Yesterday ( Beatles song ) - wikipedia Yesterday ( Beatles song ) `` Yesterday '' US picture sleeve Single by the Beatles B - side `` Act Naturally '' Released 13 September 1965 ( US ) 08 March 1976 ( UK ) Format 7 - inch single Recorded 14 June 1965 Studio EMI Studios, London Genre Baroque pop Length 2 : 03 Label Capitol Songwriter ( s ) Lennon -- McCartney Producer ( s ) George Martin The Beatles US singles chronology `` Help ! '' ( 1965 ) `` Yesterday '' ( 1965 ) `` We Can Work It Out '' / `` Day Tripper '' ( 1965 ) `` Help ! '' ( 1965 ) `` Yesterday '' ( 1965 ) `` We Can Work It Out '' / `` Day Tripper '' ( 1965 ) The Beatles UK singles chronology `` Let It Be '' ( 1970 ) Let It Be 1970 `` Yesterday '' ( 1976 ) Yesterday1976 `` Back in the U.S.S.R. '' ( 1976 ) Back in the U.S.S.R. 1976 Alternative cover 1976 UK picture sleeve Audio sample file help `` Yesterday '' is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney ( credited to Lennon -- McCartney ), and first released on the album Help ! in the United Kingdom in August 1965. `` Yesterday '', with the B - side `` Act Naturally '', was released as a single in the United States in September 1965. While it topped the American chart in October the song also hit the British top 10 in a cover version by Matt Monro. The song also appeared on the UK EP `` Yesterday '' in March 1966 and the Beatles ' US album Yesterday and Today, released in June 1966. McCartney 's vocal and acoustic guitar, together with a string quartet, essentially made for the first solo performance of the band. It remains popular today and, with more than 2,200 cover versions, is one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music. `` Yesterday '' was voted the best song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll of music experts and listeners and was also voted the No. 1 pop song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone magazine the following year. In 1997, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Broadcast Music Incorporated ( BMI ) asserts that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century. `` Yesterday '' is a melancholy ballad about the break - up of a relationship. The singer laments for yesterday when he and his love were together, before she left because of something he said. McCartney is the only member of the Beatles to appear on the recording. The final recording was so different from other works by the Beatles that the band members vetoed the release of the song as a single in the United Kingdom, although other artists were quick to do so. It was issued as a single in the US in September 1965 and later released as a single in the UK in 1976. Contents 1 Origin 1.1 Resemblance to other songs 2 Composition and structure 3 Recording 4 Release 5 Reception and legacy 6 Personnel 7 Charts and certifications 7.1 Charts 7.2 Certifications 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links Origin According to biographers of McCartney and the Beatles, McCartney composed the entire melody in a dream one night in his room at the Wimpole Street home of his then girlfriend Jane Asher and her family. Upon waking, he hurried to a piano and played the tune to avoid forgetting it. McCartney 's initial concern was that he had subconsciously plagiarised someone else 's work ( known as cryptomnesia ). As he put it, `` For about a month I went round to people in the music business and asked them whether they had ever heard it before. Eventually it became like handing something in to the police. I thought if no one claimed it after a few weeks then I could have it. '' Upon being convinced that he had not robbed anyone of their melody, McCartney began writing lyrics to suit it. As Lennon and McCartney were known to do at the time, a substitute working lyric, titled `` Scrambled Eggs '' ( the working opening verse was `` Scrambled eggs / Oh my baby how I love your legs / Not as much as I love scrambled eggs '' ), was used for the song until something more suitable was written. In his biography, Paul McCartney : Many Years from Now, McCartney recalled : `` So first of all I checked this melody out, and people said to me, ' No, it 's lovely, and I 'm sure it 's all yours. ' It took me a little while to allow myself to claim it, but then like a prospector I finally staked my claim ; stuck a little sign on it and said, ' Okay, it 's mine ! ' It had no words. I used to call it ' Scrambled