"Yesterday" - History of the Classic Beatles Song First released: September 13, 1965 (US: Capitol 5498; b-side "Act Naturally") Available on: (CDs in bold) Help!, (UK: Parlophone PMC 1255, US: Capitol (S)MAS 2386, Parlophone CDP 7 46439 2) Yesterday and Today, (US: Capitol (S)T 2553) Yesterday (EP), (UK: Parlophone GEP 8948) The Beatles 1962-1966, (UK: Apple PCSP 717, US: Apple SKBO 3403, Apple CDP 0777 7 97036 2 3) The Beatles 1, (Apple CDP 7243 5 299702 2) continue reading below our video Highest Paid Female Actors Ever Highest chart position: 1 (US: four weeks beginning October 9, 1965) History: Although Paul McCartney and George Martin have claimed this was written during

 the Beatles' 1964 tour of France, which would have made it a year and a half old when it was recorded, Paul's later claim of the song coming to him in a dream at girlfriend Jane Asher's house, along with other anecdotal evidence, would seem to suggest that it was written sometime in January 1965, when Paul awoke with the full melody intact and played it on the piano in Asher's attic.

The odd (but not unheard of) nature of the song's "creation" caused Paul to take the melody around to industry vets for about a month, asking them if he'd unconsciously stolen someone else's song. In order to keep the melody in his mind, Paul wrote a comedic first verse that went, in part, "Scrambled eggs / Oh how I really really love your legs..." Having shown it to the band in the spring of 1965, the group began to refer to the uncompleted song as "Scrambled Eggs," perhaps ensuring that the finished version would start with its title. Paul kept working at the melody in off hours, leading Help! director Richard Lester to jokingkly threaten to throw the piano off the soundstage if McCartney didn't stop playing it. Finally, on May 27, 1965, Paul flew to Lisbon, Portugal, to vacation at the villa of Shadows member Bruce Welch.

On the car ride in, Paul began to compose lyrics on the back of an envelope, based around a title (and theme) of "Yesterday." Although the other group members liked "Yesterday" well enough, they didn't consider it Beatles material -- especially not after George Martin, the band's producer, suggested scoring it with nothing but acoustic guitar and a string section. Martin thought of releasing it as a solo Paul single, but even McCartney balked at that; his own main concern was that the result not sound too much like easy-listening music. Finally, compromises were reached: Martin used a classier string quartet for the arrangement, and McCartney agreed not to release the song as a single in England. (Though it was released there on an EP of the same name, and as a single in 1976.) The song was done in two takes, Paul having reversed two lines accidentally in the first. The string quartet was laid down the next day, with McCartney's vocal fed into the studio as a guide. Martin's contribution to "Yesterday," other than the arrangement, was to convince Paul that a one-word title was not "corny." Paul, for his part, had but one instruction to the string quartet: no vibrato.

(He was reportedly afraid the result would sound like gypsy music.) Capitol made the decisions on which songs were released as singles in the US, however, but "Yesterday" was not even considered for a-side single release there; it was relegated only to the flip of "Act Naturally," sung by Ringo, the group's most popular member in the US. However, fan reaction was immediate, and the song was quickly repositioned as the a-side. The vague lyrics have been rumored to deal with the very sudden death of McCartney's mother, and the resultant guilt he felt over his selfish and somewhat cold reaction to it. If this is true, it would appear to be subconscious on the singer's part. The performance of the song on the British TV show Blackpool Night Out (August 1965, and the very first performance of this song on television) reportedly shows Paul dedicating this song to ex-girlfriend Iris Caldwell. Other reports have him phoning Iris, who supposedly found him too unemotional, and playing the song for her to prove otherwise.

John Lennon, who liked the song, was bothered by the lyrics' lack of resolution; he was also bothered for the rest of his life by fans who thought he'd cowritten it (as the credits insist) and would sing it whenever they saw him. He was known to mock the song in the studio during his solo years. ("I'm not half the man I used to be...

now I'm an amputee.") Live versions: August 8, 1965 (Blackpool Night Out, ABC Theatre, Blackpool, England), August 14, 1965 (Ed Sullivan Show, CBS Theatre, New York, NY), June 24, 1966 (Circus-Krone-Bau, Munich, Germany), June 25, 1966 (Grugahalle, Essen, Germany), June 26, 1966 (Ernst Merck Halle, Hamburg, Germany), June 30 - July 2, 1966 (Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan), July 4, 1966 (Rizal Memorial Football Stadium, Manila, Philippines), August 12, 1966 (International Amphitheatre, Chicago, IL), August 13, 1966 (Olympia Stadium, Detroit, MI), August 14, 1966 (Municipal Stadium, Cleveland, OH), August 15, 1966 (Washington Stadium, Washington, DC), August 16, 1966

 (Philadelphia Stadium, Philadelphia, PA), August 17, 1966 (Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Canada), August 18, 1966 (Suffolk Downs Racecourse, Boston, MA), August 19, 1966 (Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, TN), August 21, 1966 (Crosley Field, Cincinnati, OH), August 21, 1966 (Busch Stadium, St.

