By 1965 The Beatles already had a slew of pop hits, a hit movie, and a wave of fan hysteria that has rarely been seen in music history, and a big part of the band's success was the songwriting power of Paul McCartney and John Lennon. the duo had written some of the biggest pop hits in music, making the Fab Four one of the most successful groups in music, with barely a decade of work to their name, but in the summer of 65 Paul McCartney began work on a song that would begin to transform him from a maker of great pop songs to a great song writer.
On September 13th, The Beatles released "Yesterday". The song was the first released off the album "Help!" to accompany the film of the same name. The ballad about a break-up was originally written in 1964, but for various reasons didn't get seriously worked on til 65, as Yesterday is the first solo single for the band, with McCartney singing the song with string accompaniment behind him.
The song would hit Number 1 on the US Charts on October the 9th and stayed there for four weeks, as the song is traditionally viewed by many as the moment McCartney truly became a great songwriter, and began to leave simple 3-minute pop hits behind. "Yesterday" and the title track "Help", marks the first step in The Beatles evolution of expanding their musical craft and revolutionizing modern pop music. the song is as popular today, as it was in 65, with 2,200 cover versions, making it it one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music. It was voted the best song of the 20th century by the BBC, and the No. 1 pop song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone magazine. In 1997, Yesterday was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, as. BMI reported that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century.