Yesterday: The Beatles Song Paul McCartney Dreamed

By Dan Cohen · Published 2026-06-27

Yesterday, from the Beatles’ 1965 album Help!, has one of the most charming origin stories in music: by Paul McCartney’s own widely repeated account, the melody came to him in a dream. He woke with it fully formed, sat down at a piano, and then spent weeks playing it to people — not to show it off, but because he was convinced he must have unconsciously copied it from somewhere. It felt too complete to be his.

Scrambled eggs

Before the real words existed, he sang a placeholder lyric over the tune — famously, “scrambled eggs” — just to hold the melody’s shape while he searched for what the song was actually about. That detail has delighted songwriters for decades: even a song this elegant started as nonsense syllables buying time.

One Beatle, one string quartet

When it was finally recorded, it broke a quiet barrier: it was the first Beatles track to feature only one member of the band — McCartney alone, accompanied by a string quartet rather than the group. That arrangement was a small revolution for a rock band in 1965, and it helped make Yesterday one of the most-covered songs in the history of popular music.

What it measures like

On our measurements it’s gentle, slow and sparse — a single voice and strings, nothing crowding the melody. Its power is restraint: there is almost nothing there, and that’s exactly why it lands. Full profile on its song page.

Yesterday appears on the Beatles’ 1965 album Help!. The dream origin, the “scrambled eggs” placeholder, and its recording by McCartney with a string quartet reflect the widely reported and repeated history. No lyrics are reproduced.