Louis, MO), August 23, 1966 (Shea Stadium, New York, NY), August 25, 1966 (Seattle Coliseum, Seattle, WA), August 28, 1966 (Dodger Stadium, Los Angeles, CA), August 30, 1966 (Candlestick Park, San Francisco, CA) Prev Yesterday: the song that started as Scrambled Eggs - Telegraph The Beatles Yesterday: the song that started as Scrambled Eggs Fifty years after its recording, Paul McCartney's Yesterday still resonates. But did you know the fascinating back-story of this Beatles hit? The Beatles: Yesterday and Today By Alice Vincent , Entertainment Writer 8:51AM BST 18 Jun 2015 Follow Yesterday, The Beatles' ode to lost love which has become the most covered song in the world, was recorded and mastered during this week 50 years ago. Arguably Paul McCartney's most recognisable creation, Yesterday also has one of the most fascinating backstories in contemporary musical history. Here are five things you might not know: It came to him in a dream Quite literally.

As McCartney explained in 1980: "I woke up with a lovely tune in my head. I thought, 'That’s great, I wonder what that is?' There was an upright piano next to me, to the right of the bed by the window. I got out of bed, sat at the piano, found G, found F sharp minor 7th – and that leads you through then to B to E minor, and finally back to E. It all leads forward logically. I liked the melody a lot but because I’d dreamed it I couldn’t believe I’d written it. I thought, ‘No, I’ve never written like this before.’ But I had the tune, which was the most magic thing." McCartney was living in Wimpole Street, London, at the time, at the family home of Jane Asher, who he was dating at the time. Asher was present, albeit asleep, several months later when the final lyrics were attached to the song, during an 180-mile drive through Portugal. • In pictures: The Beatles UK number ones It sparked the break-up of The Beatles Yesterday was the first song a Beatle recorded without the accompaniment of his band members.

McCartney played on it alone, and for the rest of 1965 he and John Lennon worked individually on Beatles songs, after years of collaborating on material. They still credited their material Lennon/McCartney, but this was the result of diplomacy by producer George Martin, whose plea to attribute the song to McCartney was shot down by Beatles manager Brian Epstein. Epstein reportedly said: "No, whatever we do we are not splitting up The Beatles." It would take another five years for the group to disband. In 2000, McCartney asked Yoko Ono if she could change the credit to McCartney–Lennon in The Beatles Anthology. She declined his plea. • 100 greatest songs of all time It was originally called Scrambled Eggs Keen to not forget his magical dream melody, McCartney wrote some temporary lyrics for the song – about scrambled eggs, and named it after the breakfast dish. They went: "Scrambled eggs, oh, my baby, how I love your legs…" Contrary to rumour, a second verse, in which the singer praised cottage fries and his muse's thighs, didn't ever get written as McCartney would end up laughing after the first line.

Scrambled Eggs became a running joke between the band for "months and months" before it was recorded in June, according to Lennon, who said: "Every time we got together to write songs or for a recording session, this would come up. It became a joke between us. We almost had it finished when we made up our minds that only a one word title would suit and, believe me, we just couldn’t find the right one. Then, one morning, Paul woke up, and the song and the title were both there. Completed! I know it sound like a fairy tale, but it is the plain truth. I was sorry, in a way, because we had so many laughs about it." Paul McCartney and John Lennon It was the unofficial soundtrack to the making of Help! Yesterday's Scrambled Eggs phase collided with the making of The Beatles' 1965 caper Help!, much to the annoyance of its director Richard Lester. He remembers threatening to remove a piano on set after McCartney played the tune incessantly: "It got to the point where I said to him, 'If you play that bloody song any longer I’ll have the piano taken off stage.

Either finish it or give it up!" • The Beatles' chart success in rivals and numbers It was one of the first pop songs to feature a string quartet McCartney took some convincing to add strings to his simple master recording of him singing Yesterday and playing along on acoustic guitar. Producer Martin was the one to get the quartet on the record, and made music history in the process. Once the recording had been made, however, it didn't take long for the Beatle to realise the record's success. The cellist, Francisco Gabarro, recalls that McCartney came up to him in the EMI canteen and said, "We have a winner with that Yesterday." It became the ultimate 'Told-You-So' song According to his ex-girlfriend Iris Caldwell, McCartney got in touch shortly after the song was recorded. The pair had split up in 1963, and when McCartney tried to call her after their fall-out Caldwell's mother told him Iris didn't want to speak to him because he "had no feelings". McCartney was due to perform Yesterday on TV programme Blackpool Night Out on August 1, 1965.

