The Beatles' "Yesterday" - A Closer Look
The most popular song in civilized history came from the fertile mind of Beatle Paul McCartney. How it happened and how it was recorded remains the stuff of legend.
Live shot of Paul actually playing "Yesterday" in public for the first official time on the "Ed Sullivan Show," August 14, 1965.
We draw today from "Recording the Beatles," by Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan, Curvebender Pub., 2008.
The story is a familiar one; how Paul literally had the entire melody in his head within a dream one morning in 1965. He crawled out of bed and stumbled over to a nearby piano to work out the actual notes. Lyrics would come later but the actual music itself came gift wrapped as we know it today, complete to Paul. Given the then, unusual nature of the song, it took him some time to fully realize that it was his and his alone as opposed to a classical piece that he was merely remembering.
Says Paul, "I didn't think I'd written it. I thought maybe I'd heard it before . . . . . and I went around for weeks playing the chords of the song for people, asking them, 'Is this like something? I think I've written it.' And people would say, 'No, it's not like anything else, but it's good.' "
He eventually came around to embracing it as his own then adding appropriate lyrics to the song. There is the equally famous story of the initial lyrics with Paul using the goofy "Scrambled Eggs" before he came up with "Yesterday." Eventually, it was ready for the studio.
When it came time to record the song, normal band arrangements seemed out of place for this tune. On the other hand, a solo acoustic guitar and vocal seemed too sparse. Says George Martin, "I told Paul that the only thing I could honestly think of to add to it would be strings. But Paul said, 'Oh, I don't think I want Mantovani and Norrie Paramour rubbish,' I think he'd heard what I'd done to Gerry and the Pacemakers with You'll Never Walk Alone, So I told Paul that I didn't really mean strings like there were on Gerry's record, and {he} confirmed that he wanted something different. I suggested a small amount of strings, perhaps a classic string quartet, and he liked that idea . . . ." Paul agreed that a quartet might be effective, but was adamant about avoiding the "syrupy" string sound found on many contemporary pop recordings of the day. Paul even went so far as to request that the players NOT use vibrato. This proved impossible to do so that request was dropped.
The recording process began on June 14, 1965 with two live takes of Paul's Epiphone acoustic "Texan" guitar and vocal. Incredibly, this happened only a few hours after the vocal shredding recording of "I'm down." Paul's acoustic guitar was recorded on Track 2 of the four track deck and his vocal was recorded on Track 3. As we now know, Paul tuned his guitar DOWN one full step for the recording so that he could more easily articulate the chord sequence as if the song was in G, while in fact, it was in F-Major. Outtakes on Anthology 2 show Paul explaining this to George Harrison.
On June 17, the last day of the HELP! album sessions, the string quartet was brought into Abbey Road Studio 2 to record their contribution; that music was an original score written and arranged by George Martin. Paul's vocal and guitar tracks were played out loud in the studio while the quartet played along. Martin's arrangement, with specific input from Paul, proved to be as tasteful as it is timeless. Martin obtained top notch players from London's classical music scene and it showed; their inspired and soulful playing shone through on this magnificent recording. The strings were taped to Track 1 of the four track master.
Cool picture of Paul fiddling with his Epiphone "Texan" with the Hofner still strapped on at a live rehearsal.
With one free track left, George Martin decided to have Paul re-record his vocal and thus, they would have his voice double tracked. To summarize, the track layout was this:
Track 1: Strings
Track 2: Acoustic Guitar
Track 3: Original Vocal
Track 4: Second Overdub Vocal
George Martin felt that one section of the original vocal was a problem, it occurred at the 52 second mark into the song - " . . . . something wrong, now I long for Yesterday." Here, Martin decided that the newer vocal performance should be spliced into the song. So, upon final mixing, engineer Norman Smith quickly turned down Track 3 during that one line and brought up Track 4. At the end of that one line, Track 3 was brought back up and Track 4 was turned down.
