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The Beatles - Yesterday - About the song and 63 tributes

2011-09-01T09:01:00.000-07:00

ABOUT THE SONG

In January 1964 Paul woke up with the chords and rough melody of the tune in his head, which he immediately worked out on piano. It sounded good right away. What was unusual was that after this initial burst of inspiration, he continued to tinker with the song for over 18 months. This is a phenomenal amount of time to spend on a song during a period when it was not uncommon to write something on a Tuesday, record it on Wednesday, and have it off to the pressing plant by the weekend.

Just about everyone around Paul became sick and tired of Yesterday before it was finished. While he was finessing it on the set of “Hard Days Night”, director Richard Lester got so bored of McCartney’s endless fussing that he lost his temper and told Paul to “finish the bloody thing or I’ll have the piano removed from the set.”

Around that time George Harrison was heard to say "Blimey, he’s always talking about that song you’d think he was Beethoven or somebody!"

Yesterday is not really a Beatles song. It is a Paul McCartney solo record. He’s the only Beatle who appears on it, accompanied by a string quartet of anonymous non-Beatles. During the recording George Martin almost finished The Beatles five years early when he suggested to Brian Epstien the possibility of releasing “Yesterday” as Paul’s solo single. The ever astute Epstien emphatically and intelligently said No.

“Whatever we do we are not splitting up The Beatles.”

Yesterday is literally a power ballad. It is Vladimir Putin’s favorite Beatles song. No surprise there. Yesterday has a power to captivate and enslave all who hear it. Just like Vlad.

Yesterday was also the point at which The Beatles stopped being just a four-piece Rock And Roll Band and became sculptors of audio landscapes. They had begun to compose Loudspeaker Paintings, using the recording studio itself as a musical instrument.

The string quartet was recorded in less than 2 hours. Guess what they were paid?

Five Guinnies each. ($7.50).

There are more than 3000 performances of "Yesterday", the most covered song in the history. I offer a compilation of 63 of them including the one recorded as The Beatles song and a live performance by Paul McCartney. Enjoy!

Download:

Yesterday 63 Tributes Part 1

Yesterday 63 Tributes Part 2

Yesterday 63 Tributes Part 3

Yesterday 63 Tributes Part 4

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles - Yesterday - Songfacts

2011-08-30T23:06:00.000-07:00

This is the most covered pop song of all time, over 3,000 versions recorded according to The Guinness Book Of World Records. For years, it was also the song with the most radio plays, but in 1999 BMI music publishing reported that "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" had passed it. Still, at any given time, some version of "Yesterday" is probably being broadcast somewhere.

Paul McCartney wrote this song and was the only Beatle to play on it. It was the first time a Beatle recorded without the others, and marked a shift to more independent accomplishments among the group. While John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote The Beatles early songs together, by 1965 most of their songs were primarily written by one or the other, although they continued to credit all their songs Lennon/McCartney.

A string quartet was brought in to play on this. In addition to the strings, this is notable as one of the first Pop songs to use elements of Classical Music.

This was the first Beatles song that could not be reproduced live without additional musicians. When they played it live, including their famous Shea Stadium concert, it was just McCartney with an acoustic guitar.

While touring in Paris, McCartney claims he tumbled out of bed and the tune was in his head. He thought he had heard it somewhere before, and played the melody to different people in the music industry to make sure he wasn't stealing it. The working title was "Scrambled Eggs" until Paul could figure out lyrics.

This was the first Beatles song to capture a mass adult market. Most of their fans were young people to this point, but this song gave the band a great deal of credibility among the older crowd. It also became one of their "Muzak" classics, as companies recorded instrumental versions as soothing background noise for shopping centers and elevators. Another Beatles song that lived on in this form is "Here Comes The Sun."

McCartney wrote some of the lyrics during a 5 hour car trip from Lisbon to Albufeira (in Algarve, south of Portugal), on the 27th of May, 1965, when he was on vacation with Jane Asher. The villa where Paul and Jane stayed was owned by Shadows' guitarist Bruce Welch. Bruce said that when he was packing to leave, Paul asked him if he had a guitar because (Paul) was working on the lyrics since the airport. Said Bruce: "He borrowed my guitar and started playing the song we all now know as 'Yesterday'."

The Beatles performed this on their third live Ed Sullivan Show appearance and on their last tour. For the live appearances, McCartney would play with a prerecorded backing track of strings.

This was one of 5 Beatles songs McCartney performed on his "Wings Over America" tour in 1976.

McCartney had to ask Michael Jackson to use this in his movie Give My Regards to Broadstreet. Jackson outbid McCartney for the publishing rights to The Beatles catalogue, something that fractured their friendship as McCartney counseled Jackson on the value of publishing rights.

McCartney has consistently talked about how easy this song was for him to compose. In describing it, he has said "I did the tune easily and then the words took about 2 weeks."

This song caused a rift between McCartney and Yoko Ono. When The Beatles Anthology album was released, McCartney asked that the writing credit on this read "McCartney/Lennon," since he wrote it. Yoko refused, and it was listed as "Lennon/McCartney," which is how they usually credited songs written by either Beatle (between Please Please Me and With The Beatles, the song credits turned from McCartney/Lennon to Lennon/McCartney). In 2003, McCartney switched the writing credit for the first time when he listed 19 Beatles songs on his Back In The US album as "Paul McCartney and John Lennon." Paul claims he and John made an informal agreement in 1962 regarding the credits, but he had every right to switch it if he chose. Yoko disagreed.

Some of the artists who have covered this song include Boyz II Men, Ray Charles, En Vogue, Marianne Faithfull, Marvin Gaye, Tom Jones, Nana Mouskouri, Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, The Supremes, The Toys, Andy Williams, and Tammy Wynette.

This was featured in the 1997 movie Bean, when the title character (played by Rowan Atkinson) sings it with David Langley (played by Peter MacNicol) as they trot home one night.

Paul McCartney's first performance at the Grammys came in 2006. He joined in with Jay-Z and the lead singer of Linkin Park to sing part of the lyrics to this song. Paul also performed "Fine Line" and "Helter Skelter" earlier in the show.

When McCartney played this song, he tuned his guitar one tone lower than usual. On a recording that can be heard on The Beatles Anthology, he explains to the musicians before the song: "I'm in G, but it's F."

John Lennon referenced this song in his anti-McCartney solo effort "How Do You Sleep?" with the lyrics, ''The only thing you've done was yesterday, and since you've gone you're just another day."

Special thanks to http://www.songfacts.com

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles - Yesterday - Reception

2011-08-30T22:34:00.000-07:00

"Yesterday" is the most recorded song in the history of popular music; its entry in Guinness World Records suggests over 1,600 different cover versions to date, by an eclectic mix of artists including Marianne Faithfull, Tose Proeski, The Mamas and the Papas and Barry McGuire, The Seekers, Joan Baez, Donny Hathaway, Michael Bolton, Bob Dylan, Liberace, Frank Sinatra, Matt Monro, Elvis Presley, Ray Charles (1967), Marvin Gaye, Daffy Duck, Jan & Dean, The Sylvers, Wet Wet Wet, Plácido Domingo, The Head Shop, Billy Dean, En Vogue, Muslim Magomayev and Boyz II Men. In 1976, David Essex did a cover version of the song for the ephemeral musical documentary All This and World War II. After Muzak switched in the 1990s to programs based on commercial recordings, Muzak's inventory grew to include about 500 "Yesterday" covers. At the 2006 Grammy Awards, McCartney performed the song live as a mash-up with Linkin Park and Jay-Z's Numb/Encore.

It is Vladimir Putin's favourite Beatles song.

