Yesterday (song)

"Yesterday"
US picture sleeve
Single by the Beatles
B-side	"Act Naturally"
Released	13 September 1965 (1965-09-13)
Recorded	14, 17 June 1965
Studio	EMI, London
Genre	Chamber pop[1] pop rock[2]
Length	2:03
Label	Capitol (US), Parlophone (UK)
Songwriter(s)	Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)	George Martin
The Beatles US singles chronology
"Help!" (1965) "Yesterday" (1965) "Day Tripper" / "We Can Work It Out" (1965)
The Beatles UK singles chronology
"Let It Be" (1970) "Yesterday" (1976) "Back in the U.S.S.R." (1976)

"Yesterday" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was first released on the album Help! in August 1965, except in the United States, where it was issued as a single in September. The song reached number one on the US charts. It subsequently appeared on the UK EP Yesterday in March 1966 and made its US album debut on Yesterday and Today, in June 1966.

McCartney's vocal and acoustic guitar, together with a string quartet, was essentially the band's first solo performance. It remains popular today and, with 2,200 cover versions,^[3] is one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music.^{[note 1]} "Yesterday" was voted the best song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll of music experts and listeners and was also voted the No. 1 pop song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone magazine the following year. In 1997, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) asserts that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century.^[5]

"Yesterday" is a melancholic ballad about the break-up of a relationship. The singer nostalgically laments for yesterday when he and his love were together before she left because of something he said.^[6] McCartney is the only member of the Beatles to appear on the track. The final recording was so different from other works by the Beatles that the band members vetoed the song's release as a single in the United Kingdom. However, other artists quickly recorded versions of it for single release. The Beatles recording was issued in the U.K. as a single in 1976 and peaked at number 8.

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