Eggs '. '' The original song, Scrambled Eggs, was written to hold the music and phrasing in place. It was performed by Paul McCartney and Jimmy Fallon on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and has been recorded and released by the Brittles, a Beatles - pastiche band. During the shooting of Help !, a piano was placed on one of the stages where filming was being conducted and McCartney took advantage of this opportunity to tinker with the song. Richard Lester, the director, was eventually greatly annoyed by this and lost his temper, telling McCartney to finish writing the song or he would have the piano removed. The patience of the other Beatles was also tested by McCartney 's work in progress, George Harrison summed this up when he said : `` Blimey, he 's always talking about that song. You 'd think he was Beethoven or somebody ! '' McCartney originally claimed he had written `` Yesterday '' during the Beatles ' tour of France in 1964 ; however, the song was not released until the summer of 1965. During the intervening time, the Beatles released two albums, A Hard Day 's Night and Beatles for Sale, each of which could have included `` Yesterday ''. Although McCartney has never elaborated on his claims, a delay may have been due to a disagreement between McCartney and George Martin regarding the song 's arrangement, or the opinion of the other Beatles who felt it did not suit their image. Lennon later indicated that the song had been around for a while before : The song was around for months and months before we finally completed it. Every time we got together to write songs for a recording session, this one would come up. We almost had it finished. Paul wrote nearly all of it, but we just could n't find the right title. We called it ' Scrambled Eggs ' and it became a joke between us. We made up our minds that only a one - word title would suit, we just could n't find the right one. Then one morning Paul woke up and the song and the title were both there, completed. I was sorry in a way, we 'd had so many laughs about it. McCartney said the breakthrough with the lyrics came during a trip to Portugal in May 1965 : I remember mulling over the tune ' Yesterday ', and suddenly getting these little one - word openings to the verse. I started to develop the idea... da - da da, yes - ter - day, sud - den - ly, fun - il - ly, mer - il - ly and Yes - ter - day, that 's good. All my troubles seemed so far away. It 's easy to rhyme those a 's : say, nay, today, away, play, stay, there 's a lot of rhymes and those fall in quite easily, so I gradually pieced it together from that journey. Sud - den - ly, and ' b ' again, another easy rhyme : e, me, tree, flea, we, and I had the basis of it. On 27 May 1965, McCartney and Asher flew to Lisbon for a holiday in Albufeira, Algarve, and he borrowed an acoustic guitar from Bruce Welch, in whose house they were staying, and completed the work on `` Yesterday ''. The song was offered as a demo to Chris Farlowe before the Beatles recorded it, but he turned it down as he considered it `` too soft ''. In a March 1967 interview with Brian Matthew, McCartney said that Lennon came up with the word that would replace `` scrambled eggs '' : Yesterday. Resemblance to other songs In 2001, Ian Hammond speculated that McCartney subconsciously based `` Yesterday '' on Ray Charles ' version of Hoagy Carmichael 's `` Georgia on My Mind ''. Hammond concluded his article by saying that, despite the similarities, `` Yesterday '' is a `` completely original and individual ( work ) ''. In July 2003, British musicologists stumbled upon superficial similarities between the lyric and rhyming schemes of `` Yesterday '' and Nat King Cole 's and Frankie Laine 's `` Answer Me, My Love '' ; originally a German song by Gerhard Winkler and Fred Rauch called Mütterlein, it was a number 1 hit for Laine on the UK charts in 1953 as `` Answer Me, O Lord '', leading to speculation that McCartney had been influenced by the song. McCartney 's publicists denied any resemblance between `` Answer Me, My Love '' and `` Yesterday ''. `` Yesterday '' begins with the lines : `` Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they 're here to stay. '' In its second stanza, `` Answer Me, My Love '' has the lines : `` You were mine yesterday. I believed that love was here to stay. Wo n't you tell me where I 've gone astray ''. Composition and structure Ostensibly