"Yesterday" won the Ivor Novello Award for 'Outstanding Song of 1965', and came second for 'Most Performed Work of the Year', losing out to another McCartney composition, "Michelle". The song has received its fair share of acclaim in recent times as well, ranking 13th on Rolling Stone's 2004 list "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" and fourth on the magazine's list "The Beatles 100 Greatest Songs" (compiled in 2010). In 1999, Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) placed "Yesterday" third on their list of songs of the 20th century most performed on American radio and television, with approximately seven million performances. "Yesterday" was surpassed only by The Association's "Never My Love" and the Righteous Brothers' "You've Lost That Loving Feeling". "Yesterday" was voted Best Song of the 20th Century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll.

"Yesterday", however, has also been criticised for being mundane and mawkish; Bob Dylan had a marked dislike for the song, stating that "If you go into the Library of Congress, you can find a lot better than that. There are millions of songs like 'Michelle' and 'Yesterday' written in Tin Pan Alley". Ironically, Dylan ultimately recorded his own version of "Yesterday" four years later, but it was never released.

Shortly before his death in 1980, Lennon explained that he thought the lyrics did not "resolve into any sense... They're good — but if you read the whole song, it doesn't say anything; you don't know what happened. She left and he wishes it were yesterday — that much you get — but it doesn't really resolve. ... Beautiful — and I never wished I'd written it." "Paul wrote this great song, 'Yesterday.' It's a beautiful song. I never wished I'd written it, and I don't believe in yesterday... Life begins at 40, so they promise and I believe it. What's going to come?" Lennon made reference to the song on his album Imagine with the song "How Do You Sleep?". The song appears to attack Paul with the line "The only thing you done was Yesterday, but since you've gone you're just another day", Lennon later admitted in an interview with Playboy that the song was actually an attack on himself as opposed to McCartney.

Special thanks to wikipedia.org

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles - Yesterday - Resemblance to other songs and Release

2011-08-30T22:15:00.000-07:00

Resemblance to other songs
In 2001, Ian Hammond speculated that McCartney subconsciously based "Yesterday" on Ray Charles' version of "Georgia on My Mind", but closed his article by saying that despite the similarities "Yesterday" is a "completely original and individual [work]."

In July 2003, British musicologists stumbled upon superficial similarities between the lyric and rhyming schemes of "Yesterday" and Nat King Cole's "Answer Me, My Love" (originally a German song by Gerhard Winkler and Fred Rauch called Mütterlein), leading to speculation that McCartney had been influenced by the song. McCartney's publicists denied any resemblance between "Answer Me, My Love" and "Yesterday". "Yesterday" begins with the lines: "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they're here to stay." In its second stanza, "Answer Me, My Love" has the lines: "You were mine yesterday. I believed that love was here to stay. Won't you tell me where I've gone astray".

Release
Eleven years after the US release, EMI released "Yesterday" on a single in the UK

Although McCartney had fallen in love with the song, he had a much harder time convincing the other members of the band that it was worthy of an album place, the main objection being that it did not fit in with their image, especially considering that "Yesterday" was extremely unlike other Beatles' songs at the time. This feeling was so strong that the other Beatles—Lennon, Harrison and Ringo Starr—refused to permit the release of a single in the United Kingdom. This did not prevent Matt Monro from recording the first of many cover versions of "Yesterday" to come. His version made it into the top ten in the UK charts soon after its release in the autumn of 1965.

The Beatles' influence over their US record label, Capitol, was not as strong as it was over EMI's Parlophone in Britain. A single was released in the US, pairing "Yesterday" with "Act Naturally", a track which featured vocals by Starr. The single was charting by 29 September 1965, and topped the charts for a full month, beginning on 9 October. The song spent a remarkable total of 11 weeks in the American charts, selling a million copies within five weeks. "Yesterday" was the most-played song on American radio for eight consecutive years, its popularity refusing to abate.

"Yesterday" was the third of six number one singles in a row on the American charts, a record at the time. The other singles were "I Feel Fine", "Eight Days a Week", "Ticket to Ride", "Help!", and "We Can Work It Out". The record was equalled by The Bee Gees in the 1970s and surpassed by Whitney Houston in the 1980s. "Yesterday" also marked a turning point in who wrote number one singles for the group. Lennon wrote five through "Help!", whereas afterwards McCartney wrote eight starting with "Yesterday". On 4 March 1966, "Yesterday" was released as an EP in the UK, joined by "Act Naturally" on the A-side with "You Like Me Too Much" and "It's Only Love" on the B-side. By 12 March, it had begun its run on the charts. On 26 March 1966, the EP went to number one, a position it held for two months. Later that same year, "Yesterday" was included as the title track for the US-only Yesterday and Today album, which was originally packaged in the "butcher sleeve".

Ten years later on 8 March 1976, "Yesterday" was released by Parlophone as a single in the UK, featuring "I Should Have Known Better" on the B-side. Entering the charts on 13 March, the single stayed there for seven weeks, but it never rose higher than number 8 (however, by this time the song had been featured on no less than three top 5 albums and an EP which topped the charts). The release came about due to the expiration of the Beatles' contract with EMI, Parlophone's parent. EMI released as many singles by The Beatles as they could on the same day, leading to 23 of them hitting the top 100 in the United Kingdom charts, including six in the top 50.

In 2006, a version of the song was included on the album Love. The version begins with the acoustic guitar intro from the song "Blackbird" only with "Blackbird" transposed down a whole step to F major from its original key G in order to transition smoothly into "Yesterday".

Thanks to wikipedia.org

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles - Yesterday - Composition and structure

2011-08-30T21:52:00.000-07:00

Ostensibly simple, featuring only McCartney playing an Epiphone Texan steel-string acoustic guitar backed by a string quartet in one of the Beatles' first use of session musicians, "Yesterday" has two contrasting sections, differing in melody and rhythm, producing a sense of disjunction.

The first section ("Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away...") opens with an F chord (the 3rd of the chord is omitted, so although it sounds major the major tonality is only implied), then moving to Em7 before resolving to A7 and then to D-minor. In this sense, the opening chord is a decoy; as musicologist Alan Pollack points out, the home key (F-major) has little time to establish itself before "heading towards the relative D-minor." He points out that this diversion is a compositional device commonly used by Lennon and McCartney, which he describes as "delayed gratification".

The second section ("Why she had to go I don't know...") is, according to Pollack, less musically surprising on paper than it sounds.

Starting with Em7, the harmonic progression quickly moves through the A-major, D-minor, and (closer to F-major) B♭, before resolving back to F-major, and at the end of this, McCartney holds F while the strings descend to resolve to the home key to introduce the restatement of the first section, before a brief hummed closing phrase.

Pollack described the scoring as "truly inspired", citing it as an example of "[Lennon & McCartney's] flair for creating stylistic hybrids"; in particular, he praises the "ironic tension drawn between the schmaltzy content of what is played by the quartet and the restrained, spare nature of the medium in which it is played."

The tonic key of the song is F major (although, since McCartney tuned his guitar down a whole step, he was playing the chords as if it were in G), where the song begins before veering off into the key of D minor. It is this frequent use of the minor, and the ii-V7 chord progression (Em and A7 chords in this case) leading into it, that gives the song its melancholy aura. The A7 chord is an example of a secondary dominant, specifically a V/vi chord. The G7 chord in the bridge is another secondary dominant, in this case a V/V chord, but rather than resolve it to the expected chord, as with the A7 to Dm in the verse, McCartney instead follows it with the IV chord, a B♭. This motion creates a descending chromatic line of C–B–B♭–A to accompany the title lyric.

The string arrangement reinforces the song's air of sadness, in the groaning cello line that connects the two halves of the bridge, notably the "blue" seventh in the second bridge pass (the E♭ played after the vocal line, "I don't know / she wouldn't say") and in the descending run by the viola that segues the bridge back into the verses, mimicked by McCartney's vocal on the second pass of the bridge. This viola line and the high A sustained by the violin over the final verse are the only elements of the string arrangement attributable to McCartney rather than George Martin.

