
Originally Posted by
archnacorda
Beatle trivia for the day - the world record for the most recorded song is "Yesterday" by Lennon-McCartney. It was written in the home of Paul's girlfriend at that time-Jane Asher, whose brother was a member of the singing group Peter, John and Mary. This was the first Beatle song that had a 4-piece string section accompaniment added by George Martin. Paul composed the song using an upright piano at the attic of Jane Asher's home.
The song took 2 months to complete, long for Beatle standards. Paul had the melody finished but lacked the lyrics, so he tentatively titled it as "Scrambled Eggs". He was thinking that there might be already be a song with the same melody, thus he did not finish it. When he was certain that he had an original tune, that was the time he put in the lyrics. The original first verse went like this...."scrambled eggs....,ohhh baby how I loved your legs....".
Today, everytime Paul performs this song in his concerts, he uses the same Epiphone Texan guitar, although he used a Martin D-12 dreadnought during the original recording. The reason he does this is because he has a contract with Gibson (who owns Epiphone). A replica of Paul's Epiphone Texan, complete with pick scratches is sold by Gibson for over $3000 per. A regular Texan costs over $1000. A portion of the sales goes to the "End the Spread of Landmines" foundation that Paul became active with when he married Heather Mills, whom he later divorced (the settlement was close to $20 million).
The last time Paul performed "Yesterday" using a different guitar was during his "Wings Over America Tour". During that tour, he used an Ovation. In the movie "Give My Regards to Broadstreet" in the '80's, Paul performed a medeley of "Yesterday", "Here There and Everywhere" and "Wanderlust". This was the first and last time that Paul ever recorded a medley. The medley the Beatles performed in the movie "Hard Day's Night" was a remix, not a recording.
John was extremely "disturbed" that the most successful Beatle song was a Paul McCartney tune. During a Rolling Stone interview in the mid 70's, John exclaimed that "Paul probably failed to shag the girl" mentioned in the song. Shag is the British slang for f**ked. The most common chords published for the song starts with F, but the original started with a G.