The Beatles Were Embarrassed By This Song — Then It Changed Music Forever

Few songs have achieved the kind of universal admiration enjoyed by “Yesterday.” Gentle, melancholy, and beautifully understated, The Beatles’ classic has become one of the most celebrated compositions in the history of popular music. Decades after its release, it remains the most recorded song of all time, inspiring well over a thousand cover versions by artists from virtually every genre imaginable.

The melody first came to Paul McCartney long before the song was ever recorded. In January 1964, while staying in a hotel in Paris, he began playing the tune on a piano, convinced he must have unconsciously borrowed it from someone else. The melody felt so complete that he couldn’t believe it had simply appeared in his mind.

Because he hadn’t yet written proper lyrics, McCartney filled the gaps with placeholder words. Instead of the heartbreak that would eventually define the song, he sang the now-famous nonsense line: “Scrambled eggs, oh my baby, how I love your legs.” The humorous working title stuck for months, serving as a reminder that even the greatest songs often begin in the most ordinary ways.

At the time, the group was known primarily as an energetic rock and roll band. A delicate ballad featuring little more than McCartney’s voice, an acoustic guitar, and a string quartet seemed completely out of character. Looking back years later, McCartney admitted that the band felt “a little embarrassed” by the song. It simply didn’t sound like what people expected from the Beatles.

Its influence spread with astonishing speed. Within just seven years of its release, more than 1,100 artists had already recorded their own versions, including legends such as Frank Sinatra, Otis Redding, and Willie Nelson. That number would continue to grow, eventually earning the song a Guinness World Record as the most covered song in history.