When the song was performed on The Ed Sullivan Show, it was done in the above-mentioned key of F, with McCartney as the only Beatle to perform, and the studio orchestra providing the string accompaniment. However, all of The Beatles played in a G-major version which was used in the Tokyo concerts during their 1966 tours.

When McCartney appeared on The Howard Stern Show, he stated that he owns the original lyrics to "Yesterday" written on the back of an envelope. McCartney later performed the original "Scrambled Eggs" version of the song, plus additional new lyrics, with Jimmy Fallon and The Roots on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Special thanks to wikipedia.org

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles - Yesterday - Recording

2011-08-30T21:44:00.000-07:00

The track was recorded at Abbey Road Studios on 14 June 1965, immediately following the taping of "I'm Down," and four days before McCartney's 23rd birthday. There are conflicting accounts of how the song was recorded, the most quoted one being that McCartney recorded the song by himself, without bothering to involve the other band members.[12] Alternative sources, however, state that McCartney and the other Beatles tried a variety of instruments, including drums and an organ, and that George Martin later persuaded them to allow McCartney to play his Epiphone Texan steel-string acoustic guitar, later on editing-in a string quartet for backup. Regardless, none of the other band members were included in the final recording. However, the song was played with the other members of the band in concert during 1966, in G major instead of F major.

McCartney performed two takes of "Yesterday" on 14 June 1965. Take 2 was deemed better and used as the master take. A string quartet was overdubbed on take 2 and that version was released. Take 1, without the string overdub, was later released on the Anthology 2 compilation. On take 1, McCartney can be heard giving chord changes to George Harrison before starting, but George does not appear to actually play. Take 2 had two lines transposed from the first take: "There's a shadow hanging over me"/"I'm not half the man I used to be", though it seems clear that their order in take 2 was the correct one, because McCartney can be heard, in take 1, suppressing a laugh at his mistake.

George Martin later said:
"It [Yesterday] wasn't really a Beatles record and I discussed this with Brian Epstein: 'You know this is Paul's song... shall we call it Paul McCartney?' He said 'No, whatever we do we are not splitting up the Beatles.'"
[edit]
Chart performanceChart (1965) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 - 1
Norwegian Singles Chart - 1
Australia Singles Chart - 2
German Singles Chart - 6
UK Singles Chart - 8
Austrian Top 40 - 10
Dutch Top 40 - 26
Spanish Singles Chart - 44
Chart (1976) Peak position
UK Singles Chart - 8
Chart (2010) Peak position
Poland (ZPAV) - 5

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles - Yesterday - More Facts

2011-08-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Released 6 August 1965 (UK)
Recorded 14 June 1965,
EMI Studios, London
Genre Baroque pop
Length 2:03
Label Parlophone
Writer Lennon–McCartney
Producer George Martin
Help! track listing

"Yesterday" is a song originally recorded by The Beatles for their 1965 album Help!. At one time, Guinness World Records cited "Yesterday" with the most cover versions of any song ever written. The song remains popular today with more than 1,600 recorded cover versions, the first hitting the United Kingdom top 10 three months after the release of Help!. Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) asserts that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century alone. The song was not released as a single in the UK at the time of its release in the United States, and thus never gained number 1 single status in that country. However, "Yesterday" was voted the best song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll of music experts and listeners. In 2000, "Yesterday" was voted the #1 Pop song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone magazine. In 1997, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
"Yesterday" is a melancholy acoustic guitar ballad about a break-up. It was the first official recording by The Beatles that relied upon a performance by a single member of the band, Paul McCartney. He was accompanied by a string quartet. The final recording was so different from other works by The Beatles that the other three band members vetoed the release of the song as a single in the United Kingdom. (However, it was issued as a single there in 1976.) Although credited to "Lennon/McCartney", the song was written solely by McCartney. In 2002 McCartney asked Yoko Ono if she would allow reversing the credit on the song to read "McCartney/Lennon". Ono refused.

Origins

According to biographers of McCartney and the Beatles, McCartney composed the entire melody in a dream one night in his room at the Wimpole Street home of his then girlfriend Jane Asher and her family. Upon waking, he hurried to a piano and played the tune to avoid forgetting it.

McCartney's initial concern was that he had subconsciously plagiarised someone else's work (known as cryptomnesia). As he put it, "For about a month I went round to people in the music business and asked them whether they had ever heard it before. Eventually it became like handing something in to the police. I thought if no-one claimed it after a few weeks then I could have it."

Upon being convinced that he had not robbed anyone of his melody, McCartney began writing lyrics to suit it. As Lennon and McCartney were known to do at the time, a substitute working lyric, entitled "Scrambled Eggs" (the working opening verse was "Scrambled Eggs/Oh, my baby how I love your legs"), was used for the song until something more suitable was written. In his biography, Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now, McCartney recalled: "So first of all I checked this melody out, and people said to me, 'No, it's lovely, and I'm sure it's all yours.' It took me a little while to allow myself to claim it, but then like a prospector I finally staked my claim; stuck a little sign on it and said, 'Okay, it's mine!' It had no words. I used to call it 'Scrambled Eggs'."

During the shooting of Help!, a piano was placed on one of the stages where filming was being conducted and McCartney would take advantage of this opportunity to tinker with the song. Richard Lester, the director, was eventually greatly annoyed by this and lost his temper, telling McCartney to finish writing the song or he would have the piano removed. The patience of the other Beatles was also tested by McCartney's work in progress, George Harrison summing this up when he said: "Blimey, he's always talking about that song. You'd think he was Beethoven or somebody!"

McCartney originally claimed he had written "Yesterday" during the Beatles' tour of France in 1964; however, the song was not released until the summer of 1965. During the intervening time, The Beatles released two albums, A Hard Day's Night and Beatles for Sale, both of which could have included "Yesterday". Although McCartney has never elaborated his claims, a delay may have been due to a disagreement between McCartney and George Martin regarding the song's arrangement, or the opinion of the other Beatles who felt it did not suit their image.

Lennon later indicated that the song had been around for a while before:
"The song was around for months and months before we finally completed it. Every time we got together to write songs for a recording session, this one would come up. We almost had it finished. Paul wrote nearly all of it, but we just couldn't find the right title. We called it 'Scrambled Eggs' and it became a joke between us. We made up our minds that only a one-word title would suit, we just couldn't find the right one. Then one morning Paul woke up and the song and the title were both there, completed. I was sorry in a way, we'd had so many laughs about it."

McCartney said the breakthrough with the lyrics came during a trip to Portugal in May 1965:
"I remember mulling over the tune 'Yesterday', and suddenly getting these little one-word openings to the verse. I started to develop the idea ... da-da da, yes-ter-day, sud-den-ly, fun-il-ly, mer-il-ly and Yes-ter-day, that's good. All my troubles seemed so far away. It's easy to rhyme those a's: say, nay, today, away, play, stay, there's a lot of rhymes and those fall in quite easily, so I gradually pieced it together from that journey. Sud-den-ly, and 'b' again, another easy rhyme: e, me, tree, flea, we, and I had the basis of it."

On 27 May 1965, McCartney and Asher flew to Lisbon for a holiday in Albufeira, Algarve, and he borrowed an acoustic guitar from Bruce Welch, in whose house they were staying, and completed the work on "Yesterday".[10] The song was offered as a demo to Chris Farlowe prior to The Beatles recording it, but he turned it down as he considered it "too soft".

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles - Yesterday - Interesting Details and Original Lyrics

2011-08-30T09:51:00.000-07:00

Paul woke up one morning in his top floor bedroom at the Asher's home in Wimpole Street with the tune for 'Yesterday' in his head. There
was a piano by the bed and he went straight to it and started playing. "It was just all there," he said. "A complete thing, I couldn't beleive it."

