Friday 4 September 2015

YESTERDAY...



Here's ol' Blue Eyes doin' The Beatles.
Now ain't that a kick in the head!

14 comments:

Phil said...

I remember reading that Yesterday was the most recorded pop song. And yet the only version I ever hear is the Beatles. I wonder if that's a "fact" everyone knows is true which no one has ever checked.

Kid said...

To be honest, Phil, Frankie's version isn't brilliant (his voice is a bit croaky in places), but I thought it made for an interesting listen.

Anonymous said...

Yesterday must be one of the most over-rated songs ever written - a totally average song that's only famous because it was written by the Beatles.

Kid said...

It's got quite a nice tune 'though, CJ.

Anonymous said...

Kid, I don't deny it has a nice tune - so do lots of other songs but they don't have the god-like status of 'Yesterday'. The only other version I know is the Wet Wet Wet one from (I think) 1997. Actually it's surprising how few other versions of Beatles songs we hear - Shirley Bassey's 'Something', Joe Cocker's 'With A Little Help From My Friends' and Elton John's 'Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds' - oh, and that charity record of 'Let It Be' by Ferry Aid in 1987, remember that one ? By the way, did you know that 'Yesterday' was a #1 hit in America in 1965 but wasn't released in the UK till 1976 ?

Kid said...

Actually, the King's Singers do a few - very nice they are too. I assume that Yesterday as a single wasn't released in the U.K. 'til '76, but was available previously on an album? Songs usually only have a 'god-like status' because they've affected someone at some point in their life; clearly you were listening to other records when you were at that impressionable age.

DeadSpiderEye said...

Can't agree with CJ about the song, I think it's a nice bit of wordplay. Of course it's a bit mawkish, if you're not in the mood for crying into your beer but it's happened everyone ain't it?

Kid said...

Yeah, I don't think it's as bad as CJ thinks it is. He obviously prefers Herman's Hermits or Freddie and the Dreamers.

Anonymous said...

Kid, I DIDN'T say it was a bad song, just over-rated because it's by the Beatles. And I don't think it was available on any album before its' release as a UK single in 1976.

Kid said...

I didn't say you'd said it was bad, CJ, but in saying that it's average and over-rated, you obviously don't think it's very good. Not very good falls somewhere between the spectrum of rubbish and brilliant, so by saying that I don't think it's as bad as you do, I was talking in a relative way. I.E. you think it's average - I don't think it's as bad as that. Incidentally, the song was released in the U.K. as an EP in March 1966 and appeared on The Beatles' U.K album 'Help!', issued in August '66.

Phil said...

I think Yesterday is a great song- for Paul. I don't think other artists can sing it well. Perhaps I've been habitualized to his version. There are plenty of songs from the great American Songbook by Gershwin and Cole Porter etc which are standards sung by generations of crooners. Yesterday is not one of them. I don't know why.

Kid said...

Phil, I've certainly heard far worse songs than Yesterday, so I tend to think it's a pleasantly melancholic little song which does what it sets out to do. Perhaps, as CJ suggests, it's not as good as it's touted to be ('though it's won more than its fair share of awards), but the same could arguably be said about almost any song - especially by those who don't respond to it.

John Pitt said...

Some trivia, if anyone's interested?
Paul dreamt the tune, whilst asleep and had no lyrics, so, the following morning, over breakfast, scribbled down:-
"Scrambled eggs,
Oh my baby, how I love your legs,
But not as much as I love scrambled eggs...."
The very first record on the Beatles'' Apple label was going to be Frank with The Lady Is A CHAMP, but it didn't happen so there is no cat. no. Apple 1.
Paul offered FS his song Suicide, but old blue eyes turned it down.
I think the only other Fabs' song he covered was George's Something.

Kid said...

Also, there's uncertainty over who came up with the 'Yesterday' title. In one account, Paul says it was him, in another, he says it was John.



Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...