At Just 22, Paul McCartney Penned One Of The Most Covered Songs In Music History

Few artists can say they created their best work by the tender age of 22, but in the case of the Beatles and Wings legend Paul McCartney, that — respectfully — may well be the case. That was the age the songwriter penned and recorded "Yesterday," his achingly poignant guitar ballad that revealed the emotional depth of the Beatles' songwriting and which went on to become one of the most covered songs in music history.

McCartney was part of the famous Lennon-McCartney songwriting partnership alongside Beatles founder John Lennon. Though all the songs either of them wrote were credited to the duo, many were written in isolation and recorded after receiving the other's approval. "Yesterday" was one of these songs, written almost entirely by McCartney. He claims to have awoken one day with the chord progression in his head, but was convinced it was something he had remembered from somewhere else, and he was hesitant to work on the song before he asked as many people as possible if they recognized it. Eventually he completed the lyrics during a long car journey in Portugal and presented it to his bandmates and producer George Martin. They told McCartney the song would work best as a solo record with just McCartney accompanying himself on guitar alongside a string quartet, and, unusually, no instrumentation from John Lennon, George Harrison, or Ringo Starr.

The Beatles recorded Paul McCartney's vocal and guitar parts for "Yesterday" on June 14, 1965, just four days shy of his 23rd birthday. The track was included on the album "Help!," which accompanied the band's second film, and released as a single in the U.S. "Yesterday" spent 11 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, four of them at the No. 1 spot.

The track's status as a fan favorite was buoyed by its featuring in many public appearances by the Beatles at the time, with McCartney taking the spotlight for the duration of the song during shows and televised appearances, providing a show-stopping moment each time. Indeed, so intimate is the song that in some cases the audiences stopped screaming — quite an achievement in 1965.

"Yesterday" instantly became a go-to cover song for other major artists. By the end of the year it had already been covered by Al Hirt and Lawrence Welk, with covers emerging the following year from Perry Como, Count Basie and His Orchestra, Lee Morgan, Andy Williams, Nicky Hopkins, Chet Atkins, the Band of Irish Guards, and the Lettermen. Since then, its popularity has never waned, and it is estimated that more than 2,200 professionally recorded cover versions of "Yesterday" now exist.