Although at that point it had no lyric, Paul was worried that the tune itself might have been unconsciously plagiarized, and that what had seemed like a flash of inspiration may only have been a surge of recollection. "For about a month, I went round to people in the music business and asked them wether they had ever heard it before," he said. "Eventually it became like handling something into the police. I thought that if no-one claimed it after a few weeks then I would have it."

He then came up with the provisional title 'Scrambled Eggs' and began singing 'Scrambled eggs, Oh you've got such lovely legs', simply to get a feel for the vocal. This was a common practice and sometimes gave rise to interesting lines that were kept in the final version. "We were shooting Help! in the studio for about four weeks," remembers Dick Lester. "At some time during that period, we had a piano on one of the stages and he was playing this 'Scrambled Eggs' all the time. It got to the point where I said to him, 'If you play that bloody song any longer I'll have the piano taken off stage. Either finish it or give it up!'"

Paul must have conceived the tune early in 1965, but it wasn't until June when he took a brief holiday in Portugal at the villa of Shadows' guitarist Bruce Welch that he'd completed the lyric. He then hit on the idea of using a one word title - 'Yesterday'.

"I was packing to leave and Paul asked me if I had a guitar," says Welch. "He'd apparently been working on the lyrics as he drove to Albufeira form the airport at Lisbon. He borrowed my guitar and started playing the song we all now know as 'Yesterday'."

Two days after returning from Portugal, Paul recorded it at Abbey Road. The song startled pop fans at the time because it featured a string quartet with Paul as the only Beatle on the session. In America it became a single and reached the Number 1 spot but, in Britain, it was never released as either an A or a B side during the group's career. It rapidly became a pop standard, covered by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Marianne Faithfull. Nowadays, some 30 years on, it is still one of the most played tracks on the radio.

Although John claimed that he never wished that he had written it, he did admit that it was a "beautiful" song with "good" lyrics but argued that the lyrics were never resolved. However, others have felt that its strenght lies in its vagueness. All the listener needs to know is that it's about someone wanting to turn back the clock, to retreat to a time before a trafic event. The application is universal.

There has been speculation that in Paul's case the tragedy referred to was the death of his mother and the regret was over his inability to express his grief at the time.

Iris Caldwell remembered an interesting incident in connection with the song. She had broken up with Paul in March 1963 after a silly argument over her dogs (Paul wasn't too keen on dogs at the time) and, when he later called up to speak to Iris, her mother told Paul that her daughter didn't want to speak to him because he had no feelings. Two and a half years later, on Sunday August 1, 1965, Paul was scheduled to sing 'Yesterday' on a live television programme, Blackpool Night Out. During that week, he phoned Mrs Caldwell and said: "You know that you said that I had no feelings? Watch the telly on Sunday and then tell me that I've got no feelings."

Provisional lyrics of "Yesterday"
(McCartney)

Scrambled eggs
Have an omelet with some muenster cheese
Put your dishes in the washbin please
So I can clean the scrambled eggs

Join me, do
There are lots of eggs for me and you
I've got ham and cheese and bacon too
So go get two, and join me, do

Fried or sunny-side
Just aren't right
The mix-bowl begs
Quick, go get a pan
And we'll scram-ble up some eggs

Scrambled eggs
Good for breakfast, dinnertime or brunch
Don't buy six or twleve, buy a bunch
And we'll have lunch on scrambled eggs

Special thanks to http://www.thebeatleshk.com

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles - Yesterday - The Beatles Role in Creation of the song

2011-08-30T08:05:00.000-07:00

One of Paul McCartney’s most famous tunes, and one in which he was involved in a bitter argument over the rights when he wanted to change the song writing credits of yesterday to read McCartney – Lennon; a dispute that led him to release a list of all of the Beatles Lennon- McCartney compositions that he had been the sole author of.

McCartney woke up one morning with the tune for yesterday in his head, he jumped out of bed and played it instantly on his piano, and although yesterday had no lyrics at this stage he could hardly believe that he had the complete tune and is quoted as saying “It was just all there, A complete thing, I couldn’t believe it”.

Because of the way that Paul had dreamt up the song he was very concerned that it may have been a tune that he had heard previously and had got subconsciously into his head; he therefore spent the next month driving people mad by asking them if they had heard the tune to yesterday before.

The original title of the song was going to be “scrambled eggs’ and contained the lyrics “Scrambled eggs, oh you’ve got such lovely legs”. He used to practice the song relentlessly as he loved it so, but it took many weeks until he came up with the lyrics to yesterday whilst on holiday with Jane Asher in Portugal .

One of the interesting things about the song is that Paul is the only member of the Beatles who records on the track; he is joined by a string quartet. Paul plays both the piano and acoustic guitar on the yesterday track.

Beatles role in the making of Yesterday
John Lennon : Did not play a part in the recording of yesterday.

Paul McCartney: Vocals, Acoustic guitar.

George Harrison : Did not play a part.

Ringo Starr : Did not play a part.

Session Musicians: String Quartet

(http://www.beatleslyrics.eu)

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles -Yesterday - In the Studio and Legacy

2011-08-30T06:30:00.000-07:00

In the Studio

Initial recording for Yesterday took place on 14 June 1965, after the band completed I've Just Seen A Face and I'm Down. Paul McCartney recorded his guitar and vocals simultaneously in just two takes.

After attempting an unrecorded arrangement of Yesterday with John Lennon on Hammond organ, George Martin suggested to McCartney that they use a string quartet - a first for The Beatles.

McCartney was initially skeptical, and insisted the musicians perform without vibrato. McCartney and Martin worked on the score together, with the majority written by Martin.

"Writing a song out with George Martin was nearly always the same process. For Yesterday he had said, 'Look, why don't you come round to my house tomorrow? I've got a piano, and I've got the manuscript paper. We'll sit down for an hour or so, and you can let me know what you're looking for'...

He would say, 'This is the way to do the harmony, technically.' And I'd often try to go against that. I'd think, 'Well, why should there be a proper way to do it?'

Yesterday was typical. I remember suggesting the 7th that appears on the cello. George said, 'You definitely wouldn't have that in there. That would be very un-string-quartet. I said, 'Well? Whack it in, George. I've got to have it.'"
Paul McCartney
Anthology

The strings were overdubbed on 17 June, and Paul attempted the vocals again. He didn't use headphones, and the original vocal track leaked from the studio speakers to the second recording, giving the impression of double-tracked singing.

The string players went uncredited on Help!, the album Yesterday first appeared on. Rather than being a regular quartet, the other players were recruited by violinist Tony Gilbert especially for the session.

Yesterday's legacy

The Beatles never allowed Yesterday to be released as a single in the UK, fearing that it would affect their image. The song did, however, become a part of the band's full live set during their 1966 world tour.

"I wouldn't have put it out as a solo Paul McCartney record. We never entertained those ideas. It was sometimes tempting; people would flatter us: 'Oh, you know you should get out front,' or, 'You should put a solo record out. But we always said no. In fact, we didn't release Yesterday as a single in England at all, because we were a little embarrassed about it - we were a rock 'n' roll band."
Paul McCartney
Anthology

In 1980 John Lennon explained how he was often mistakenly credited with having written the song.

"I go to restaurants and the groups always play Yesterday. Yoko and I even signed a guy's violin in Spain after he played us Yesterday. He couldn't understand that I didn't write the song. But I guess he couldn't have gone from table to table playing I Am The Walrus."
John Lennon, 1980
All We Are Saying, David Sheff

In the same interview Lennon spoke of McCartney's skills as a lyricist.