But he called Caldwell's mother out the blue the week before, and said, "You know that you said that I had no feelings? Watch the telly on Sunday and then tell me that I've got no feelings." "Scrambled Eggs" - Real story of the song "Yesterday" - YouTube "Scrambled Eggs" - Real story of the song "Yesterday" Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Nov 8, 2014 Composers get inspired to write songs for various reasons and most songs have a story behind it. The story of “Yesterday” by the Beatles is quite amazing. Sir Paul McCartney was the chef in the band BEATLES, and used to cook for the band members. One morning he was making Scrambled Eggs, when a simple tune came to his head - the tune was “Yesterday”, and the rest is history.

“Yesterday”, a #1 hit in 1969 has been recorded and re-recorded by many artists in all possible genres – pop, jazz, blues, classical…etc., and the current count is over 3200 cover versions - the highest ever. I always wondered what the song would have been like if Paul continued his original thought “scrambled eggs” instead of changing to “Yesterday”!! Category Yesterday by The Beatles Songfacts Yesterday by The Beatles Songfacts Songfacts This is the most covered pop song of all time, with over 3,000 versions recorded according to The Guinness Book Of World Records. For years, it was also the song with the most radio plays, but in 1999 BMI music publishing reported that " You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin' " had passed it. Still, at any given time, some version of "Yesterday" is probably being broadcast somewhere. Paul McCartney wrote this song and was the only Beatle to play on it. It was the first time a Beatle recorded without the others, and marked a shift to more independent accomplishments among the group.

While John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote The Beatles early songs together, by 1965 most of their songs were primarily written by one or the other, although they continued to credit all their songs Lennon/McCartney. A string quartet was brought in to play on this track. In addition to the strings, this is notable as one of the first pop songs to use elements of classical music. When producer George Martin first suggested adding a string quartet, Paul McCartney responded; "Oh no, George. We are a rock 'n' roll band and I don't think it's a good idea." This was the first Beatles song that could not be reproduced live without additional musicians. When they played it live, including their famous Shea Stadium concert, it was just McCartney with an acoustic guitar. McCartney claimed that while The Beatles were touring in Paris, he tumbled out of bed and this tune was in his head. He thought he had heard it somewhere before, and played the melody to different people in the music industry to make sure he wasn't stealing it. The working title was "Scrambled Eggs" until Paul could figure out lyrics. This was the first Beatles song to capture a mass adult market.

Most of their fans were young people to this point, but this song gave the band a great deal of credibility among the older crowd. It also became one of their "Muzak" classics, as companies recorded instrumental versions as soothing background noise for shopping centers and elevators. Another Beatles song that lived on in this form is " Here Comes The Sun ." McCartney wrote some of the lyrics during a five-hour car trip from Lisbon to Albufeira (in Algarve, south of Portugal), on the 27th of May 1965, when he was on vacation with Jane Asher. The villa where Paul and Jane stayed was owned by Shadows' guitarist Bruce Welch. Bruce said that when he was packing to leave, Paul asked him if he had a guitar because (Paul) was working on the lyrics since the airport. Said Bruce: "He borrowed my guitar and started playing the song we all now know as 'Yesterday'." >> Suggestion credit: Rato - Lisbon, Portugal The Beatles performed this on their third live Ed Sullivan Show appearance and on their last tour. For the live appearances, McCartney would play with a prerecorded backing track of strings.

McCartney says that when he performed it on Sullivan, just before the curtain opened a stagehand asked him, "Are you nervous?" "No," Paul lied, to which the man responded, "You should be. There's 73 million people watching." This was one of five Beatles songs McCartney performed on his "Wings Over America" tour in 1976. McCartney had to ask Michael Jackson to use this in his movie Give My Regards to Broadstreet. Jackson outbid McCartney for the publishing rights to The Beatles catalogue, something that fractured their friendship as McCartney counseled Jackson on the value of publishing rights. McCartney has consistently talked about how easy this song was for him to compose. In describing it, he has said "I did the tune easily and then the words took about two weeks." >> Suggestion credit: Shannon - Kathleen, GA This song caused a rift between McCartney and Yoko Ono. When The Beatles Anthology album was released, McCartney asked that the writing credit on this read "McCartney/Lennon," since he wrote it.

Yoko refused, and it was listed as "Lennon/McCartney," which is how they usually credited songs written by either Beatle (between Please Please Me and With The Beatles, the song credits turned from McCartney/Lennon to Lennon/McCartney). In 2003, McCartney switched the writing credit for the first time when he listed 19 Beatles songs on his Back In The US album as "Paul McCartney and John Lennon." Paul claims he and John made an informal agreement in 1962 regarding the credits, but he had every right to switch it if he chose. Yoko disagreed. Some of the artists who have covered this song include Boyz II Men, Ray Charles, En Vogue, Marianne Faithfull, Marvin Gaye, Tom Jones , Nana Mouskouri, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, The Supremes, The Toys, Andy Williams, and Tammy Wynette. >> Suggestion credit: Jerro - New Alexandria, PA This was featured in the 1997 movie Bean, when the title character (played by Rowan Atkinson) sings it with David Langley (played by Peter MacNicol) as they trot home one night.