There was a curious side effect from this mixing process, Paul's entire vocal performance seems double tracked, even during that one line that was clearly single tracked as described. The answer lies with the fact that when Paul performed his second vocal performance, he was listening to his own first vocal through studio speakers right there in the studio. There was obvious sound bleed into his vocal mike from the studio speakers during this taping. As well, there was vocal bleed from his original vocal into his guitar mic during the recording of his guitar part.
Trivia:
The Beatles "appeared" on the Ed Sullivan Show on August 14, 1965 with a live audience; but it was a taping session to be broadcast for real, on TV later on September 12, 1965. The band played six songs that afternoon; I Feel Fine, I'm Down, Act Naturally, Ticket To Ride, Yesterday and HELP!
Remember, the band would perform live at New York's Shea Stadium the following night for the first and most pivotal out- door "arena" concert in history. It was that date, August 15, 1965 that your humble correspondent has picked as the very height of "Beatlemania."
At Shea, 8/15/65
Nice jackets boys.
The Beatles "appeared" a total of 9 times on the Ed Sullivan Show. Only once did they actually appear LIVE on stage for the show in New York; that of course, was their very first appearance on Feb. 9, 1964. Their next performance was broadcast the following week from Miami Beach on Feb. 16, 1964. Their third and final appearance that year was broadcast a week later on Feb. 23, 1964. But that show had been taped with a live audience on the afternoon of Feb. 9, 1964 for a later TV broadcast. We talked about their 1965 appearance. After that, it was all music videos sent to Ed Sullivan up to and including Let It Be clips.
"Yesterday" has been covered over 3000 times by other artists.
"Yesterday" is played on a radio somewhere in the world every minute of every day and has been since its initial release.
Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) asserts that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century alone. The song was not released as a single in the UK at the time of the US release, and thus never gained number 1 single status in that country. It was however, a #1 hit in the U.S. "Yesterday" was voted the best song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll of music experts and listeners. In 2000, "Yesterday" was voted the #1 Pop song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone Magazine.
By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com
Live shot of Paul actually playing "Yesterday" in public for the first official time on the "Ed Sullivan Show," August 14, 1965. We draw today from "Recording the Beatles," by Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan, Curvebender Pub., 2008.
The story is a familiar one; how Paul literally had the entire melody in his head within a dream one morning in 1965. He crawled out of bed and stumbled over to a nearby piano to work out the actual notes. Lyrics would come later but the actual music itself came gift wrapped as we know it today, complete to Paul. Given the then, unusual nature of the song, it took him some time to fully realize that it was his and his alone as opposed to a classical piece that he was merely remembering.
Says Paul, "I didn't think I'd written it. I thought maybe I'd heard it before . . . . . and I went around for weeks playing the chords of the song for people, asking them, 'Is this like something? I think I've written it.' And people would say, 'No, it's not like anything else, but it's good.' "
He eventually came around to embracing it as his own then adding appropriate lyrics to the song. There is the equally famous story of the initial lyrics with Paul using the goofy "Scrambled Eggs" before he came up with "Yesterday." Eventually, it was ready for the studio.
When it came time to record the song, normal band arrangements seemed out of place for this tune. On the other hand, a solo acoustic guitar and vocal seemed too sparse. Says George Martin, "I told Paul that the only thing I could honestly think of to add to it would be strings. But Paul said, 'Oh, I don't think I want Mantovani and Norrie Paramour rubbish,' I think he'd heard what I'd done to Gerry and the Pacemakers with You'll Never Walk Alone, So I told Paul that I didn't really mean strings like there were on Gerry's record, and {he} confirmed that he wanted something different. I suggested a small amount of strings, perhaps a classic string quartet, and he liked that idea . . . ." Paul agreed that a quartet might be effective, but was adamant about avoiding the "syrupy" string sound found on many contemporary pop recordings of the day. Paul even went so far as to request that the players NOT use vibrato. This proved impossible to do so that request was dropped.