"A couple of lines he's come up with show indications he's a good lyricist, but he just never took it anywhere. He wrote the lyrics to Yesterday. Although the lyrics don't resolve into any sense, they're good lines. They certainly work. You know what I mean? They're good - but if you read the whole song, it doesn't say anything; you don't know what happened. She left and he wishes it was yesterday - that much you get - but it doesn't really resolve. So, mine didn't use to resolve, either..."
John Lennon
All We Are Saying, David Sheff

Yesterday was issued as a US single in September 1966. Newspapers at the time commentated that "Paul McCartney is number one without the other Beatles". It swiftly became the most-played song on American radio, a position it held for eight consecutive years.

Since its release there have been over 3,000 cover versions of Yesterday.

(http://www.beatlesbible.com)

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles-Yesterday-The Story Behind the Song

2011-08-30T06:15:00.000-07:00

Written by:
Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 14, 17 June 1965
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Norman Smith

Released: 6 August 1965 (UK), 13 September 1965 (US)

Paul McCartney: vocals, guitar
Tony Gilbert: violin
Sidney Sax: violin
Kenneth Essex: viola
Francisco Gabarro: cello

Available on:
Help!
1
Anthology 2
Love

Written by Paul McCartney, Yesterday holds the record as the most covered song in history, according to the Guinness Book of Records.

"Well, we all know about Yesterday. I have had so much accoladde for Yesterday. That's Paul's song and Paul's baby. Well done. Beautiful - and I never wished I'd written it."John Lennon, 1980
All We Are Saying, David Sheff

Paul McCartney is said to have composed the melody in a dream while staying at the family home of Jane Asher in Wimpole Street, London. The melody came to McCartney fully-formed, although he was initially unsure of its originality.

"I was living in a little flat at the top of a house and I had a piano by my bed. I woke up one morning with a tune in my head and I thought, 'Hey, I don't know this tune - or do I?' It was like a jazz melody. My dad used to know a lot of old jazz tunes; I thought maybe I'd just remembered it from the past. I went to the piano and found the chords to it, made sure I remembered it and then hawked it round to all my friends, asking what it was: 'Do you know this? It's a good little tune, but I couldn't have written it because I dreamt it.'"Paul McCartney
Anthology

The song's working title was Scrambled Eggs; its second line was "Oh my baby how I love your legs". George Martin claims to have first heard the song at the George V hotel in Paris in January 1964.

"Paul said he wanted a one-word title and was considering Yesterday, except that he thought it was perhaps too corny. I persuaded him that it was all right."George Martin
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn
If McCartney did compose Yesterday in early 1964, it would have been left off two Beatles albums before they recorded it. McCartney's authorised biographer Barry Miles put the date of composition at May 1965, during the filming of Help!, when he was known to have been experimenting with the song's lyrics.

"We were shooting Help! in the studio for about four weeks. At some point during that period, we had a piano on one of the stages and he was playing this 'Scrambled Eggs' all the time. It got to the point where I said to him, 'If you play that bloody song any longer have the piano taken off stage. Either finish it or give up!'"Richard Lester
A Hard Day's Write, Steve Turner

The Shadows' guitarist Bruce Welch recalled McCartney completing the lyrics in June 1965. McCartney took a holiday at Welch's Portuguese villa, where he is said to have settled on the title Yesterday.

"I was packing to leave and Paul asked me if I had a guitar. He'd apparently been working on the lyrics as he drove to Albufeira from the airport at Lisbon. He borrowed my guitar and started playing the song we all now know as Yesterday."Bruce Welch
A Hard Day's Write, Steve Turner

Although famously arranged for guitar and string quartet, McCartney considered having the BBC Radiophonic Workshop do a futuristic electronic version of Yesterday.

"It occurred to me to have the BBC Radiophonic Workshop do the backing track to it and me just sing over an electronic quartet. I went down to see them... The woman who ran it was very nice and they had a little shed at the bottom of the garden where most of the work was done. I said, 'I'm into this sort of stuff.' I'd heard a lot about the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, we'd all heard a lot about it. It would have been very interesting to do, but I never followed it up."Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

Special thanks to http://www.beatlesbible.com

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles - When I'm 64 - Lyrics and 64 tributes to the song

2011-08-26T02:37:00.000-07:00

When I'm Sixty Four

When I get older, losing my hair
many years from now,
will you still be sending me a valentine,
birthday greetings, bottle of wine?

If I'd been out till quarter to three,
would you lock the door?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
when I'm sixty four? Ooh

You'll be older too.
Ah, and if you say the word,
I could stay with you.

I could be handy mending a fuse
when your lights have gone.
You can knit a sweater by the fireside,
Sunday mornings, go for a ride.

Doing the garden, digging the weeds,
who could ask for more?
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
when I'm sixty four?

Ev'ry summer we can rent a cottage
in the Isle of Wight if it's not too dear.
We shall scrimp and save.
Grandchildren on your knee;
Vera, Chuck and Dave.

Send me a postcard, drop me a line,
stating point of view.
Indicate precisely what you mean to say,
yours sincerely, wasting away.

Give me your answer, fill in a form,
mine forevermore.
Will you still need me, will you still feed me,
when I'm sixty four? Ho!

And the promised surprise:

64 (sixty-four!) tributes to the song performed by various artists all over the world. Enjoy!

Download:

Megaupload

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles - When I'm 64 - Songfacts

2011-08-26T02:28:00.000-07:00

Paul McCartney wrote the music for this when he was about 15, and used to play it when The Beatles were still known as The Quarrymen. He put lyrics to it later in honor of his father's 64th birthday.

McCartney wrote and sang the lead vocals on this song which asks if a woman will still be with him when he got older, when he was 64 years old. On May 17, 2006, Paul and his then wife, Heather Mills, separated, finalizing the divorce in 2008. McCartney turned 64 on June 18, 2006, so the answer to his musical question with regards to Mills, would be no.

John Lennon said of this: "I would never even dream of writing a song like that."

George Martin arranged this in the style of a 1920's big band, which came to be known as "retro-rock."

McCartney's vocal was sped-up a bit to add to the effect.

This was the first song recorded for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

This was used in the Robin Williams movie The World According to Garp.

This was a favorite of The Beatles at their early club shows, where they were required to play for hours. When their amps overheated, they would sing this around the piano.

Julian Lennon, John's son, recorded a version of this that was used in 2002 commercials for Allstate insurance. This was not typical of Julian, who usually shied away from his father's legacy.

The title is also the name of a BBC television show starring Paul Freeman and Alun Armstrong as two older men who fall in love with each other.

A reference to this song appeared in the movie Shanghai Knights, starring Jackie Chan and Owen Wilson. In the scene where Roy O'Bannon (Wilson) is fantasizing about his future family and life with Chon Lin, he mentions his kids' names: "Vera, Chuck, and Dave."

In opening scenes of the 2007 musical Across The Universe, the main character, Jude, has his ticket stamped to New York by an elderly man who says that he would have left the city sooner when he was young, but he is now 64 and still working at the shipyard. It's a definite reference to McCartney's song that didn't make it into the movie, which features only Beatles songs.
(www.songfacts.com)

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles - When I'm 64 - Cultural References

2011-08-26T02:18:00.000-07:00

The song accompanies the "Sea of Time" sequence in the film Yellow Submarine.

In a 1996 episode of the sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart, time travelling main character Gary Sparrow teaches the song to novelty song singer George Formby in 1942. Formby intends to perform it live at a concert the following evening, possibly changing the course of history, but is unable to perform due to a drunken injury.

McCartney's children recorded a special version of "When I'm Sixty-Four" at Abbey Road Studios as a surprise present for McCartney's 64th birthday, and played it for him at his birthday party. They changed the lyrics to fit the occasion with the help of Giles Martin.