>> Suggestion credit: Tiffany - Dover, FL Paul McCartney's first performance at the Grammys came in 2006. He joined in with Jay-Z and the lead singer of Linkin Park to sing part of the lyrics to this song. Paul also performed "Fine Line" and "Helter Skelter" earlier in the show. >> Suggestion credit: Patrick - Statesville, NC When McCartney played this song, he tuned his guitar one tone lower than usual. On a recording that can be heard on The Beatles Anthology, he explains to the musicians before the song: "I'm in G, but it's F." >> Suggestion credit: Mikhail Povorin - Moscow, Russia Federation John Lennon referenced this song in his anti-McCartney solo effort " How Do You Sleep? " with the lyrics, ''The only thing you've done was yesterday, and since you've gone you're just another day." >> Suggestion credit: Jordan - Buffalo, NY Carrie Underwood performed this song at the Primetime Emmy Awards on September 22, 2013 in honor of The Beatles historic Ed Sullivan Show appearance nearly 50 years earlier (February 9, 1964).

Underwood's performance was conceived as an affirmation of the power of television and its impact on music and entertainment, as she got her start on the TV show American Idol. Underwood didn't switch the gender for her performance, singing "I'm not half the man I used to be." The Beatles, 'Yesterday' | 500 Greatest Songs of All Time | Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time 500 Greatest Songs of All Time Rolling Stone's definitive list of the 500 greatest songs of all time. 500 Writers: John Lennon, Paul McCartney Producer: George Martin Released: Sept. '65, Capitol 11 weeks; No. 1 Paul McCartney 's greatest ballad holds a Guinness World Record as the most recorded song of all time; seven years later, there were 1,186 versions by artists as varied as Frank Sinatra , Otis Redding and Willie Nelson . But McCartney's original reading — cut on June 14th, 1965, at EMI's Abbey Road studios in London — remains the most beautiful and daring of all: a frank poem of regret scored and sung with haunted elegance. There are no other Beatles on the record.

None were needed. George Martin's arrangement for a string quartet emphasized lower-octave melancholy, while McCartney's almost whispered vocal reverberated with longing in the big, dark spaces where drums and electric guitars would have been. The melody, he said, came to him in a dream: "My dad used to know a lot of old jazz tunes, I thought maybe I'd just remembered it from the past." McCartney auditioned the song for Martin, with the working title "Scrambled Eggs," in a hotel room in Paris in January 1964 — before the Beatles had even landed in America — but would not record it for another year and a half. "We were a little embarrassed about it," McCartney confessed. "We were a rock & roll band." A Number One single in America, "Yesterday" was, in his own words, "the most complete song I have ever written." Appears on: Help! (Capitol/Apple) Yesterday | The Beatles Bible Love Written by Paul McCartney, Yesterday holds the record as the most covered song in history, according to the Guinness Book of Records. Well, we all know about Yesterday. 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. John Lennon, 1980 All We Are Saying, David Sheff Paul McCartney is said to have composed the melody in a dream while staying at the family home of Jane Asher in Wimpole Street, London. The melody came to McCartney fully-formed, although he was initially unsure of its originality. I was living in a little flat at the top of a house and i had a piano by my bed. I woke up one morning with a tune in my head and I thought, 'Hey, I don't know this tune - or do I?' It was like a jazz melody. My dad used to know a lot of old jazz tunes; I thought maybe I'd just remembered it from the past. I went to the piano and found the chords to it, made sure I remembered it and then hawked it round to all my friends, asking what it was: 'Do you know this? It's a good little tune, but I couldn't have written it because I dreamt it.' Paul McCartney Anthology The song's working title was Scrambled Eggs; its second line was "Oh my baby how I love your legs.

George Martin claims to have first heard the song at the George V hotel in Paris in January 1964. Paul said he wanted a one-word title and was considering Yesterday, except that he thought it was perhaps too corny. I persuaded him that it was all right. George Martin The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn If McCartney did compose Yesterday in early 1964, it would have been left off two Beatles albums before they recorded it. McCartney's authorised biographer Barry Miles put the date of composition at May 1965, during the filming of Help!, when he was known to have been experimenting with the song's lyrics. We were shooting Help! in the studio for about four weeks. At some point during that period, we had a piano on one of the stages and he was playing this 'Scrambled Eggs' all the time. It got to the point where I said to him, 'If you play that bloody song any longer have the piano taken off stage. Either finish it or give up!' Richard Lester A Hard Day's Write, Steve Turner The Shadows' guitarist Bruce Welch recalled McCartney completing the lyrics in June 1965.

