Poll: Yesterday or Eleanor Rigby?

Inspired by the recent Eleanor Rigby vs She's Leaving Home thread. I see these two pieces, each ov which just use a small string ensemble - quartet on Yesterday, Octet on Eleanor Rigby) as far more comparable than either is to She's Leaving Home (which I would find more comparable to Goodnight or The Long & Winding Road, their other two pieces with seriously lush arrangements).

 

Easy one for me.
I'm a Beatles fan, but I couldn't care less if I would never hear/listen to Yesterday again.
In the meantime ER is one of my all time faves....

 

While both are wonderful, I go for Yesterday and it is not a hard choice for me. I prefer universal yet personal lyrics to a third person story, and Yesterday has a more interesting chord progression.

Interestingly I went from loving Yesterday as a child and seeing it as a sign of their sophistication, to thinking it wasn't worth my time of day since it didn't rock when I was a teen, to loving it again as an adult, not for it's sophisticated arrangement, but for the emotion, sentiment, bass line and melody.

 

+1. There are a few Beatles tracks I wouldn't mind never hearing again and Yesterday is one of them.

 

RF, you've touched on something that I don't think is acknowledged enough among the doctrinaires here; namely, the idea that one's musical tastes often do change with time & circumstances. Some of us here would do well to remember this next time they feel compelled to dig in their heels & insist that some Bolivian mono B-side is the only way to hear a certain song & that anyone who disagrees is an utterly worthless !@#$#@! or whatever. You just might feel differently 10-20-30 years from now.

That said — it's still Ms. Rigby for me!

 

Catherine Figby by a mile!

 

Yesterday is so overplayed that I'm sick of it and Rigby was never one of my favs to begin with, so I really don't care which one wins this poll!

 

Neither one rocks out nor are as sweet as And I Love Her. My 2 cents.

 

Yesterday is such a perfect piece, and I cannot listen to it in any other version, different from the original recording. I'm not a huge McCartney fan, but his vocal performance in this case is absolutely fantastic - the voice is so natural, efortless and perfectly pitched that leaves the impression that the song is very simple and easy to sing, but actually if you try to sing it you'll feel that it's not quite easy to hold the line and keep the voice's natural timbre, and at the same time to sound as someone who just telling a story. It's a real masterpiece, IMO, and the main reason that some people don't like it is because is overplayed and because of the countless, useless and often terrible cover versions. Even McCartney's own later re-recordings and live performances of Yesterday are marked by his developing vocal mannerism, and are not comparable to the original.

 

I saw Paul live last night. He played both. The fact that is overplayed makes us forget Yesterday is one of the most moving songs ever.

 

Yes, it's an overplayed MOR standard at this point but I can't deny the simple beauty of "Yesterday" as a song, and the wisdom of George Martin, (with Pauls input) not to go all Montovani with the string arrangement. The string quartet's music alone is a thing of beauty, IMO.

So, I've voted for "Yesterday."

 

I love both songs but I personally prefer "Yesterday".
It was one of the songs they performed live in Rizal Memorial Footbal Stadium in Manila, Philippines. That was an afternoon concert in July 1966.

 

No way I can choose between the two. When I was younger, Eleanor Rigby would have won hands down. But now I appreciate both equally.

GREAT question, though!

When I first read it I thought, "oh, that's an easy one! It's...um...hmmmmm. No, wait a minute. "

 

I prefer Eleanor Rigby probably due to the arrangement and recording. The string quartet is really striking.

 

Interestingly I was listening to the mono Yesterday, a thing of extreme beauty, when I saw this poll. A perfect presentation of a beautiful recording of a nearly flawless pop ballad.

I feel nothing for Eleanor Rigby. Literally nothing.

 

The people here that have voted for "Eleanor Rigby" : Where do they all come from ? Where do they all belong ? Sheesh.

 

Here we go again. We already determined that Yesterday was taken from Georgia on My Mind!
Eleanor Rigby all the way for me.

 

I am the walrus

 

Tired of Yesterday a long time ago - might be a very good song but I wouldn't go out of my way to listen to it.

Eleanor Rigby is grim and desolate like a Bronte novel - obviously that's my pick.

So to summarize both threads -

She's Leaving Home > Eleanor Rigby > Yesterday

 

Who's we?

But you are right, other than the melody, lyrics and arrangement, they are the same.

 

...and (despite that infographic) key.

 

"Yesterday was such an easy game for you to play, but let's face it things are so much easier today" - The Kinks

 

Yeah the chords are very similar as you can see by the diagram. Of course that doesn't mean much though other than it being the harmonic foundation of the song. The lyrics and arrangement are more important in that regards.

 

Both are works of genius, but I chose Yesterday because it is a very artistic song that is also very mainstream. I think it will go down in history as one of the all time great songs.

 

"Eleanor" for me, by quite a margin...