The song is referenced in the 2007 comedy Walk Hard where in a humorous scene involving a fight between The Beatles, John Lennon (played by actor Paul Rudd) says to Paul McCartney (played by actor Jack Black), "I wonder if your songs will still be shit when I'm 64."

In the film Across the Universe, the shipyard employee that gives Jude his paycheck says he thought he'd be doing something different when he was sixty-four, a reference to the song "When I'm Sixty-Four."

The song is referenced in the 2003 film Shanghai Knights, when Owen Wilson's character talks about his future. He mentions descendants named Vera, Chuck, and Dave.

The song was parodied on the British puppet show Spitting Image as it was called "When You're 65" showing an elderly couple being made fun at by younger people, then the old man loses his wife as she fades away.

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles - When I'm 64 - Cover Versions

2011-08-26T02:13:00.000-07:00

In 1967 Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen single: When I'm Sixty Four/Goodnight Irene (reached #43 in the UK charts).
In 1969, John Denver recorded a version for his album Rhymes & Reasons.
In 1976, Keith Moon recorded a version for the evanescent musical documentary All This and World War II.
In the 1978 film, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Frankie Howard and Sandy Farina sing the song.

It was featured in an Allstate Insurance commercial with Julian Lennon singing.
It was used as the theme song for the movie version of John Irving's novel The World According to Garp.
During the 1980s, an instrumental version opened each episode of the BBC feedback programme Points of View.
Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber recorded an instrumental version on the 1986 album Travels With My Cello, Volume 2.
A version of the song appears in the 1989 movie Troop Beverly Hills.
Children's entertainers, Sharon, Lois & Bram recorded the song on their 1995 album Let's Dance!.
Cherie Blair sang a vocal rendition of it in the far-east whilst being broadcast on TV, as husband and Prime Minister Tony Blair smiled awkwardly and sang along.
In 2005, the song was covered by Arjen Anthony Lucassen on the Ayreon single "Come Back To Me".
In 2005, Jonathan Coulton made "When I'm 25 or 64," a mashup of "When I'm Sixty-Four" with "25 or 6 to 4" by Chicago.
For the 40th anniversary version for BBC Radio 2, Russell Brand did a version with Oscar-winning composer, David Arnold.
Les Fradkin has an instrumental version on his 2007 release Pepper Front to Back.
The song is included on the Cheap Trick album Sgt. Pepper Live, released in 2009.
The Rutles' song "Back In '64" is a pastiche of this song.
The song was covered by Alvin and the Chipmunks in "The Picture of Health," an episode of their '80s TV series.

Special thanks to Wikipedia

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles - When I'm 64 - Composition, Instrumentation and Recording

2011-08-26T00:40:00.000-07:00

Composition

The song is sung by a young man to his lover, and is about his plans of growing old together with her. Although the theme is ageing, it was one of the first songs McCartney wrote, when he was sixteen. The Beatles used it in the early days as a song they could play when the amplifiers broke down or the electricity went off. Both George Martin and Mark Lewisohn speculated that McCartney may have thought of the song when recording began for Sgt. Pepper in December 1966 because his father turned 64 earlier that year.

Lennon said of the song, "Paul wrote it in the Cavern days. We just stuck a few more words on it like 'grandchildren on your knee' and 'Vera, Chuck and Dave' ... this was just one that was quite a hit with us." In his 1980 interview for Playboy he said, "I would never even dream of writing a song like that."

Instrumentation

A clarinet trio (two B-flat soprano clarinets and a bass clarinet) is featured prominently in the song, unusual in most music genres, but particularly in the context of rock and roll. Scored by Martin, he said they were added at McCartney's request to "get around the lurking schmaltz factor" by using the clarinets "in a classical way."[4] In the song's final verse, the clarinet is played in harmony with McCartney's vocal: an unusual method of harmonisation, especially in 1967. Supporting instruments include the honky-tonk piano, bass, drum set, tubular bells and electric guitar.

Recording

The song was recorded on 6 December 1966, during one of the first sessions for the as-yet-unnamed album that became Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. There were multiple overdub sessions, including the lead vocal by McCartney on 8 December and backing vocals by McCartney, Lennon, and George Harrison on 20 December. The clarinets were recorded on 21 December.

The song is in the key of D-flat major. The Beatles recorded the song in C major but the master take was sped up in order to raise the key by one semitone at the insistence of McCartney. Martin remembers that McCartney suggested this change in order to make his voice sound younger.

McCartney says, "I wanted to appear younger, but that was just to make it more rooty-tooty; just lift the key because it was starting to sound turgid."

Release

The song was nearly released on a single as the B-side with either "Strawberry Fields Forever" or "Penny Lane" as the A-side. Instead, Martin decided on a double-A-sided-disc. The single did not make #1 in the United Kingdom Singles Chart, breaking a string of #1 singles going back to 1963.

If "When I'm Sixty-Four" had been issued as a B-side, it probably would not have appeared on Sgt. Pepper.

Special thanks to www.wikipedia.org

By: Shahen Gasparyan

The Beatles - When I'm 64 - The Story Behind the Song

2011-08-26T00:15:00.000-07:00

Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 6, 8, 20, 21 December 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Released: 1 June 1967 (UK), 2 June 1967 (US)

Paul McCartney: vocals, piano, bass
John Lennon: backing vocals, guitar
George Harrison: backing vocals
Ringo Starr: drums, chimes
Robert Burns, Henry MacKenzie, Frank Reidy: clarinets

Available on:
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Yellow Submarine Songtrack

The first of the Sgt Pepper songs to be recorded, When I'm Sixty-Four was originally intended to be the b-side to Strawberry Fields Forever.

The song dates back to The Beatles' earliest days. Paul McCartney had composed it on the family piano at 20 Forthlin Road, Liverpool "when I was about 15".

"Back then I wasn't necessarily looking to be a rock 'n' roller. When I wrote When I'm Sixty-Four I thought I was writing a song for Sinatra. There were records other than rock 'n' roll that were important to me."
Paul McCartney

McCartney used to perform a variation of the song in their Cavern Club era, on piano, when the group's equipment used to stop working.

"When I'm Sixty-Four was something Paul wrote in the Cavern days. We just stuck a few more words on it like 'grandchildren on your knee' and 'Vera, Chuck and Dave'. It was just one of those ones that he'd had, that we've all got, really; half a song. And this was just one that was quite a hit with us. We used to do them when the amps broke down, just sing it on the piano."
John Lennon
Anthology

The song was dusted down in 1966, the year McCartney's father Jim turned 64. When I'm Sixty-Four focuses on a young man anxiously looking towards old age; the vocals were sped up in the studio to make them sound more sprightly.

The music is suitably old-fashioned, with a music hall melody and an arrangement prominently featuring George Martin's clarinet score.

"I thought it was a good little tune but it was too vaudevillian, so I had to get some cod lines to take the sting out of it, and put the tongue very firmly in cheek. It's pretty much my song. I did it in a rooty-tooty variety style... George helped me on a clarinet arrangement. I would specify the sound and I love clarinets so 'Could we have a clarinet quartet?' 'Absolutely.' I'd give him a fairly good idea of what I wanted and George would score it because I couldn't do that. He was very helpful to us. Of course, when George Martin was 64 I had to send him a bottle of wine."Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

George Martin later regretted not releasing When I'm Sixty-Four as a b-side. Speaking about the Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever single, he said:

"The idea of a double a-side came from me and Brian, really... He came to me and said, 'I must have a really great single. What have you got?' I said, 'Well, I've got three tracks - and two of them are the best tracks they've ever made. We could put them together and make a smashing single.' We did, and it was a smashing single - but it was also a dreadful mistake. We would have sold far more and got higher in the charts if we had issued one of those with, say, When I'm Sixty-Four on the back."George Martin
Anthology

In the studio

On 6 December 1966 The Beatles recorded Christmas messages for the pirate stations Radio London and Radio Caroline. Afterwards they spent some time rehearsing When I'm Sixty-Four, before two takes of the rhythm track were recorded. Two days later, without the other Beatles being present, McCartney added his lead vocals to take two. The song was then left until 20 December, when McCartney, Lennon and Harrison taped backing vocals and Starr played chimes.