McCartney took a holiday at Welch's Portuguese villa, where he is said to have settled on the title Yesterday. I was packing to leave and Paul asked me if I had a guitar. He'd apparently been working on the lyrics as he drove to Albufeira from the airport at Lisbon. He borrowed my guitar and started playing the song we all now know as Yesterday. Bruce Welch A Hard Day's Write, Steve Turner Although famously arranged for guitar and string quartet, McCartney considered having the BBC Radiophonic Workshop do a futuristic electronic version of Yesterday. It occurred to me to have the BBC Radiophonic Workshop do the backing track to it and me just sing over an electronic quartet. I went down to see them... The woman who ran it was very nice and they had a little shed at the bottom of the garden where most of the work was done. I said, 'I'm into this sort of stuff.' I'd heard a lot about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, we'd all heard a lot about it. It would have been very interesting to do, but I never followed it up.

Paul McCartney Many Years From Now, Barry Miles In the studio Initial recording for Yesterday took place on 14 June 1965, after the band completed I've Just Seen A Face and I'm Down . Paul McCartney recorded his guitar and vocals simultaneously in just two takes. After attempting an unrecorded arrangement of Yesterday with John Lennon on Hammond organ, George Martin suggested to McCartney that they use a string quartet - a first for The Beatles. McCartney was initially skeptical, and insisted the musicians perform without vibrato. McCartney and Martin worked on the score together, with the majority written by Martin. Writing a song out with George Martin was nearly always the same process. For Yesterday he had said, 'Look, why don't you come round to my house tomorrow? I've got a piano, and I've got the manuscript paper. We'll sit down for an hour or so, and you can let me know what you're looking for'... He would say, 'This is the way to do the harmony, technically.' And I'd often try to go against that. I'd think, 'Well, why should there be a proper way to do it?' Yesterday was typical.

I remember suggesting the 7th that appears on the cello. George said, 'You definitely wouldn't have that in there. That would be very un-string-quartet. I said, 'Well? Whack it in, George. I've got to have it.' Paul McCartney Anthology The strings were overdubbed on 17 June, and Paul attempted the vocals again. He didn't use headphones, and the original vocal track leaked from the studio speakers to the second recording, giving the impression of double-tracked singing. The string players went uncredited on Help!, the album Yesterday first appeared on. Rather than being a regular quartet, the other players were recruited by violinist Tony Gilbert especially for the session. Yesterday's legacy The Beatles never allowed Yesterday to be released as a single in the UK, fearing that it would affect their image. The song did, however, become a part of the band's full live set during their 1966 world tour. I wouldn't have put it out as a solo Paul McCartney record. We never entertained those ideas. It was sometimes tempting; people would flatter us: 'Oh, you know you should get out front,' or, 'You should put a solo record out.

But we always said no. In fact, we didn't release Yesterday as a single in England at all, because we were a little embarrassed about it - we were a rock 'n' roll band. Paul McCartney Anthology In 1980 John Lennon explained how he was often mistakenly credited with having written the song. I go to restaurants and the groups always play Yesterday. Yoko and I even signed a guy's violin in Spain after he played us Yesterday. He couldn't understand that I didn't write the song. But I guess he couldn't have gone from table to table playing I Am The Walrus . John Lennon, 1980 All We Are Saying, David Sheff In the same interview Lennon spoke of McCartney's skills as a lyricist. A couple of lines he's come up with show indications he's a good lyricist, but he just never took it anywhere. He wrote the lyrics to Yesterday. Although the lyrics don't resolve 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 was yesterday - that much you get - but it doesn't really resolve. So, mine didn't use to resolve, either... John Lennon All We Are Saying, David Sheff Yesterday was issued as a US single in September 1966. Newspapers at the time commentated that "Paul McCartney is number one without the other Beatles". It swiftly became the most-played song on American radio, a position it held for eight consecutive years. Since its release there have been over 3,000 cover versions of Yesterday. The Beatles: 50 Facts for the 50th Anniversary | Ed Sullivan Show The Beatles: 50 Facts for the 50th Anniversary The Beatles: 50 Facts for the 50th Anniversary 1. John Lennon met Paul McCartney at a Liverpool church fair where Lennon’s band The Quarrymen were playing. Paul would join the group shortly thereafter. 2. Though not widely known, Stuart Sutcliffe was an original member of The Beatles, playing bass in the group’s early years.

John Lennon and Stuart were art school friends and after he sold one of his paintings was encouraged to buy a musical instrument: either bass or drums as the band was in need of both. 3. John Lennon met his first wife, Cynthia, at art school in Liverpool. They married on August 23rd, 1962. John was 21 and Cynthia 22. 4. The band’s manager, Brian Epstein, insisted that Lennon’s marriage and subsequent child be kept secret so as not to dissuade the band’s growing legion of female fans. 5. The group’s first professional recordings were as the backing band for singer Tony Sheridan. 6. The version of “Love Me Do” heard on The Beatles first album, Please, Please Me, features session drummer Andy White, not Ringo Starr. George Martin wasn’t happy with original drummer Pete Best during the band’s first session and booked White as a back-up. The version featuring Starr was released as a single in the UK, however. A version featuring Pete Best from the band’s test session can be heard on the Anthology 1 compilation. 7.