simple, featuring only McCartney playing an Epiphone Texan steel - string acoustic guitar backed by a string quartet in one of the Beatles ' first uses of session musicians, `` Yesterday '' has two contrasting sections, differing in melody and rhythm, producing a sense of disjunction. The first section ( `` Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away... '' ) opens with an F chord ( the 3rd of the chord is omitted ), then moving to Em before proceeding to A and then to D - minor. In this sense, the opening chord is a decoy ; as musicologist Alan Pollack points out, the home key ( F - major ) has little time to establish itself before `` heading towards the relative D - minor. '' He points out that this diversion is a compositional device commonly used by Lennon and McCartney, which he describes as `` deferred gratification ''. The second section ( `` Why she had to go I do n't know... '' ) is, according to Pollack, less musically surprising on paper than it sounds. Starting with Em, the harmonic progression quickly moves through the A-major, D - minor, and ( closer to F - major ) B ♭, before resolving back to F - major, and at the end of this, McCartney holds F while the strings descend to resolve to the home key to introduce the restatement of the first section, before a brief hummed closing phrase. Pollack described the scoring as `` truly inspired '', citing it as an example of `` ( Lennon & McCartney 's ) flair for creating stylistic hybrids '' ; in particular, he praises the `` ironic tension drawn between the schmaltzy content of what is played by the quartet and the restrained, spare nature of the medium in which it is played. '' The tonic key of the song is F major ( although, since McCartney tuned his guitar down a whole step, he was playing the chords as if it were in G ), where the song begins before veering off into the key of D minor. It is this frequent use of the minor, and the ii - V7 chord progression ( Em and A chords in this case ) leading into it, that gives the song its melancholy aura. The A chord is an example of a secondary dominant, specifically a V / vi chord. The G chord in the bridge is another secondary dominant, in this case a V / V chord, but rather than resolve it to the expected chord, as with the A to Dm in the verse, McCartney instead follows it with the IV chord, a B ♭. This motion creates a descending chromatic line of C -- B -- B ♭ -- A to accompany the title lyric. The string arrangement reinforces the song 's air of sadness, in the groaning cello line that connects the two halves of the bridge, notably the `` blue '' seventh in the second bridge pass ( the E ♭ played after the vocal line, `` I do n't know / she would n't say '' ) and in the descending run by the viola that segues the bridge back into the verses, mimicked by McCartney 's vocal on the second pass of the bridge. This viola line, the `` blue '' cello phrase, the high A sustained by the violin over the final verse and the minimal use of vibrato are elements of the string arrangement attributable to McCartney rather than George Martin. When the song was performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, it was done in the above - mentioned key of F, with McCartney as the only Beatle to perform, and the studio orchestra providing the string accompaniment. However, all of the Beatles played in a G - major version when the song was included in tours in 1965 and 1966. When McCartney appeared on The Howard Stern Show, he stated that he owns the original lyrics to `` Yesterday '' written on the back of an envelope. McCartney later performed the original `` Scrambled Eggs '' version of the song, plus additional new lyrics, with Jimmy Fallon and the Roots on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. Recording Replica of the Epiphone Texan acoustic guitar played by McCartney on the song The track was recorded at Abbey Road Studios on 14 June 1965, immediately following the taping of `` I 'm Down '', and four days before McCartney 's 23rd birthday. There are conflicting accounts of how the song was recorded, the most quoted one being that McCartney recorded the song by himself, without bothering to involve the other band members. Alternative sources state that McCartney and the other Beatles tried a variety of instruments, including drums and an organ, and that George Martin later persuaded them to allow McCartney to play his Epiphone Texan steel - string acoustic guitar, later on overdubbing a string quartet for backup. Regardless, none of the other band members were included in the final recording. McCartney performed two takes of `` Yesterday '' on 14 June 1965. Take 2 was deemed better and used as the master take. On 17 June, an additional vocal track by McCartney and a string quartet were overdubbed on take 2 and that version was released. Take 1, without the string overdub, was later released on the Anthology 2 compilation. On take 1, McCartney can be heard giving chord changes to Harrison before starting, but while Harrison does not appear to actually play, he was most certainly present because his voice is captured on the session tapes. Take 2 had two lines transposed from the first take : `` There 's a shadow hanging over me '' / `` I 'm not half the man I used to be '', though it seems clear that their order in take 2 was the correct one, because McCartney can be heard, in take 1, suppressing a laugh at his mistake. In 2006, just before the album Love was released, George Martin elaborated on the recording set - up of the song : Paul played his guitar and sang it live, a mic on the guitar and mic on the voice. But, of course, the voice comes on to the guitar mic and the guitar comes on to the voice mic. So there 's leakage there. Then I said I 'd do a string quartet. The musicians objected to playing with headphones, so I gave them Paul 's voice and guitar on two speakers either side of their microphones. So there 's leakage of Paul 's guitar and voice on the string tracks. The leakage of sound from one track to another was a concern when the surround version of the song was mixed for Love, but it was decided to include the track nevertheless. As Martin explained in the liner notes of Love : We agonised over the inclusion of `` Yesterday '' in the show. It is such a famous song, the icon of an era, but had it been heard too much ? The story of the addition of the original string quartet is well known, however, few people know how limited the recording was technically, and so the case for not including it was strong, but how could we ignore such a marvellous work ? We introduced it with some of Paul 's guitar work from `` Blackbird '', and hearing it now, I know it was right to include it. Its simplicity is so direct ; it tugs at the heartstrings. Release Concerning the debate on how the song should be released, Martin later said : `` ( ' Yesterday ' ) was n't really a Beatles record and I discussed this with Brian Epstein : ' You know this is Paul 's song... shall we call it Paul McCartney ? ' He said ' No, whatever we do we are not splitting up the Beatles. ' '' Since `` Yesterday '' was unlike the Beatles ' previous work and did not fit in with their image, the Beatles refused to permit the release of a single in the United Kingdom. This did not prevent Matt Monro from recording the first of many cover versions of `` Yesterday ''. His version made it into the top ten in the UK charts soon after its release in the autumn of 1965. The Beatles ' influence over their US record label, Capitol, was not as strong as it was over EMI 's Parlophone label in Britain. A single was released in the US, pairing `` Yesterday '' with `` Act Naturally '', a track which featured vocals by Starr. The single was released on 13 September 1965 and topped the Billboard Hot 100 chart for four weeks, beginning on 9 October. The song spent a total of 11 weeks on the chart, selling a million copies within five weeks. The single was also number one for three weeks on the US Cash Box pop singles chart the same year. `` Yesterday '' was the fifth of six number one singles in a row on the American charts, a record at the time. The other singles were `` I Feel Fine '', `` Eight Days a Week '', `` Ticket to Ride '', `` Help ! '' and `` We Can Work It Out ''. On 4 March 1966, the song was issued as the title track of the British EP Yesterday. On 26 March, the EP went to number one, a position it held for two months. Later that year, `` Yesterday '' was included as the title track of the North American album Yesterday and Today. On 8 March 1976, `` Yesterday '' was released by Parlophone as a single in the UK, featuring `` I Should Have Known Better '' on the B - side. The single peaked at number 8 on the UK Singles Chart. The release came about due to the expiration of the Beatles ' contract with EMI, which allowed the company to