The Beatles’ “Yesterday” began with a title that sounds more like breakfast than a ballad: “Scrambled Eggs.” Paul McCartney used the phrase as a placeholder while he worked out words for a melody he had heard in a dream. The joke helped him keep singing the tune until its familiar lyrics took shape.
A melody before the words
McCartney has described waking with the melody in his head and playing it on a piano so he would not forget it. At first, he wondered whether he had remembered someone else’s song rather than invented his own. With no finished lyric to sing, he tried out “scrambled eggs” instead. It fit the opening of the tune, even if it belonged to a very different kind of song.
This was more than a private nickname. Beatles producer George Martin recalled McCartney playing him the song under its temporary name before the final words were ready. McCartney’s own account calls “Scrambled Eggs” the working title, not an earlier released version of “Yesterday.” The distinction matters: listeners never had to choose between two official Beatles songs with the same melody.
From breakfast joke to ballad
McCartney completed the lyrics in 1965. The Beatles recorded “Yesterday” that June, with McCartney singing and playing acoustic guitar; a string quartet was added to the recording. It appeared on the album Help! in August. For more on how that spare arrangement came together, see The Beatles’ account of “Yesterday”.
The unlikely working title has remained part of the song’s story. McCartney later revisited the joke in a duet with Jimmy Fallon, singing a playful version called “Scrambled Eggs.” As McCartney’s account of the duet confirms, the silly words were real—but they were a step toward “Yesterday,” not the song he ultimately wanted to finish.