When I'm Sixty-Four was completed the next day, with the overdub of the three clarinets. During the mixing stage, meanwhile, McCartney decided that the song needed speeding up. On 30 December they scrapped all previous mixes and created a new mono one, which raised the key from C to D flat major.

Special thanks to http://www.beatlesbible.com

By: Shahen Gasparyan

Unchained Melody - Uses in Media

2011-08-25T09:33:00.000-07:00

The enduring popularity of the song has led to it being used on a number of different forms of media.

"Unchained Melody" reappeared on the Billboard charts in 1990 after The Righteous Brothers' recording was used in the box office blockbuster film Ghost. Two versions charted in the US that year. There was the reissue of the 1965 original Righteous Brothers single which received a lot of airplay, but sales were minimal since it was only available as a 45 RPM single. This version peaked at #13. There was also a 1990 re-recording of the song which was available only as a cassette single. The re-recorded version saw minimal airplay, but excellent sales. It peaked at #19. For eight weeks, both versions were on the Hot 100 simultaneously. This re-release of the song topped the U.S. adult contemporary chart for two weeks in 1990. It reached #1 for the fifth time in the UK, becoming the UK's top selling single of 1990; it also later reached #1 in Australia, staying at number-one for seven weeks through November 1990 and into January 1991. The song would also appear in the comedy film The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear in 1991, in which the pottery wheel scene from Ghost was parodied.

The song later appeared in a Ford Fiesta commercial featuring two German engineers moulding a car together, in a parody of Ghost.

The song is included on the karaoke games Karaoke Revolution Volume 3 and the US version of SingStar Legends. It features in the animated film "Happy Feet", released in 2006.

This song is also used by Bubbles in Trailer Park Boys when Julian is about to shoot Conky, in reference to his obsession with Patrick Swayze.

By: Shahen Gasparyan

Unchained Melody - Television shows

2011-08-25T09:27:00.000-07:00

The song has become a favorite among auditioners for TV singing contests. It has often been said by Simon Cowell to be his favorite song, leading it to be a favourite among those hoping to impress him in auditions for Pop Idol, American Idol, and The X Factor. It was performed on the original series of Pop Idol by runner-up Gareth Gates, who later released it as a single. It was also sung on Australian Idol by finalist Dan England and 2006's winner Damien Leith, and on American Idol by George Trice in Season 2, Kellie Pickler on Season 5 Top 6 Love Songs Week, for which she was eliminated, Clay Aiken during the Season 2 Top 3 finals, after which he advanced to the Top 2 (finals), and Lauren Alaina on American Idol (season 10).

By: Shahen Gasparyan

Unchained Melody - Country Music Versions

2011-08-25T09:24:00.000-07:00

Four different versions of the song have made the Hot Country Songs charts: Joe Stampley (#41, 1975), Elvis Presley (#6, 1978), Ronnie McDowell (#26, 1991) and LeAnn Rimes (#3, 1997). Rimes's version of the song was only available as a bonus single to copies of her album Blue that were sold at Target stores during the 1996 Christmas season.

By: Shahen Gasparyan

Unchained Melody (The Righteous Brothers)

2011-08-09T11:23:00.000-07:00

Undoubtedly the most popular version was recorded by the Righteous Brothers in 1965.

Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers is one of the most requested love songs on radios of the world. This song didn’t start out like most people think. Check out how Unchained Melody was born…

Unchained Melody first appeared in the 1955 movie Unchained, starring former football player Elroy Hirsch. The movie takes place in a prison, and the song was written to reflect the mood of the prisoners waiting for time to pass.

Alex North wrote the music, Hy Zaret wrote the lyrics, and Todd Duncan sang the movie version. Duncan later became a popular vocal instructor. When the movie came out, an orchestral version by Les Baxter was released along with a version by Al Hibbler. Baxter’s version hit number one on the charts, while Hibbler’s version hit number 3.

The Righteous Brothers recorded the song and it became a big hit, but it was released as a B-side on the single Hung on You. Phil Spector produced both songs. A lot of DJ’s preferred to flip the single and play Unchained Melody instead, which infuriated Phil Spector, who wanted the A-side Hung on You featured instead. The Righteous Brothers’ Bobby Hatfield sang the lead on this timeless classic. Bobby died in 2003 of a heart attack at the age of 63.

The Righteous Brothers were the musical duo of Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield. They recorded from 1963 through 1975, and continued to perform until Hatfield's death in 2003. Their emotive vocal stylings were sometimes dubbed "blue-eyed soul".

Medley and Hatfield both possessed exceptional vocal talent, with range, control and tone that helped them create a strong and distinctive duet sound and also to perform as soloists. Medley sang the low parts with his deep, soulful bass, with Hatfield taking the higher register vocals with his soaring tenor.

They adopted their name in 1962 while performing together in the Los Angeles area as part of a five-member group called The Paramours, which featured John Wimber, one of the founders of the Vineyard Movement, on keyboards. At the end of one particular performance, an African-American Marine in the audience shouted, "That was righteous, brothers!", prompting the pair to adopt the name when they embarked on a career as a duo.

By: Shahen Gasparyan

Unchained Melody (Other Versions)

2011-08-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

In 1955, The Goons produced a comic version of the song, sung in an inappropriately upbeat manner (and with as few added "ying-tongs") by Peter Sellers, in character as "Bluebottle."

Line Renaud recorded different versions of the song in 1956, sung in both French and Spanish.

The song was released on a B-side by Merri Gail in 1957 for Cha Cha Records, accompanied by an accordion.

Another early version was by teen idol Ricky Nelson, issued in 1958 on the album Ricky Nelson.

Gisele Mackenzie covered the song on her 1958 solo album for RCA Victor, Gisele (LPM/LSP-1790).

The Fleetwoods released a version of the song on their 1959 album, Mr. Blue for Dolton records.

The Supremes covered the song for their album I Hear A Symphony, released in 1966.

Roy Orbison recorded a version of it for his album Many Moods, released in May 1969.

On June 21, 1977, just six weeks before his death, Elvis Presley performed "Unchained Melody" for what would be his last television appearance, "Elvis In Concert." However, the recording that was ultimately released as a single and included on the Moody Blue album (the last released while he was alive) was from an earlier appearance at Ann Arbor, Michigan, featuring him on piano, as was invariably the case when Presley sang the song in concert.

In 1981, a live version of the band Heart peaked at #83 on the Billboard Top 100.

In 1986, Leo Sayer released a version of the song with a contemporary re-working of the "wall of sound" production technique that included an unusual electric guitar solo near the climax. The single charted in the UK only, making the Top 60.

U2 also covered the song as a B-side to their 1989 single, "All I Want Is You." They have played the track live several times, including one performance which was captured on their 1993 concert film Zoo TV: Live from Sydney.

In 1995, the song was performed by Robson Green and Jerome Flynn in the UK drama series Soldier Soldier. This version was subsequently released as a single and quickly reached #1 in the UK, becoming one of the country's all time biggest selling records.

Also in 1995, Air Supply's album News from Nowhere contained a cover of the song.

Sarah McLachlan's haunting version of the song opened Pine Ridge: An Open Letter to Allan Rock - Songs for Leonard Peltier, a benefit CD published by What Magazine on 1 November 1996; the recording was reissued in 2008 on her album Rarities, B-Sides and Other Stuff Volume 2. She also performed the song at the Leonard Peltier Defense Fund Benefit Concert on 12 February 1997.

