Yesterday: Probably the most well-known and loved song in popular music. But why?

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People are obsessed with nostalgia. It's part of the human condition....to keep going back. Just look at the retrogression in rock music today, but that's another thread.

I've always been more attracted to 'Let it Be', which in some ways is the answer for 'Yesterday'.
 
I wish I could, but I can't. That song wouldn't even make a Top 20, Top 30 or Top 40 list of my favorite Beatles songs.

(Though, I must admit, my friend used to play the En Vogue cover-version so much that I started not to dislike it so much. But only the En Vogue version. Otherwise :down: )
 
Maybe because when it came out, everyone was amazed some crazy kid with long hair could write such a beautiful, poignant song?

That's my best guess, really.
 
It's simple yet deep
the "I could have written that" feeling
people like that kind of sentimental shit

it's okay as far as beatles songs go
i like it better than let it be, hey jude, and the long & winding road combined. those are beatles songs i truly dislike.
 
The simplicity of the lyrics and the music make it an ideal lost-love song. Remember, at that time, rock music was young enough that all the "obvious" subjects - love, love lost, breakups, etc - were still fertile fields for songwriting. You could still write a simple song with simple emotions and do something distinctive, because no one had come before you.
It's similar to the reason that Romeo and Juliet is the classic tragic love story - Shakespeare said it all, not only because he was a genius, but because English poetry and plays didn't have a long history at that point.
I like Yesterday and I think if McCartney wrote it today it would still be a good song. But it wouldn't attain the same level of fame.
 
it's a classic tragic love song... who hasn't felt that way in the past?

wether you are a man/woman/straight/gay or otherwise, you can connect to the feelings expressed by mccartney in the song.

that's why.

and yes, there are other songs that have the same feel to them, but they're not all done by the beatles. universal apeal + beatles = most covered song ever.
 
^ what he said

It's beautiful and simple and it's McCartney. Never been one of my fave Beatles tunes.

Is it weird that I'm listening to a live version of Yahweh while posting this... :hmm: Another beautiful song
 
I would think that Hey Jude would the most well-known and loved song in popular music. But that's just me.
 
Errr 1st time i heard 'Yesterday' being talked as the most well known and popular song in music.
 
vaz02 said:
Errr 1st time i heard 'Yesterday' being talked as the most well known and popular song in music.


I believe somewhere it is an official record that "Yesterday" has been the most covered song in all of modern pop music. If I remember correctly, it's something insane like 600 or 700 official cover versions of "Yesterday".
 
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