John Lennon was always destined to hate The Beatles’ most famous song
They might have been one of the most successful groups in musical history, but The Beatles represented so much more than their commercial success. For four lads from Liverpool to soundtrack an entire decade, becoming a global phenomenon who changed the musical landscape forever is nothing short of miraculous. What’s more, the band’s songwriting genius has continued to inspire generations of songwriters and musicians in the many decades since their split.
The appeal of The Beatles was, of course, multi-faceted, but if you had to boil the band down to a singular attribute, it would be their songwriting talent. It was Paul McCartney and John Lennon who penned the vast majority of their hit singles and enduring classics, owing to a songwriting partnership stretching back to their teenage years in The Quarrymen.
Although many of their tracks were written independently, they were invariably credited to the Lennon-McCartney partnership. However, later years saw the pair develop something of a rivalry between their writing efforts.
It is, by this point, no secret that The Beatles ended in a rather ugly fashion. After spending much of the 1960s cooped up together in a studio or fleeing Beatlemania, riots, and dictators while on tour, the band members had reached the end of their tether. Their final studio sessions were dominated by rising tensions and arguments, which seemed to carry themselves over to the post-Beatles period.
Each band member embarked upon their own respective solo career almost immediately after the band’s break-up – or, in the case of George Harrison, a few years before – but The Beatles remained a prevalent theme within their solo writing. In particular, John Lennon and Paul McCartney took the opportunity of their solo records to air some dirty laundry. On Lennon’s 1971 track ‘How Do You Sleep?’ he launched a particularly vicious attack on Macca, declaring, “The only thing you done was yesterday.”
That line was, of course, in reference to The Beatles’ 1965 track ‘Yesterday’, which became one of their most famous tracks. The song was written by McCartney and credited to the Lennon-McCartney partnership. It hit the top of the US singles chart upon its release. In 1966, Lennon spoke about the song, sharing, “‘Yesterday’ is Paul completely on his own, really. We just helped finishing off the ribbons ’round it, you know, tying it up.”
As the years went on, however, Lennon’s view of the song seemed to sour. It is possible that he was always resentful of the song, given its widespread success and acclaim, as well as how different it was from the rest of the band’s repertoire at that time. In 1980, Lennon said, “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 were yesterday–that much you get–but it doesn’t really resolve,” he continued. “So, mine didn’t used to resolve either. I have had so much accolade for ‘Yesterday’. That’s Paul’s song, and Paul’s baby. Well done. Beautiful–and I never wished I’d written it.”
This somewhat dismissive take on one of The Beatles’ most successful songs is indicative of Lennon’s dislike of the song. However, even his attack on McCartney in ‘How Do You Sleep?’ seems to suggest that he thought the song was worthwhile, or at least worthy of envy. Nevertheless, the song certainly does not appear in Lennon’s list of favourite Beatles tracks.
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