Producer George Martin insisted the group record and release the song “How Do You Do It” by Mitch Murray as their first single. While they did record the song, Martin eventually went with their original composition “Love Me Do,” a bold move in a time where most recording artists were expected to sing songs written by professional songwriters. 8. “How Do You Do It” was eventually recorded and released by another Liverpool band, Gerry & the Pacemakers. It reached #1 in the UK. 9. “I Wanna Be Your Man,” the second single for The Rolling Stones, was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and wound up being a hit for The Stones. The Beatles would release the song on their 1963 album With The Beatles. 10. Just a month prior to The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show the group sold 1 million copies of “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” their first US single. 11. On February 9, 1964, The Beatles played a set of 5 songs on The Ed Sullivan Show: “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You,” “She Loves You,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” 12.

After their Ed Sullivan Show performance, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” would go on to sell another 2 million copies. 13. There were 0 reported crimes in New York City that night of February 9, 1964. 14. At the time, Ringo Starr was 23, as was the slightly younger John Lennon. Paul McCartney was 21, and George Harrison, the youngest, was a mere 20 years old. 15. That evening 73 million people watched The Beatles on Ed Sullivan which was over 23 million households. This was equal to the 45% of the US population. 60% of televisions were watching The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show that evening. 16. Over 50,000 requests for seats were submitted. The CBS Theater held 700 that night. 17. The title for “A Hard Day’s Night” came from an off-hand remark by Ringo Starr, who was known for his odd sayings, sometimes known as Ringoisms. 18. George Harrison met his future wife Patty on the set of “A Hard Day’s Night” where she was cast as an extra. 19.

Some of the dialog in the film was taken from actual interviews The Beatles gave, especially the parade of questions the group receives from various partygoers in the film. 20. “Yesterday,” one of The Beatles most popular songs, originally had the working title “Scrambled Eggs.” 21. In the summer of 1964, a legendary get-together with Bob Dylan took place in New York City. Dylan offered The Beatles marijuana, turning them onto the drug for the first time. 22. The meeting between Dylan and The Beatles would have a profound impact on both artists. The Beatles album Rubber Soul featured many folk and acoustic arrangements while Dylan would ignite a firestorm of controversy by giving his first electric performance a few months later. 23. The blistering guitar solo featured on the George Harrison penned “Taxman,” which kicks off the album Revolver, was actually played by Paul McCartney. 24. One of the many recording innovations that were used on Revolver was the first notable use of a “backwards” guitar solo. This can be heard prominently on “I’m Only Sleeping.” The technique was discovered by accident when an engineer loaded a tape in backwards.

George Harrison then carefully wrote out his guitar solo so that he would be able to record it playing it in reverse. The solo was then played-back backwards, giving it a strange, ethereal effect. 25. A real life Eleanor Rigby did live in Liverpool, however this was unknown to any of The Beatles. In an even more astounding coincidence, her gravestone lies in the cemetery next to the church where John and Paul first met. 26. John Lennon met his future second wife, Yoko Ono, at the Indica Gallery, London, during one of her exhibitions. Yoko Ono supposedly had never heard of The Beatles. 27. Though Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band is considered to be one of the first concept albums, a close observation reveals that the conceit of Sgt. Pepper mostly dissipates after “With a Little Help From My Friends.” John Lennon was reported in interviews saying that none of his contributions to the album were based around the Sgt. Pepper theme. 28. The song “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds,” though widely thought to be a reference to the drug LSD, was said by John Lennon to be inspired by a drawing his son Julian brought home from school. 29.

According to a recent interview with Julian Lennon, the “Lucy” drawing is currently owned by Pink Floyd’s David Gilmore. 30. Shortly after John and Cynthia Lennon divorced, Paul paid an unexpected visit to check in on Cynthia and young Julian. On the way home, Paul would come up with the idea for “Hey Jude.” 31. The prominent guitar solo on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” was played by George Harrison’s friend Eric Clapton. He was brought in during the difficult sessions for The White Album in the hopes that an outsider would force the band members to act more professional. 32. Harrison returned the favor by recording guitar for Clapton’s band Cream on the song “Badge” under the pseudonym L’Angelo Misterioso. 33. Harrison again employed this method when he brought in keyboardist Billy Preston during the “Get Back” sessions, which later morphed into the album Let It Be. Billy Preston was the only non-Beatle to receive a performance credit on a proper Beatles release. 34. The song “Dear Prudence” was written by John Lennon while on The Beatles meditation retreat in India.

