Creative inspiration has to come from somewhere, even for members of the most famous band in the world. The Beatles drew deep on their musical forebears, which was part of their genius. The tricky thing with inspiration though, is that sometimes it can be difficult to discern just where it stops and the borrowing begins. “Yesterday” is a good example.
Paul's dream song
When Paul McCartney woke up with the melody in his head for the ballad that the BBC would declare as the best of the 20th Century, he felt so certain that it was someone else’s song that he went around playing it to anyone who would listen, begging for them to indentify the source of the dream song. No one had an answer, so McCartney finished the tune as his own.
“Yesterday” went on to become the most covered song in history, but McCartney’s oft-repeated story about mysteriously dreaming it up has left fans have been searching for its subconscious source ever since. Various sources for the song have surfaced, and in the end it could have been any, all or none of which served as McCartney’s inspiration.
Ray Charles or Nat King Cole?
According to a long-standing theory, “Yesterday” was sparked by Ray Charles’ version of “Georgia On My Mind,” which it resembles in structure and chord progression. McCartney has covered contemporaneous Ray Charles songs, and “Georgia On My Mind” is even referenced in The Beatles’ “Back in the USSR,” so it’s certain that he had heard the song. If it served as his inspiration, however, he didn’t pick up on it, and the two songs ultimately sound very different.
A closer source for “Yesterday” can be found in an older song. In 2003 British musicologists reported that the song bore a number of similarities to Nat King Cole’s ballad “Answer Me,” including the phrasing and style of rhyming. “Answer Me” features the line “Yesterday, I believed that love was here to stay, won’t you tell me where I’ve gone astray,” sung in a manner that closely matches McCartney’s similar lyric “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away, now I need a place to hide away.”
History's most covered song
The resemblance to “Answer Me” is probably most convincing possible source, although it could be coincidence. McCartney now denies that any other song was responsible for the melody that he woke up with in his head. Although the answer may never truly be found, Beatles fans will undoubtedly keep up the search for that mysterious song that inspired history’s most-covered pop tune.
Aaron Humphrey - Aaron Humphrey is a freelance writer and travel journalist whose work has appeared in Brave New Traveler, Traveler's Notebook, Matador ...
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