Paul’s ‘Yesterday’ piano is up for sale

Paul’s ‘Yesterday’ piano is up for sale

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norman lebrecht

March 10, 2014

The 1907 Bluthner grand on which Paul McCartney supposedly wrote the Beatles’ most-covered ballad is coming up for sale at auction in the Adelphi Hotel, Liverpool. It’s a studio piano Paul messed around with while filming ‘Help’ in 1965. It has been put up for sale by the film’s director Richard Lester, now 82. The estimated price is £50,000 ($80,000).

Lester’s story: ‘When coming to the end of the shooting of the film, Paul was spending a lot of time at the piano composing and fine tuning “Yesterday” or the “Scrambled Eggs” song as it was originally entitled by Paul. He was playing it that much that I actually threatened to remove the piano off the set if he didn’t finish the song soon and give it a rest. When it was released in August 1965 Paul actually sent me a copy with a note attached saying “I’m glad you didn’t take the piano away – hope you like the “Scrambled Eggs” song now!’

Beatles-piano-3208512

Comments

  • Interesting bit of nostalgia. Yesterday and Eleanor Rigby were the first two songs of the Beatles that my teenage ears liked, “all those years ago”.

  • Actually it’s a Bechstein, not a Bluthner. My 1913 Bechstein has the same style legs.

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