1965 No. 1, Originally Titled Scrambled Eggs, Topped The Charts 61 Years Ago Today

"Scrambled eggs, oh my baby, how I love your legs, scrambled eggs ..." Musically savvy readers might just hear a very recognizable melody and rhythm in those lyrics. That's because "Yesterday," a magnificent, gorgeous Beatles track that grants boomers bragging rights over other generations, was once called "Scrambled Eggs." 

To be clear, the Fab Four were never going to roll with "Scrambled Eggs" as an official song title for what would become "Yesterday." "Scrambled Eggs" was always meant as a placeholder, albeit one that overstayed its welcome — at least to director Richard Lester. Lester was working with the Beatles on "Help!" at the time, the 1965 Beatles movie that shares a name with their 1965 album (which doubled as a soundtrack to the film), and got annoyed hearing Paul McCartney hum those lyrics to himself. That's because McCartney woke up one morning at his girlfriend's house with the melody for "Yesterday" in his head. He quickly turned to the nearby piano, figured out the chord progression, and then let the lyrics stew in his head for a bit while walking around singing about scrambled eggs. It just so happens that the three-syllabled "scrambled eggs" and the rest of his placeholder lyrics perfectly fit the melody.

As odd as it may seem to go from a comical ditty about eggs to the final, wistfully articulated, "Yesterday/ All my troubles seemed so far away," that's how songwriting goes sometimes. "Yesterday" went to No. 1 in 1965 and stayed there for four weeks.

At this point, countless people have tried to peer into the Beatles' songwriting genius. This includes the forever-unanswerable question of which comes first: melody or lyrics. In the case of "Yesterday," it was melody, but the process changed per song and per person writing the song. This was especially true of Paul McCartney and John Lennon's legendary songwriting collaboration, which produced most of the Beatles' hits (though George Harrison and Ringo Starr contributed songs, too). "Yesterday," however, was all McCartney. In fact, Lennon wasn't even present when the song was eventually recorded.

"Yesterday" was one of those magically inspired tunes that came solely from McCartney's brain while he was sleeping. The song felt so familiar, in fact, that McCartney swore he knew it from somewhere, like an old folk song, even as he noodled with scrambled eggs in his head. This was in 1964, over a year before "Yesterday" cohered on "Help!" Folks like "Help!" director Richard Lester kept encouraging McCartney to finish the song, if only to stop McCartney from humming the incomplete song on set.

And finish the song McCartney did, while on a 180-mile drive from an airport in Lisbon, Portugal to a friend's house along the coast in Albufeira. He matched the three-syllabled "scrambled eggs" to "yesterday," "suddenly," etc., and the song came together. It was only later, after the song had been recorded, that its iconic strings got added — an inclusion McCartney was originally against. Of course, the Beatles would later add more than a few strings to "Eleanor Rigby," another McCartney-headed song with its own inspiration and backstory.