4 Fantastic “Yesterday” Songs (And Not the One You’re Thinking Of)

“I believe in yesterday,” Paul McCartney famously sang. As it turns out, many other songwriters have believed in that word. They’ve made it a focus of many a memorable song over the years.

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We’ve chosen four “Yesterday” songs that found a way to make that overly familiar word brim with new life. Let’s look back at some songs from, well, you know when.

“Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday” by Stevie Wonder

In the late 60s, Stevie Wonder was still very much entrenched in the Motown machine. Once the 70s hit, that’s when he started to assert his artistic independence. But in those earlier years, his natural charisma on the microphone made him the perfect vehicle for some strong songs from the label’s top writers. Harvey Fuqua and Johnny Bristol penned “Yester-Me, Yester-You, Yesterday”. Chris Clark, a female singer signed to a Motown subsidiary, did the first version of this endlessly clever song. Wonder recorded it a year later, only for it to wait around on the shelf till 1969, when it became a Top 10 hit for him.

“The Hills Of Yesterday” by Scott Walker

This is the one song on this list that you’d probably have to do some searching to find. “The Hills Of Yesterday” was written for a 1970 film starring Sean Connery called The Molly Maguires. You might be able to tell from the film’s somber melody that famed film composer Henry Mancini wrote the music. Marilyn and Alan Bergman, lyricists of movie classics like “The Way We Were”, took charge of the words. Scott Walker, known for his brooding vocals with The Walker Brothers in the 60s, along with his idiosyncratic singer-songwriter work years later, sang the song. Try listening to this one without a few tears welling up in the corners of your eyes.

“That Was Yesterday” by Foreigner

When Foreigner released their 1984 album Agent Provocateur, they were in the middle of changing their focus, a move that caused some consternation within the band. They led off the album with the single “I Want To Know What Love Is”, a massive ballad that solidified the notion that they were now going to do more of the slow stuff. Had this been the early Foreigner of “Head Games” and “Cold As Ice” fame, they might have led with “That Was Yesterday”. The pulsating track spills over with urgency, in large part thanks to the twitchy melody and Lou Gramm’s passionate performance.

“The Girl From Yesterday” by Eagles

Eagles came full circle with the new studio tracks that they included on their 1994 reunion album Hell Freezes Over. They spent much of the second half of the 70s trying to put their image of country-tinged balladeers behind them. Yet three of the four new songs from ’94 sound like they would have been right at home on one of their first few albums. Certainly, “The Girl From Yesterday” goes right down the middle of that country lane. Written by Glenn Frey with his longtime collaborator Jack Tempchin, the song tells a touching story of a girl left behind by a guy who had other fish to fry. Frey is firmly in his element on lead vocal while Don Henley adds the ache with his high harmonies.

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