Cyndi Lauper was nominated for a 2005 Grammy award for "Best Instrumental Composition Accompanying a Vocal" for her interpretation of the song, which appears on the At Last album. In 2006, singer Barry Manilow covered the song on his album Greatest Songs of the Fifties, and it reached #20. Christian Singer David Phelps recorded the song on his 2008 album The Voice.

The Smashing Pumpkins also released a cover of the song in their Live Smashing Pumpkins album series.

Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox recorded a version in 2007 as Atlas Sound and gave it away on his blog, along with a Jay Reatard cover.

Johnny Maestro & The Brooklyn Bridge performed the song in concert as a tribute to Bobby Hatfield, and it appeared on their 2008 "Greatest Hits Live" CD.

Gareth Gates recorded a cover version of the song as his first release following his appearance on Pop Idol in the United Kingdom. The single reached number one in the UK Singles Chart on its first week of release.

Clay Aiken recorded the song on his 2010 album Tried and True.

The Pop Opera group, Amici Forever recorded the song in Italian, under the title, 'Senza Catene' (Without Chains).

Joni Mitchell incorporated the chorus and parts of the melody in 'Chinese Cafe/Unchained Melody'.

Constantine Maroulis released his version of the song as a single, which he debuted during a guest performance on American Idol on April 7, 2011.
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unchained_Melody)

By: Shahen Gasparyan

Unchained Melody (Early versions)

2011-08-09T10:56:00.000-07:00

Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack. Les Baxter (Capitol Records catalog number 3055), released an instrumental version which reached #2. Al Hibbler followed close behind with a vocal version (Decca Records catalog number 29441) that reached #3 on the Billboard charts. He was followed soon after by Jimmy Young, whose version hit #1 on the British charts. Roy Hamilton's version (Epic Records catalog number 9102) reached number one on the R&B Best Sellers list and #6 on the pop chart. June Valli recorded the song on March 15, 1955 and it was released by RCA Victor Records as catalog number 20-6078, with the flip side "Tomorrow" and took it to #29. Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps recorded it for their second album in 1956 — Vincent's version is played at mid-tempo and features a tremolo picking guitar part. It is also probably the most unusual cover version, as the bridge was omitted. Harry Belafonte sang it at the 1956 Academy Awards where it was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song of 1955. (Belafonte had also made a recording of the song for RCA Victor Records, which was released as catalog number 20-6784, with the flip side "A-Roving.") In 1963, an uptempo, doo-wop version hit the regional charts (eastern U.S.) by Vito & the Salutations, eventually becoming part of the soundtrack for Goodfellas in 1990. Perry Como recorded the song in 1955, and English jazz musician Cliff Townshend of The Squadronaires also released a popular version in 1956.

The song regained popularity when another version was produced by Phil Spector in 1965, credited to The Righteous Brothers, but performed as a solo by Bobby Hatfield, who later recorded versions credited solely to him. This version climbed to #4 on the charts. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unchained_Melody).

By: Shahen Gasparyan

Unchained Melody (The Movie)

2011-08-08T10:12:00.000-07:00

In 1955, Alex North and lyricist HyZaret were contracted to write a song as a theme for the obscure prison film Unchained and their song eventually became known as the "Unchained Melody". The song doesn't actually include the word "unchained", and songwriter Zaret chose instead to focus his lyrics on someone who pines for a lover he hasn't seen in a "long, lonely time". The 1955 film centers around a man who contemplates either escaping from prison, to live life on the run, or completing his sentence and returning to his wife and family.The lyrics note, "Lonely rivers sigh, ' Wait for me... I'll be coming home; wait for me'...".Unable to see them for years, he pleas, "I need your love, God speed your love to me".

Oh, my love
my darling
I've hungered for your touch
a long lonely time
and time goes by so slowly
and time can do so much
are you still mine?
I need your love
I need your love
Godspeed your love to me

Lonely rivers flow to the sea,
to the sea
to the open arms of the sea
lonely rivers sigh 'wait for me, wait for me'
I'll be coming home wait for me

Oh, my love
my darling
I've hungered for your touch
a long lonely time
and time goes by so slowly
and time can do so much
are you still mine?
I need your love
I need your love
Godspeed your love to me
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Quote from the movie:

You can lock them in "The Hole"...put them on bread and water...use the bull-whip and the black-jack...but they're still men...with a man's longings! THE STORY OF CHINO PRISON, CALIFORNIA WHICH DID SOMETHING ABOUT IT...TOLD HOW IT HAPPENED...WHERE IT HAPPENED!

"If trouble starts, it'll make Chino another San Quentin and any man can start it!"
(thanks to http://walkingpath.multiply.com/journal/item/1188/UnChained_Melody_the_history_before_the_Righteous_Brothers)

With Todd Duncan singing the vocals, the song was nominated for an Oscar in 1955, but the Best-Song award went to the hit song "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing."

Unchained Melody (History)

2011-08-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

William Stirrat, aka Hy Zaret, was 16 when he wrote lyrics about Mary Louise "Cookie" Pierce. He was 16 years old and infatuated with "the prettiest girl in my neighborhood." He remembers well the frustration of being too shy to act on his feelings - the stuttered response when she spoke to him, the frozen reaction when she smiled at him. "Now, I think she was in love with me, too, but I was too shy to do anything or even talk to her," Stirrat says 67 years later. So the romantic teenager wrote about his need and his longing and then went on with his life, a life full of real and enduring relationships, engaging work, travel and recognition for accomplishments other than song writing. But all along, there was an unchained melody running through his life.   Cookie, it seemed, had married someone else.

"The way I felt about Cookie was over in my mind when I heard that she had married the best catch in town," he said, adding, "I read about it in the papers. It was hard." And it wasn’t the girl, Mary Louise "Cookie" Pierce, that haunted his life, it was the song.

Stirrat wrote the words to "Unchained Melody" in 1936 when he was on a summer scholarship at Yaddo’s Triuna Arts of the Theatre School. It was there that he met North, who composed the music.   North, a composer and accompanist for a modern dancer at the time, was on the staff.

"I pestered him and pestered him to compose a piano copy for me. Finally, he told me that he had music for a song. Basically, I sang the words and he guided me with what he wanted for the music. You might say I sang the song under his guidance," Stirrat said.

When he and North were working on the song, Stirrat hoped that Bing Crosby would sing it since he was a neighbor. "I’d spoken to Bing Crosby’s wife so I thought it was a good connection. I styled it for him, you know, his songs had a dip at the end," the lyricist said.   When that plan did not work out, Stirrat told North that he wanted Duke Ellington’s orchestra to record it. It took 19 years, but they finally got Al Hibbler, who been Ellington’s vocalist, to record the song, Stirrat said.

"I never met anybody that didn’t believe I wrote that song, but another Hy Zaret who was a close friend of the lawyer that was representing the publisher, was collecting royalties," he said.   Stirrat said he had given up on the song when nothing happened with it between 1936 and 1955.   "In 1941, I signed documents authorizing Alex to use the song in a motion picture, so in 1955 when it was used in ‘Unchained,’ I didn’t even know about it," he said.

Alex North went on to become successful scoring Hollywood movies. "Over his lifetime, North had been nominated about 13 times for an Oscar. They finally gave him one, an honorary one," Stirrat said. (Materials used from http://www.dansher.com/unchained/unchained.html).

It is very strange, that CBCNews, writing about the death of Hy Zaret, mentioned Hyman Harry Zaritsky as his real name. The 99-year-old songwriter died Monday at home in Connecticut. He was about a month shy of his 100th birthday (http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/music/story/2007/07/03/unchained-melody-obit.html).