Yesterday is the most covered song in the history of recorded music — and one of the most natural fits for the classical guitar of any piece from the pop and rock repertoire. Paul McCartney wrote it in 1965, hearing the melody complete in a dream, and the song's arpeggiated fingerpicking accompaniment has made it a favourite arrangement for classical guitarists since the moment it was first published.
The Song
Yesterday was recorded by The Beatles in June 1965 for the Help! album, with McCartney accompanied only by a string quartet — no other Beatle appears on the track. It was the first Beatles recording to feature just one band member, and it became the most commercially successful song McCartney ever wrote, holding the record for the most cover versions of any copyrighted song. McCartney played it on a 1964 Epiphone Texan six-string acoustic, using a gentle fingerpicking accompaniment that already has the quality of a classical guitar arrangement.
The Tōru Takemitsu Arrangement
The most celebrated classical guitar arrangement of Yesterday is by the Japanese composer Tōru Takemitsu (1930–1996), one of the finest composers of the twentieth century, whose guitar writing is among the most beautiful in the modern repertoire. Takemitsu's arrangement treats the song with the same gravity he brought to his own concert works — the fingerpicking texture is refined and singing, the harmonic language is deepened, and the melody is given space and expression that the original's simplicity always implied but never fully stated. It is an arrangement that transforms a pop song into a concert piece without losing any of what made the original song unforgettable.
Performed for Siccas Guitars
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