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Published:
2011-10-01
Updated:
2020-01-28

Learning Ukulele with Curt

Yesterday

Yesterday is a song originally recorded by The Beatles for their 1965 album Help!. The song first hit the United Kingdom top 10 three months after the release of Help!. The song remains popular today with more than 1,600 cover versions, one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music. The song was not released as a single in the UK at the time of its release in the United States, and thus never gained number 1 single status in that country. However, “Yesterday” was voted the best song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll of music experts and listeners.

Author(s): Publisher: Code: UL523

Main Category: Accessories Main Instrument: Ukulele

2026-08-19

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Yesterday

Yesterday is a song originally recorded by The Beatles for their 1965 album Help!. The song first hit the United Kingdom top 10 three months after the release of Help!. The song remains popular today with more than 1,600 cover versions, one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music. The song was not released as a single in the UK at the time of its release in the United States, and thus never gained number 1 single status in that country. However, “Yesterday” was voted the best song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll of music experts and listeners.

Yesterday is a melancholy acoustic guitar ballad about a break-up. It was the first official recording by The Beatles that relied upon a performance by a single member of the band, Paul McCartney. He was accompanied by a string quartet. The final recording was so different from other works by The Beatles that the other three band members vetoed the release of the song as a single in the United Kingdom. (However, it was issued as a single there in 1976.) Although credited to “Lennon/McCartney”, the song was written solely by McCartney. In 2002 McCartney asked Yoko Ono if she would allow reversing the credit on the song to read “McCartney/Lennon”. Ono refused.

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