Yesterday (song)

The song "Yesterday" by Paul McCartney was originally recorded by The Beatles for their album Help! in 1965. According to the Guinness Book of Records, "Yesterday" has the most cover versions of any song ever written, while BMI asserts that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century alone. The song remains popular today with more than 3000 recorded cover versions, the first hitting the United Kingdom top 10 three months after the release of Help!.

Awards, accolades and brickbats

"Yesterday" has achieved recognition as being the most recorded song in the history of popular music; its entry in the Guinness Book of Records suggests over 3000 different cover versions to date, by an eclectic mix of artists including Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, Wet Wet Wet, Plácido Domingo, and Boyz II Men. Astonishingly, "Yesterday" laid claim to this record only two years after its release in 1965.

Related Topics:
Frank Sinatra - Ray Charles - Wet Wet Wet - Plácido Domingo - Boyz II Men

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It won an Ivor Novello Award for the 'Outstanding Song of 1965', and came second in their award for 'Most Performed Work of the Year', losing out to another McCartney composition, "Michelle".

Related Topics:
Ivor Novello Award - Michelle

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The song has received its fair share of acclaim in recent times as well. MTV and Rolling Stone magazine have both declared "Yesterday" to be the greatest song since 1963. In 1999, BMI placed "Yesterday" third on their list of most performed songs of the 20th century, with approximately seven million performances. "Yesterday" was surpassed only by The Association's "Never My Love" and the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Loving Feeling".

Related Topics:
MTV - ''Rolling Stone'' magazine - 1963 - 1999 - BMI - The Association - Righteous Brothers

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"Yesterday" has also received its own share of derisive comments. 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". Dylan ultimately recorded his own version of "Yesterday" four years later, but it was never released.

Related Topics:
Bob Dylan - Library of Congress - Tin Pan Alley

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John Lennon himself snubbed "Yesterday" in "How Do You Sleep?", a song on his Imagine album, released a few years after the Beatles broke up. Lennon tells McCartney "The only thing you done was yesterday / and since you're gone you're just another day", also referring to McCartney's then-recently-released poppy single "Another Day." Lennon also did a humorous take of the song while recording in the mid-70s, where he altered the lines, "Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be, there's a shadow hanging over me" to "Suddenly, I'm not half the man I used to be, 'cause now I'm an amputee". The 30 second clip was later released on the John Lennon Anthology in 1998.

Related Topics:
How Do You Sleep? - Imagine

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