The 1965 song Billy Joel said made the world love The Beatles: “Very significant”

Billy Joel said the Beatles’ song ‘Yesterday’ helped convince people who dismissed the band that their music deserved to be taken seriously. He pointed to Frank Sinatra’s decision to cover it as a telling sign: Sinatra was not known for embracing much pop music, so his performance suggested the song had broad musical appeal.

Joel has said the Beatles inspired him to become a musician and showed that rock and classical music could both be taken seriously. The article places their success against early 1960s doubts about rock and roll, and notes that Sinatra also covered George Harrison’s ‘Something’. It gives no release date or sales figures for ‘Yesterday’.