repackage the Beatles ' recordings as they wished. EMI reissued all 22 of the Beatles ' UK singles, plus `` Yesterday '', on the same day, leading to six of them placing on the UK chart. In 2006, a version of the song was included on the album Love. The version begins with the acoustic guitar intro from the song `` Blackbird '' transposed down a whole step to F major from its original key G to transition smoothly into `` Yesterday ''. Reception and legacy `` Yesterday '' is one of the most recorded songs in the history of popular music. Its entry in Guinness World Records states that, by January 1986, 1,600 cover versions had been made. After Muzak switched in the 1990s to programs based on commercial recordings, its inventory grew to include about 500 `` Yesterday '' covers. `` Yesterday '' won the Ivor Novello Award for `` Outstanding Song of 1965 '', and came second for `` Most Performed Work of the Year '', behind the Lennon -- McCartney composition `` Michelle ''. The song has received its fair share of acclaim in recent times as well, ranking 13th on Rolling Stone 's 2004 list `` The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time '' and fourth on the magazine 's list `` The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs '' ( compiled in 2010 ). In 1999, Broadcast Music Incorporated ( BMI ) placed `` Yesterday '' third on their list of songs of the 20th century most performed on American radio and television, with approximately seven million performances. `` Yesterday '' was surpassed only by the Association 's `` Never My Love '' and the Righteous Brothers ' `` You 've Lost That Lovin ' Feelin ' ''. `` Yesterday '' was voted Best Song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll. The song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1997. Although it was nominated for Song of the Year at the 1966 Grammy Awards, it lost out to Tony Bennett 's `` The Shadow of Your Smile ''. `` Yesterday '' was nominated for six Grammys in total that year, and `` Help ! '' was also nominated in four categories. After the band had failed to win any of the ten awards, Allan Livingstone, the head of Capitol Records, officially protested about the results, saying that `` Yesterday '' being passed over for the Song of the Year `` makes a mockery of the whole event ''. Following the Beatles ' break - up, McCartney ( pictured with his wife Linda in 1976 ) began performing the song live in 1975 during his Wings Over the World tour. Chuck Berry said that `` Yesterday '' was the song that he wished that he had written. `` Yesterday '' has also been criticised for being mundane and mawkish. Bob Dylan had a marked dislike for the song, stating that `` If you go into the Library of Congress, you can find a lot better than that. There are millions of songs like ' Michelle ' and ' Yesterday ' written in Tin Pan Alley. '' Accompanied by Harrison, Dylan recorded his own version of `` Yesterday '' four years later, but it was never released. Shortly before his death in 1980, Lennon commented that `` Although the lyrics do n't resolve into any sense, they 're good lines. They certainly work... but if you read the whole song, it does n't say anything '' and added the song was `` beautiful -- and I never wished I 'd written it. '' Lennon made reference to `` Yesterday '' in his song `` How Do You Sleep ? '' on his 1971 album Imagine. The song appears to attack McCartney with the line `` The only thing you done was yesterday, but since you 've gone you 're just another day '', a reference to McCartney 's recent hit `` Another Day ''. At the 2006 Grammy Awards, McCartney performed `` Yesterday '' live as a mash - up with Linkin Park and Jay Z 's `` Numb / Encore ''. In 2012, the BBC reported that `` Yesterday '' remained the fourth most successful song of all - time in terms of royalties paid, having amassed a total of £ 19.5 million in payments. ( 1 ) Personnel According to Mark Lewisohn and Ian MacDonald : Paul McCartney -- vocal, acoustic guitar Tony Gilbert -- violin Sidney Sax -- violin Kenneth Essex -- viola Peter Halling / Francisco Gabarro -- cello George Martin -- producer, string arrangement Norman Smith -- engineer Charts and certifications Charts Chart ( 1965 ) Peak position Australia ( Kent Music Report ) Austria ( Ö3 Austria Top 40 ) 10 Belgium ( Ultratop 50 Flanders ) Netherlands ( Single Top 100 ) Norway ( VG - lista ) US Billboard Hot 100 US Cash Box