this kind of thing, claimed he didn’t know it. McCartney then said that “after a couple of weeks of this, it became clear that no one knew it and it didn’t exist except in my head and so I claimed it.” Speaking to his incredible good luck with it came to the tune, McCartney stated that “It was like finding it on the street.”
Later in the conversation, with poet and co-host Paul Muldoon, McCartney considers whether or not “Yesterday” was really about him losing his mother. The singer-songwriter’s mom Mary passed away in 1956, when he was just 14. He states that he never felt it was about her and that experience, but that over time, as he rethinks some of the words, it may very well be.
“Yesterday” was released in 1965, just a few weeks after it was written and recorded. The track was a fast No. 1 in the U.S., where Beatlemania had hit and hit hard. Credited to the songwriting team of McCartney-Lennon, it has gone on to be one of the most-covered compositions ever.
