Paul McCartney Woke Up With a Melody He Thought Might Be Someone Else’s — Then It Became a No. 1 Classic
On September 13, 1965, Capitol Records released “Yesterday” as a single in the United States.
It would become one of the most famous recordings in Beatles history.
But its story began in one of the strangest ways imaginable.
Paul McCartney woke up from a dream with a melody already playing in his head.
He immediately went to a piano and worked out the tune before he could forget it.
There was just one problem.
Paul was not convinced he had actually written it.
The melody felt too complete.
Too familiar.
So he began playing it for people and asking whether they recognized it.
Had he heard it somewhere before?
Was it an old song buried somewhere in his memory?
For weeks, nobody could identify it.
Eventually, Paul accepted that the melody was his.
But the song still did not have its famous words.
While working on it, he used a temporary title:
“Scrambled Eggs.”
The placeholder lyrics were nothing like the heartbreaking song millions would later know.
Only after months of work did the words become “Yesterday.”
Then another unusual thing happened.
When The Beatles entered EMI Studios in June 1965, it became clear that the song did not need the whole band.
Ringo Starr could not find a drum part that made sense.
John Lennon and George Harrison did not see a useful place for additional guitars.
So producer George Martin suggested something unprecedented.
Paul should record it essentially by himself.
McCartney sang and played acoustic guitar.
Then Martin proposed adding a string quartet.
Paul was initially nervous about the idea because he did not want the record to become overly sentimental.
The solution was small and restrained:
two violins, a viola, and a cello.
The result sounded unlike almost anything The Beatles had released before.
No drums.
No electric guitars.
No John, George, or Ringo performing on the finished master.
Just Paul McCartney, an acoustic guitar, and four string players. It became the first official Beatles recording built around a performance by only one member of the group.
Even The Beatles were unsure what to do with it.
The recording sounded so different from the group’s usual singles that it was not released as a single in Britain in 1965.
America made a different decision.
Capitol Records paired “Yesterday” with “Act Naturally” and released the single on September 13.
The timing could hardly have been better.
Just one day earlier, American viewers had watched Paul perform “Yesterday” on The Ed Sullivan Show.
Instead of the usual screaming four-man Beatles performance, Paul stood almost alone, accompanied by strings.
The contrast was striking.
America responded immediately.
“Yesterday” climbed to No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained there for four weeks.
But the song’s story did not stop with the charts.
Other singers began recording it.
Frank Sinatra.
Elvis Presley.
Marvin Gaye.
Ray Charles.
And thousands more.
The Beatles’ official site lists more than 2,200 recorded cover versions, while Paul McCartney’s own site has cited Guinness World Records recognition for its extraordinary history as one of the most covered compositions ever written.
That makes the beginning of the story even more remarkable.
Paul McCartney once worried that the melody might already belong to somebody else.
He spent weeks asking people whether they recognized it.
Then he gave it temporary lyrics about scrambled eggs.
The other Beatles eventually decided there was almost nothing they could add to the recording.
And on September 13, 1965, America received the finished single.
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A song that began in a dream became a No. 1 hit.
Then generations of other singers made it their own.