The Prudence mentioned in the song is the sister of actress Mia Farrow. While many of the guests at the retreat would socialize with each other, Prudence Farrow often spent intense hours meditating alone in her bungalow. 35. During the sessions for The White Album, Ringo Starr briefly quit the band. As a result, Paul McCartney can be heard playing drums on “Back in the USSR” and “Dear Prudence.” 36. John Lennon learned the finger-picking guitar style used on “Dear Prudence” from folk singer Donovan, who was also attending the retreat. 37. The song “Helter Skelter” was written in response to a statement made by The Who’s Pete Townshend commenting on how loud a recent recording of theirs was (believed to be the song “I Can See For Miles”). The Beatles recorded the track very intensely, which led to Ringo Starr’s infamous cry at the end of the recording: “I got blisters on me fingers!” 38. During what was known at the time as the Get Back sessions, George Harrison also quit the band briefly after becoming frustrated by the ceaseless tension amongst the group. 39.

The Beatles infamous Apple Rooftop concert was the result of a compromise to get George to rejoin the band. The Get Back concept originally was to include a series of live performances shot for a television film. This was nixed due to Harrison’s objections and the decision was made to shoot a performance outside, on top of The Beatles corporate headquarters. This would be the band’s final concert. 40. The Beatles essentially washed their hands of the Get Back sessions and instead focused on recording Abbey Road. After The Beatles rejected two different mixes of an album, John Lennon handed the session tapes over to producer Phil Spector, who remixed it, adding orchestrations that were not there before. This resulted in the album Let It Be. 41. Not all of The Beatles agreed on the final product that was Let It Be. While John Lennon was pleased with the results, Paul McCartney in particular was not happy with the alterations. In 2003, a remix of the album, Let It Be…Naked was released, stripping away much of the Phil Spector post-production. 42.

“The Ballad of John and Yoko,” The Beatles 1969 single, is an autobiographical account of John Lennon’s marriage to Yoko Ono and subsequent honeymoon. The lyrics reference their wedding in Gibraltar, Spain as well as their “Bed-In” protests against the Vietnam War. The song was hastily recorded with just Lennon and McCartney while the other members were unavailable. 43. Despite being the last album The Beatles released, Let It Be was actually recorded before Abbey Road. This would be the group’s final effort as a band. 44. The Beatles originally thought of shooting the cover for the album that became Abbey Road at Mount Everest. Instead they decided to shoot the iconic album cover right outside their studio. 45. Abbey Road concludes with a medley of songs that takes up the bulk of its second side: “You Never Give Me Your Money,” “Sun King,” “Mean Mr. Mustard,” “Polythene Pam,” “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window,” “Golden Slumbers,” “Carry That Weight,” and “The End.” These were essentially scraps of songs that the band never got a chance to finish writing. 46.

“She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” was inspired by The Beatles enthusiasts who would hang around the band member’s homes and offices. Paul McCartney in particular was subject to various break-ins by fans searching for souvenirs. 47. The final track on Abbey Road, “Her Majesty,” was originally supposed to be slotted between “Mean Mr. Mustard” and “Polythene Pam” on the album’s closing medley, but McCartney decided he didn’t like the song and ordered it cut. Under instructions not to throw away anything The Beatles recorded, the studio engineer spliced it on to the end of the reel after several seconds of blank tape. McCartney liked it much better that way and so it remained there for the commercial release. 48. The character of Pam in the song “Mean Mr. Mustard” (“His sister Pam works in the shop”) was originally called Shirley. John Lennon changed it so the song would fit better with the subsequent track, “Polythene Pam.” 49. “The End” features the only drum solo recorded by Ringo Starr as a member of The Beatles. 50. “The End” also features a climatic jam with John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison all providing guitar solos.

Related Posts: The Beatles & scrambled eggs | Itineraries of Taste The Beatles & scrambled eggs 1963 - 1980 The Beatles & scrambled eggs What would have happened if Paul McCartney had never come up with the words for “Yesterday”? One of the most covered songs in the history of music would have instead been left languishing as a beautiful but oddly comic paean to that most comforting of breakfast dishes, scrambled eggs. In fact, “Scrambled Eggs” was the working title McCartney gave to the tune, which he said came to him almost fully formed in a dream one night in 1963. Twenty-one-year-old McCartney was living in an attic room facing the back of Wimpole Street, a handsome Georgian row parallel to Harley Street in the centre of London. The house was the family home of his girlfriend, Jane Asher, who McCartney had met when the 17-year-old actress interviewed the Beatles at a concert at the Royal Albert Hall in April that year. It was food as much as love that had drawn the young Liverpudlian McCartney to take up residence in the five-story Asher household with Jane’s parents and two siblings.