The recording process began on June 14, 1965 with two live takes of Paul's Epiphone acoustic "Texan" guitar and vocal. Incredibly, this happened only a few hours after the vocal shredding recording of "I'm down." Paul's acoustic guitar was recorded on Track 2 of the four track deck and his vocal was recorded on Track 3. As we now know, Paul tuned his guitar DOWN one full step for the recording so that he could more easily articulate the chord sequence as if the song was in G, while in fact, it was in F-Major. Outtakes on Anthology 2 show Paul explaining this to George Harrison.
On June 17, the last day of the HELP! album sessions, the string quartet was brought into Abbey Road Studio 2 to record their contribution; that music was an original score written and arranged by George Martin. Paul's vocal and guitar tracks were played out loud in the studio while the quartet played along. Martin's arrangement, with specific input from Paul, proved to be as tasteful as it is timeless. Martin obtained top notch players from London's classical music scene and it showed; their inspired and soulful playing shone through on this magnificent recording. The strings were taped to Track 1 of the four track master.
Cool picture of Paul fiddling with his Epiphone "Texan" with the Hofner still strapped on at a live rehearsal. With one free track left, George Martin decided to have Paul re-record his vocal and thus, they would have his voice double tracked. To summarize, the track layout was this:
Track 1: Strings
Track 2: Acoustic Guitar
Track 3: Original Vocal
Track 4: Second Overdub Vocal
George Martin felt that one section of the original vocal was a problem, it occurred at the 52 second mark into the song - " . . . . something wrong, now I long for Yesterday." Here, Martin decided that the newer vocal performance should be spliced into the song. So, upon final mixing, engineer Norman Smith quickly turned down Track 3 during that one line and brought up Track 4. At the end of that one line, Track 3 was brought back up and Track 4 was turned down.
There was a curious side effect from this mixing process, Paul's entire vocal performance seems double tracked, even during that one line that was clearly single tracked as described. The answer lies with the fact that when Paul performed his second vocal performance, he was listening to his own first vocal through studio speakers right there in the studio. There was obvious sound bleed into his vocal mike from the studio speakers during this taping. As well, there was vocal bleed from his original vocal into his guitar mic during the recording of his guitar part.
Trivia:
The Beatles "appeared" on the Ed Sullivan Show on August 14, 1965 with a live audience; but it was a taping session to be broadcast for real, on TV later on September 12, 1965. The band played six songs that afternoon; I Feel Fine, I'm Down, Act Naturally, Ticket To Ride, Yesterday and HELP!
Remember, the band would perform live at New York's Shea Stadium the following night for the first and most pivotal out- door "arena" concert in history. It was that date, August 15, 1965 that your humble correspondent has picked as the very height of "Beatlemania."
At Shea, 8/15/65Nice jackets boys.
The Beatles "appeared" a total of 9 times on the Ed Sullivan Show. Only once did they actually appear LIVE on stage for the show in New York; that of course, was their very first appearance on Feb. 9, 1964. Their next performance was broadcast the following week from Miami Beach on Feb. 16, 1964. Their third and final appearance that year was broadcast a week later on Feb. 23, 1964. But that show had been taped with a live audience on the afternoon of Feb. 9, 1964 for a later TV broadcast. We talked about their 1965 appearance. After that, it was all music videos sent to Ed Sullivan up to and including Let It Be clips.
"Yesterday" has been covered over 3000 times by other artists.
"Yesterday" is played on a radio somewhere in the world every minute of every day and has been since its initial release.
Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) asserts that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century alone. The song was not released as a single in the UK at the time of the US release, and thus never gained number 1 single status in that country. It was however, a #1 hit in the U.S. "Yesterday" was voted the best song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll of music experts and listeners. In 2000, "Yesterday" was voted the #1 Pop song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone Magazine.
By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us at www.beatletracksband.com
Write more often
Reply to this