Top 100 West German Media Control Singles Chart 6 Chart ( 1976 ) Peak position Australia ( Kent Music Report ) 86 Netherlands ( Single Top 100 ) 26 Ireland ( IRMA ) UK Singles ( Official Charts Company ) 8 Chart ( 2010 ) Peak position Spain ( PROMUSICAE ) 44 Poland ( Polish Airplay Top 100 ) 5 Certifications Region Certification Certified units / Sales United States ( RIAA ) Gold 1,000,000 sales figures based on certification alone shipments figures based on certification alone Notes Jump up ^ At one time, Guinness World Records cited `` Yesterday '' with the most cover versions of any song ever written -- 2,200. However, `` Summertime '', an aria composed by George Gershwin for the 1935 opera Porgy and Bess has been claimed to have well over 30,000 recorded performances, far more than the 1,600 claimed for `` Yesterday ''. References Jump up ^ Hall 1965, p. 40. ^ Jump up to : Guinness World Records 2009. Jump up ^ `` The Summertime Connection ''. Retrieved 31 August 2011. Jump up ^ `` BMI Announces Top 100 Songs of the Century ''. BMI. December 13, 1999. Retrieved June 26, 2016. Jump up ^ Turner 2005, p. 83. ^ Jump up to : Cross 2005, pp. 464 -- 465. Jump up ^ Miles 1997, pp. 201 -- 202. Jump up ^ Miles 1997, p. 203. Jump up ^ Coleman 1995, p. 11. ^ Jump up to : Hammond 2001. Jump up ^ Miles 1997, p. 204. Jump up ^ Miles 1997, pp. 204 -- 205. Jump up ^ Napier - Bell 2001, p. 100. Jump up ^ Howlett, Kevin ( 2013 ). The Beatles : The BBC Archives : 1962 -- 1970. Harper Design. ISBN 0 - 06 - 228853 - 9. Jump up ^ BBC News 2003. Jump up ^ Everett 1999, p. 12. Jump up ^ Everett 1999, p. 13. Jump up ^ Everett 1999, p. 15. ^ Jump up to : Pollack calls it an E diminished, the published sheet music shows Em7. ^ Jump up to : Pollack 1993. Jump up ^ Cahill 2005, p. 162. Jump up ^ Ray Colman, McCartney : Yesterday & Today, ' A String Quartet ' http://www.wingspan.ru/bookseng/coleman/coleman03.html Jump up ^ Paul McCartney sings `` Scrambled Eggs '' ( the original `` Yesterday '' ) Archived 26 December 2010 at the Wayback Machine. Jump up ^ Ortiz 2005. ^ Jump up to : Mallick 2000. ^ Jump up to : Unterberger 2006. ^ Jump up to : Lewisohn 1994, p. 10. ^ Jump up to : Lewisohn 1988, p. 59. Jump up ^ The Beatles 2000, pp. 2 -- 10. Jump up ^ Rees 2006. Jump up ^ George Martin 's liner notes to Love, Apple / Parlophone 094638078920. Jump up ^ The Beatles 2000, p. 175. Jump up ^ Wallgren 1982, p. 43. ^ Jump up to : Cross 2004. Jump up ^ `` Billboard Magazine -- Buy Mag -- Billboards Charts -- Top 10 20 40 100 Music Chart -- Singles -- Albums ''. Music.us. Archived from the original on 7 February 2012. Retrieved 9 January 2012. Jump up ^ Wallgren 1982, pp. 38 -- 45. Jump up ^ Owen 2006. Jump up ^ Miles 2001, p. 236. Jump up ^ Rolling Stone 2007. Jump up ^ Rolling Stone 2010. Jump up ^ `` 4. Yesterday ''. 100 Greatest Beatles Songs. Rolling Stone. Retrieved 21 May 2013. Jump up ^ BMI 2007. Jump up ^ BBC News 1999. Jump up ^ `` GRAMMY Hall of Fame ''. Archived from the original on 22 January 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2014. Jump up ^ `` The Beatles ''. Grammy.com. Retrieved 27 January 2014. Jump up ^ Miles 2001, p. 226. Jump up ^ Miles 2001, p. 227. Jump up ^ `` FOX 2 Exclusive : An Interview With Chuck Berry ''. Retrieved 28 December 2013. Jump up ^ Sheff, David. ( 1981 ) The Playboy Interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono p. 118 Jump up ^ MacDonald 2008, p. 157. ^ Jump up to : Kent, David ( 2005 ). Australian Chart Book ( 1940 -- 1969 ). Turramurra : Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0 - 646 - 44439 - 5. Jump up ^ `` Austriancharts.at -- The Beatles -- Yesterday '' ( in German ). Ö3 Austria Top 40. Retrieved 16 May 2016. Jump up ^ `` Ultratop.be -- The Beatles -- Yesterday '' ( in Dutch ). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 16 May 2016. ^ Jump up to : `` Dutchcharts.nl -- The Beatles -- Yesterday '' ( in Dutch ). Single Top 100. Retrieved 16 May 2016. Jump up ^ `` Norwegiancharts.com -- The Beatles -- Yesterday ''. VG - lista. Retrieved 16 May 2016. Jump up ^ `` The Beatles Chart History ( Hot 100 ) ''. Billboard. Retrieved 16 May 2016. Jump up ^ Hoffmann, Frank ( 1983 ). The Cash Box Singles Charts, 1950 -- 1981. Metuchen, NJ & London : The Scarecrow Press, Inc. pp. 32 -- 34. Jump up ^ `` Offizielle Deutsche Charts '' ( Enter `` Beatles '' in the search box ) ( in German ). