The Melody Paul McCartney Stole from a Dream — The Secret Behind Yesterday's Creation
Yesterday is the most covered pop song in history. Paul McCartney heard its melody in a dream. And for a while, he didn't even know if he had written it himself.
Waking from a Dream and Sitting Down at the Piano
One morning in 1965, Paul McCartney opened his eyes in a London apartment.
A beautiful melody was flowing through his mind. Still half asleep, he sat down at the piano by his bed and transferred the tune to the keys. It was perfect. So perfect that it made him uneasy.
"Did I really write this melody? Could it be something I heard somewhere?"
For days, Paul played the melody for fellow musicians and asked, "Do you recognize this song?" Nobody did. Only then was he convinced. This was something his own mind had created in a dream.
The Original Title Was "Scrambled Eggs"
The melody was complete, but there were no lyrics. Paul put whatever words came to mind as placeholders.
"Scrambled eggs... oh my baby how I love your legs..."
It was literally improvised nonsense lyrics. But it was enough to test the flow of the melody. Paul carried this temporary version around, mulling over the words. Weeks passed without suitable lyrics coming to mind.
The finished lyrics finally came much later, while Paul was vacationing at a villa in the Algarve, Portugal. Gazing out the window, the word "Yesterday" suddenly came to him, and after that, the lyrics reportedly came together relatively quickly.
A Beatles Song That Isn't Really the Beatles
"Yesterday," released on the 1965 album Help!, is a Beatles song. But in fact, only Paul McCartney participated in the recording.
John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr were absent from this recording session. Paul sang while playing acoustic guitar, and producer George Martin arranged and added a string quartet. It was the first time the Beatles attempted a classical arrangement without a rock band setup.
Initially, Paul was hesitant about the string arrangement idea.
"Won't it be too 'pop'? Will our fans like it?"
George Martin persuaded him, and history proved the result.
The Guinness Record for "Most Covered Song Ever"
"Yesterday" is listed in the Guinness World Records as the most covered pop song in history. There are over 2,200 officially documented cover versions. Legends such as Elvis Presley, Ray Charles, Marvin Gaye, and Frank Sinatra all performed it in their own styles.
The BBC selected it as the greatest pop song of the 20th century, and Rolling Stone has consistently placed it on its list of the greatest songs of all time.
Yet Paul McCartney was long uncomfortable with the assessment that this was his greatest work. In multiple interviews, he joked about how it felt unfair that a melody he simply transcribed from a dream would be considered his masterpiece.
The 2019 Film, and the Question
In 2019, the film Yesterday was released. It tells the story of a musician who suddenly becomes the only person in the world who remembers the Beatles. The film poses this question:
If this song had never existed, how would people react upon hearing this melody for the first time?
The answer in the film is clear. No matter what era or country you were born in, people stop in their tracks the moment they first hear this melody. "Yesterday" has been proving for 60 years that great music needs no explanation.
A Gift from a Dream
Paul McCartney still says in interviews:
"I think about what would have happened if I hadn't had that dream. Someone else probably would have eventually created this melody. Good music seems to already exist somewhere. We just discover it."
That morning when he woke from a dream and sat at the piano. The melody he hummed as "Scrambled Eggs," waiting for its completion. And the tune that still rings out somewhere in the world every single day, 60 years later.
The most covered song in history began with a young man's dream.
Get new posts by email ✉️
We'll notify you when new posts are published