Nat King Cole 'influenced' Beatles hit

LONDON, UK (Sunday Times) - Former Beatle Paul McCartney's hit ballad Yesterday was "influenced" by a Nat King Cole track, music experts have said.

Paul said in 1965 that he awoke in his London flat with the tune for Yesterday in his head and asked friends if they recognised it. They said they thought it was his melody and that it had come to him in a dream.

Now, music experts have said the song - which has been covered by more than 2,000 artists and played on the radio at least six million times - have been subconsciously influenced by the song Answer Me.
It was recorded by Frankie Laine, David Whitfield and Nat King Cole.

Paul had played the track to the other Beatles and to their producer, George Martin, just after he wrote it but they could not name anything similar.
The songwriter had originally planned to call the song Scrambled Eggs, but then changed it to Yesterday, giving the song a more sombre, reflective mood. The song begins with the line: "Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away/Now I need a place to hide away".
Answer Me has the line: "Yesterday, I believed that love was here to stay, won't you tell me where I've gone astray."

Musicologists notes that "George Martin didn't point out it was similar [to Answer Me], if he had, we think McCartney would have changed his tune."

'Similar scan' views have been echoed by musicologists Alan Clayson and Dominic Pedler. "There are some uncanny similarities: the overlap of lyrics, the multiple rhyming emphasis on words ending with 'ay', the similar scan of the songs, Mr Pedler told the Sunday Times. "McCartney didn't hijack the song, but he must have been inspired by it," he said.