by Gary Fearon
What began as a dream turned into one more dream come true for then-Beatle Paul McCartney. Legend has it (from the mouth of the legend himself) that Paul woke up one morning with an entire melody running through his head. He immediately went to the piano to flesh it out, and the music was so sophisticated that he was convinced he had to have heard it somewhere.
"I thought, No, I've never written like this before," remembers Paul. "But I had the tune, which was the most magic thing. And you have to ask yourself, where did it come from? But you don't ask yourself too much or it might go away."
It was only after playing it for many other musicians that he accepted the idea that it was an original composition given to him by his muse. Until he came up with appropriate words, his working lyrics were "Scrambled Eggs, oh my baby, how I love your legs."
Since its debut in 1966, “Yesterday” has been recorded over 2,000 times by artists of every persuasion. This video, a medley of 25 of those versions, demonstrates the infinite variety of musical interpretations possible for a single song.