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 16 May 2016. Jump up ^ `` The Irish Charts -- Search Results -- Yesterday ''. Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 16 May 2016. Jump up ^ `` Official Singles Chart Top 100 ''. Official Charts Company. Retrieved 16 May 2016. Jump up ^ `` Spanishcharts.com -- The Beatles -- Yesterday '' Canciones Top 50. Retrieved 17 May 2016. Jump up ^ `` Listy bestsellerów, wyróżnienia : : Związek Producentów Audio - Video ''. Polish Airplay Top 100. Retrieved 10 December 2011. Jump up ^ `` American single certifications -- The Beatles -- Yesterday ''. Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 14 May 2016. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Single, then click SEARCH `` All We Are Saying : Three Weeks with John Lennon ''. NPR News. 9 October 2010. Retrieved 9 October 2010. `` Artist chart history : Wet Wet Wet ''. The Official Charts. 2010. Retrieved 8 December 2010. The Beatles ( 2000 ). The Beatles Anthology. San Francisco : Chronicle Books. ISBN 0 - 8118 - 2684 - 8. `` BMI Announces Top 100 Songs of the Century ''. BMI. 2007. Retrieved 9 March 2007. Cahill, Greg ( June -- July 2005 ). `` Encore : It Was 40 Years Ago Today -- How the Beatles Launched a String - Playing Revolution ''. Strings Go to Journal Record. 20 : 1 : 130. Coleman, Ray ( 1995 ). Yesterday & Today. London : Boxtree Limited. ISBN 0 - 7522 - 1669 - 4. Cross, Craig ( 2004 ). `` AMERICAN SINGLES ''. Retrieved 9 December 2004. Cross, Craig ( 2004 ). `` BRITISH EPS ''. Retrieved 14 January 2006. Cross, Craig ( 2004 ). `` BRITISH SINGLES ''. Retrieved 9 December 2004. Cross, Craig ( 2005 ). The Beatles : Day - by - Day, Song - by - Song, Record - by - Record. Lincoln, NE : iUniverse, Inc. ISBN 0 - 595 - 34663 - 4. `` ENTERTAINMENT Bruch and Beatles top radio polls ''. BBC News. 6 April 1999. Retrieved 3 February 2009. Everett, Walter ( 1999 ). The Beatles as Musicians : Revolver through the Anthology. Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978 - 0 - 19 - 512941 - 0. Hammond, Ian ( 2001 ). `` Old sweet songs ''. Retrieved 28 August 2009. `` Help ! : Yesterday ''. 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A Hard Day 's Write : The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song ( 3rd ed. ). New York : Harper Paperbacks. ISBN 0 - 06 - 084409 - 4. Unterberger, Richie ( 2006 ). `` Review of Yesterday ''. Allmusic. Retrieved 14 January 2006. Wallgren, Mark ( 1982 ). The Beatles on Record. New York : Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0 - 671 - 45682 - 2. Hall, Claude ( 30 October 1965 ). Billboard. p. 40. ISSN 0006 - 2510. External links Wikiquote has quotations related to : Help ! ( album ) Lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics Chords & Lyrics to `` Yesterday '' on YouTab Preceded by `` Hang On Sloopy '' by the McCoys Billboard Hot 100 number one single 9 October 1965 ( four weeks ) Succeeded by `` Get Off of My Cloud '' by the Rolling Stones Help ! Songs Side one `` Help ! '' `` The Night Before '' `` You 've Got to Hide Your Love Away '' `` I Need You '' `` Another Girl '' `` You 're Going to Lose That Girl '' `` Ticket to Ride '' Side two `` Act Naturally '' `` It 's Only Love '' `` You Like Me Too Much '' `` Tell Me What You See '' `` I 've Just Seen a Face '' `` Yesterday '' `` Dizzy Miss Lizzy '' Non-album tracks `` I 'm Down '' `` Yes It Is '' `` Bad Boy '' Outtakes `` If You 've Got Trouble '' `` That Means a Lot '' `` Wait '' Related article Help ! ( film ) The Beatles discography Help ! ( George Martin album ) Please Please Me With the Beatles A Hard Day 's Night Beatles for Sale Help ! Rubber Soul Revolver Sgt. Pepper 's Lonely Hearts Club Band Magical Mystery Tour The Beatles ( White Album ) Yellow Submarine Abbey Road Let It Be Past Masters The Beatles singles discography UK and US ( all labels ) 1963 `` Please Please Me '' / `` Ask Me Why '' `` From Me to You '' / `` Thank You Girl '' `` She Loves You '' / `` I 'll Get You '' 1964 `` Ca n't Buy Me Love '' / `` You Ca n't Do That '' `` I Feel Fine '' / `` She 's a Woman '' 1965 `` Ticket to Ride '' / `` Yes It Is '' `` Help ! '' / `` I 'm Down '' `` We Can Work It Out '' / `` Day Tripper '' 1966 `` Paperback Writer '' / `` Rain '' `` Yellow Submarine '' / `` Eleanor Rigby '' 1967 `` Penny Lane '' / `` Strawberry Fields Forever '' `` All You Need Is Love '' / `` Baby, You 're a Rich Man '' `` Hello, Goodbye '' / `` I Am the