When Paul McCartney wrote “Yesterday,” it was a new day for The Beatles — and especially for his relationship with John Lennon.
The 1965 chart-topper signaled the beginning of a new creative chapter for him and Lennon, forever changing the dynamic in the duo.
“Paul writes this incredible song. He can’t actually believe that he’s written it,” Ian Leslie — author of the new book “John & Paul: A Love Story in Songs” — exclusively told The Post. “And it’s kind of this pivotal point, because Paul realizes, ‘Wow, I’ve got superpowers.’”
“Obviously, he’d written some amazing songs already, but John had still been kind of creatively dominant up until around that point, and this is really the point when Paul’s talent really takes off … It’s finally undeniable that Paul’s songwriting and performing talents are the equal of John Lennon’s.”
All of a sudden, this sentimental ballad — a departure from The Beatles’ previous work — had turned McCartney into the alpha Beatle.
In fact, “Yesterday” even seemed to mark McCartney for solo stardom.
“It was a song that he performed and recorded without the other Beatles,” said Leslie. “When they’re onstage and they perform it, the others literally go off stage, and he’s just there at the spotlight by himself. So it was kind of a thing for the rest of the group — and for John in particular.”
And that played right into Lennon’s insecurities and abandonment issues.
“He was always worried that people that he was close to were going to leave him because they had when he was a kid,” said Leslie.
John’s mother Julia left him to live with her sister Mimi for much of his childhood before dying at 44 when she was hit by a car in 1958. Meanwhile, his father Alfred was also absent for most of his youth.
“I think ‘Yesterday’ really triggered his insecurity that Paul may up and leave and become a solo star,” said Leslie. “I don’t think Paul was ever going to do that, but I think John worried about that.”
It led to Lennon becoming increasingly jealous and even bitter about McCartney’s “Yesterday” triumph.
“He became slightly obsessed by ‘Yesterday,’ ” said Leslie. “ He would be mean about it, say things like, ‘Well, I’m glad I didn’t write that one.’ But then he would always be thinking, ‘Can I write something that’s as powerful as ‘Yesterday’?”
In fact, Lennon’s obsession with “Yesterday” continued even after The Beatles’ breakup in 1970.
“So he writes ‘Imagine,’ he plays it at a piano for his friend and he goes, ‘So what do you think?’ ” said Leslie. “And his friend is like, ‘Wow, that’s amazing, obviously.’ And John says, ‘Yeah, but is it as good as ‘Yesterday’? It just became this kind of scab that he was picking at.”
Leslie — whose “John & Paul” book traces their relationship through their songs — believes that it goes back to when a 15-year-old McCartney met a 16-year-old Lennon on July 6, 1957, when the latter was playing with the Quarrymen at St. Peter’s Church in the Liverpool suburb of Woolton.
“Paul had joined John’s group the Quarreymen, but it was John’s group, and John was older,” explained Leslie. “And John was still dominant in those early [Beatles].”
“And when the two made an early pact to share songwriting credit no matter who wrote the tune, it was Lennon-McCartney, with Lennon’s name first.”
“They were teenagers when they made this decision, and then they had to kind of make the decision again, more formally, when they were just on the brink of fame,” said Leslie.
“They were so close, and they effectively were able to kind of put their individual egos aside and say, ‘Whether or not it starts with Paul or it starts with John, a John song or a Paul song, it’s not that important. In the end, what’s important is that we do the best songs we can.’ And that was remarkable thing.”
