YESTERDAY
"Yesterday" is a song originally recorded by English rock band the Beatles for their 1965 album Help!. Although credited to "Lennon–McCartney", the song was written by Paul McCartney. It remains popular today with more than 2,200 cover versions and is one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music. "Yesterday" was voted the best song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll of music experts and listeners and was also voted the No. 1 pop song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone magazine the following year. Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) asserts that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century alone. McCartney is the only member of the Beatles to appear on the recording, and it was the first official recording by the Beatles that relied upon a performance by a single member of the band. He was accompanied by a string quartet. (More from Wikipedia)
I have a confession to make though. When I first heard the "Stars on 45 Medley" (Beatles medley), there were several songs that I was actually not familiar with. I don't think that I have ever told anyone this before now; I wonder how many other Beatles fans were similarly chagrined. My own experience with the band is being caught up in the excitement in late 1963 and early 1964, but I quit buying Beatles albums sometime in 1965, though I still bought a lot of their 45's. Naturally, I bought Sgt. Pepper right away, and it wasn't long before I figured out how good the preceding album Revolver was. However, I didn't buy Rubber Soul until I got the box set, The Beatles / The Collection. Basically, between "Yesterday" and Sgt. Pepper, if it wasn't on the radio, I hadn't heard it. Thus, for this music fan at least, Stars on 45 reawakened my interest in the Beatles, and I definitely took to heart their exhortation: "Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't forget!"
(September 2012)
