3 Iconic Beatles Songs That Had Weird Working Titles
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.
- 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.
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Studio recordings rarely arrive fully formed. Before a song reaches its final title, it often exists under a rough placeholder name that band members and producers use during writing and recording sessions, only for something more fitting to be chosen later. The Beatles were no exception, and their working titles sometimes reflected the real people, ideas or in-jokes behind a song before commercial or personal considerations led to a rename.
Key figures in this process include John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison as songwriters, alongside producer George Martin, who frequently offered outside perspective on their material. Their collaborator dynamic, along with influences ranging from Indian spirituality to 1960s counter-culture, shaped both the content of the songs and the decisions behind their eventual titles.
Understanding this background matters because it shows how some of the band's most celebrated songs went through significant revision rather than arriving complete, and how input from within the group helped turn early drafts into the versions now familiar to listeners.
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