# 3 Iconic Beatles Songs That Had Weird Working Titles

- URL: https://talkfuse.com/story/3-iconic-beatles-songs-that-had-weird-working-titles/
- Published: 2026-08-02T23:00:00+00:00
- Updated: 2026-08-25T17:46:14+00:00
- Original publisher: American Songwriter
- Original article: https://americansongwriter.com/3-iconic-beatles-songs-that-had-weird-working-titles/
- Topics: Art, Business, Companies, Culture, Entertainment, Music, Offbeat, Weird & Viral

## Key points

- Three Beatles songs had very different working titles.
- "Yesterday" was originally "Scrambled Eggs" with joke lyrics.
- "Sexy Sadie" began as a song about the Maharishi.

## Summary

American Songwriter has compiled a short piece on Beatles songs that started life under quite different working titles before being renamed into the classics fans know today. The article draws on recollections from George Harrison, Paul McCartney and producer George Martin, via The Beatles Anthology and biographer Mark Lewisohn, to trace how each track evolved from an initial idea into its finished form.

Among the examples: "Sexy Sadie" began as a Lennon song aimed at the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, with Harrison suggesting the new title after objecting to the original lyrics; "Yesterday" was long known during writing as "Scrambled Eggs", with placeholder lyrics about loving scrambled eggs, until George Martin persuaded McCartney that "Yesterday" was not too corny; and "Tomorrow Never Knows" was originally called "The Void", with Lennon changing it to make the song, inspired partly by Timothy Leary's adaptation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead and LSD experimentation, more accessible to listeners.

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