Tired of staying in shared hotel rooms on their increasingly frequent trips to London, the Beatles had moved in together, sharing a flat on Green Street just off Park Lane (and not far from the Ashers). Despite finally having his own room there, McCartney hated the austere surroundings of the sparsely furnished rented apartment. He missed the cosy comforts of his childhood home in Allerton where, after the death of his mother when he was 14, assorted aunts would come around to cook meals for Paul, his father and brother Michael. Jane Asher’s mother Margaret, a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama who gave oboe lessons in the Wimpole Street basement, cooked every day for the family. However Jane – who would herself go on to become a renowned cake-maker in the 1980s – would later remember that her mother was not a particularly adventurous cook. She told the Daily Telegraph in 2013, “When I grew up, our meals were based on meat and two overcooked veg, with the occasional kipper. Nothing as risky as garlic or chilli was allowed.

The most exotic it got was my mother’s curried eggs: halved hard-boiled eggs covered in a curry-powder-flavoured white sauce.” Nonetheless, it was the warmth of Margaret Asher’s simple cooking that led Paul McCartney to take up her offer of moving into the family’s spare attic room. As he recalled, “It was such a nice household instead of a cold flat – and Margaret Asher cooked!” Perhaps it was the musical atmosphere and his well-fed state that led McCartney to his fateful dream of the tune for “Yesterday”. He fell out of bed one morning and on the adjacent piano hammered out the haunting melody still in his head. Convinced it must be one of the old jazz tunes his father listened to, McCartney played the song to everyone he knew to see if they recognised it. One evening he was playing the tune at the flat of an actress and singer called Alma Cogan. As he sat playing the still wordless tune to Cogan and her sister Sandra, their mother walked into the living room and asked if anyone would like some scrambled eggs.

McCartney sang the words on top of the melody, improvising for the next line, “Oh baby how I love your legs.” It’s not clear which of the three Cogan women inspired this line, but the scrambled eggs – as they often do if not buttered or stirred enough – stuck. It wasn’t until a trip to Portugal more than a year and half later that the lyrics to “Yesterday” finally came to McCartney, and all traces of the eggs were finally removed. Not that food was always excised from Beatles songs. In 2001 American band scholar Martin Lewis analysed 1,800 recordings, from the Beatles’ early material up to their solo careers, and discovered that the most mentioned foodstuff in their lyrics was honey. Meanwhile a sweet tooth became the basis for George Harrison’s 1968 song, “Savoy Truffle”. Harrison had observed his friend Eric Clapton’s fondness for chocolate, despite his increasingly decaying teeth, which had led to continuous pain and a warning from Clapton’s dentist that he needed to stop eating sugar.

Harrison’s song concludes with the brutal warning: “But you'll have to have them all pulled out/ After the Savoy truffle.” Harrison’s dietary beliefs were a big influence on the rest of the band. He was the first to go vegetarian in 1965, and was the most militant, banning all fish and meat from his home. One of his favourite recipes – collected in the 1980 Rock and Roll Cookbook by Peter Frampton’s ex-wife Mary – was called Dark Horse Lentil Soup (heavy on the cumin seeds). In the same book, Ringo Starr gave the instructions to Frampton for his favourite meal as, "Travel to your local fish and chip shop. Ask for cod and chips. Add salt and vinegar to taste. Eat with fingers for best results!" Starr, who suffered from peritonitis as a child, struggled with the spicy Indian food when the band travelled to the Rishikesh ashram in 1968, apparently surviving on the baked beans he had brought with him in his suitcase and, of course, plenty of eggs.

Yoko Ono persuaded John Lennon to adopt a macrobiotic diet in the late Sixties, and the couple were frequent visitors to Seed restaurant, set up in 1968 in the basement of the Gloucester Hotel on Westbourne Terrace by Craig Sams, who would later go on to create Green & Black’s chocolate. Mingling with the likes of Terence Stamp and Marc Bolan, the couple would eat Seed’s rice and vegetable dishes while sat on cushions, at tables made out of electrical cable reels. (Despite the constraints of the diet, Lennon could never completely give up his beloved fried breakfasts and takeaway pizza.) McCartney was to become the most famous vegetarian of the four, forswearing meat completely in the early Seventies after his marriage to Linda Eastman. “During the course of a Sunday lunch we happened to look out of the kitchen window at our young lambs playing happily in the fields. Glancing down at our plates, we suddenly realised that we were eating the leg of an animal who had until recently been playing in a field herself. We looked at each other and said, ‘Wait a minute, we love these sheep – they're such gentle creatures.

So why are we eating them?’ It was the last time we ever did.” McCartney’s simple childhood tastes never completely changed. His wife developed her trademark vegetarian sausages and pies in response to Paul’s desire to fill what he described as, “the hole in the middle of the plate”. And the memory of “Yesterday” still lingers too in the title McCartney gave to Wings’ final 1979 album Back to the Egg. Despite their famous song that said so, none of the Beatles was ever a walrus – but it seems McCartney, at least, spent some time as an egg man. We also recommend

Question: Which Beatles hit song originally had the working title ‘Scrambled Eggs’?
Answer: Yesterday