Walrus '' 1968 `` Lady Madonna '' / `` The Inner Light '' `` Hey Jude '' / `` Revolution '' 1969 `` Get Back '' / `` Do n't Let Me Down '' `` The Ballad of John and Yoko '' / `` Old Brown Shoe '' `` Something '' / `` Come Together '' 1970 `` Let It Be '' / `` You Know My Name ( Look Up the Number ) '' 1978 `` Sgt. Pepper 's Lonely Hearts Club Band / With a Little Help from My Friends '' / `` A Day in the Life '' 1982 `` The Beatles Movie Medley '' / `` I 'm Happy Just to Dance with You '' 1995 `` Free as a Bird '' / `` Christmas Time ( Is Here Again ) '' `` Real Love '' / `` Baby 's in Black '' UK only ( Parlophone, Apple ) 1962 `` My Bonnie '' / `` The Saints '' `` Love Me Do '' / `` P.S. I Love You '' 1963 `` I Want to Hold Your Hand '' / `` This Boy '' 1964 `` Ai n't She Sweet '' / `` If You Love Me, Baby '' `` A Hard Day 's Night '' / `` Things We Said Today '' 1976 `` Yesterday '' / `` I Should Have Known Better '' `` Back in the U.S.S.R. '' / `` Twist and Shout '' US only ( Vee - Jay, Swan, Tollie, Capitol, Apple ) 1963 `` I Want to Hold Your Hand '' / `` I Saw Her Standing There '' 1964 `` Twist and Shout '' / `` There 's a Place '' `` Do You Want to Know a Secret '' / `` Thank You Girl '' `` Love Me Do '' / `` P.S. I Love You '' `` Sie liebt dich '' / `` I 'll Get You '' `` I 'll Cry Instead '' / `` I 'm Happy Just to Dance with You '' `` And I Love Her '' / `` If I Fell '' `` A Hard Day 's Night '' / `` I Should Have Known Better '' `` Matchbox '' / `` Slow Down '' 1965 `` Eight Days a Week '' / `` I Do n't Want to Spoil the Party '' `` Yesterday '' / `` Act Naturally '' 1966 `` Nowhere Man '' / `` What Goes On '' 1970 `` The Long and Winding Road '' / `` For You Blue '' 1976 `` Got to Get You into My Life '' / `` Helter Skelter '' `` Ob - La - Di, Ob - La - Da '' / `` Julia '' Other countries ( Odeon, Parlophone, Apple ) 1963 `` All My Loving '' / `` This Boy '' ( Canada ) 1964 `` Komm, gib mir deine Hand / Sie liebt dich '' ( Germany ) 1966 `` Norwegian Wood ( This Bird Has Flown ) '' / `` Nowhere Man '' ( Australia ) 1968 `` Ob - La - Di, Ob - La - Da '' / `` While My Guitar Gently Weeps '' ( Europe, Japan, Australia ) `` Ob - La - Di, Ob - La - Da '' / `` I Will '' ( Philippines ) `` Back in the U.S.S.R. '' / `` Do n't Pass Me By '' ( Sweden ) 1969 `` You 're Going to Lose That Girl '' / `` Tell Me What You See '' ( Japan ) 1970 `` Oh ! Darling '' / `` Here Comes the Sun '' ( Japan ) 1972 `` All Together Now '' / `` Hey Bulldog '' ( Europe ) 1978 `` Sgt. Pepper 's Lonely Hearts Club Band / With a Little Help from My Friends '' / `` Within You Without You '' ( Germany ) Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Yesterday_(Beatles_song)&oldid=834146687 '' Categories : 1965 songs 1965 singles 1976 singles The Beatles songs Capitol Records singles Parlophone singles Songs written by Lennon -- McCartney Song recordings produced by George Martin Songs published by Northern Songs Billboard Hot 100 number - one singles Number - one singles in Norway Baroque pop songs Torch songs Pop ballads 1960s ballads Hidden categories : Webarchive template wayback links CS1 German - language sources ( de ) Music infoboxes with deprecated parameters Articles which use infobox templates with no data rows Articles with hAudio microformats Singlechart usages for Austria Singlechart usages for Belgium ( Flanders ) Singlechart usages for Dutch100 Singlechart usages for Norway Singlechart usages for Billboardhot100 Singlechart called without song Singlechart usages for Ireland2 Singlechart usages for UK Singlechart called without artist Singlechart usages for Spain Singlechart usages for Poland Certification Table Entry usages for United States All articles with dead external links Articles with dead external links from September 2014 Use dmy dates from June 2014 Talk Contents About Wikipedia Català Čeština Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français 한국어 Հայերեն Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Italiano עברית ქართული Latviešu Lietuvių Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Polski Português Română Русский Scots Sicilianu Slovenčina Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska ไทย Türkçe Українська Tiếng Việt 中文 31 more Edit links This page was last edited on 4 April 2018, at 05 : 09. 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Question: who sang yesterday all my troubles seemed so far away
Answer: McCartney