THINKER'S ALMANAC - October 20

What was the secret creative ingredient that allowed Paul McCartney to compose The Beatles' hit “Yesterday”?

Subject:  Creativity/Learning - Paul McCartney writes a hit

Event:  The Beatles receive a gold record for Yesterday, 1965

Please, don't wake me

No, don't shake me

Leave me where I am

I'm only sleeping

-The Beatles

On this day in 1965, The Beatles received a gold record for their song Yesterday.  In many ways the song is uncharacteristic of the typical music by the British rock group.  Yesterday marked the first time that The Beatles recorded a song featuring just one of the band’s members.  Only Paul McCarney recorded the song with his acoustic guitar, accompanied by a string quartet.  Not only is the song the most covered of all The Beatles’ songs, it is also one of the most covered songs of all time by any group or artist.

                                                            Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay 

Even the song’s composition was atypical.  Paul awoke one morning with the song's complete melody running through his head.  He rolled out of bed, sat at his piano, found the chords, and began playing the song.  Because this wasn’t his typical method of writing songs, McCartney at first didn’t think he had written the song, thinking he must have just heard it somewhere.  But after playing it for several people, he realized it was an original.  

Because he didn’t have lyrics for the song, he simply called it “Scrambled Eggs.”  While on holiday in Portugal, Paul decided on the one-word title Yesterday and wrote the song’s lyrics.  The song was recorded in June 1965 and released as a single in September of that year (1).

Another classic tale of creativity fueled by sleep is Dimitri Ivanovic Mendeleyev’s creation of the Periodic Table of the Elements.  The story goes that one night in 1869 the Russian chemist was contemplating how to organize the atoms discovered by science up to that time.  As he ruminated, he played solitaire but fell asleep before finishing his game.  When he woke up, he had in his mind a complete framework for each atom.  He then quickly wrote it down in the famous table format.

In his book Brain Rules, biologist John Medina presents evidence that sleep is not only essential for creative endeavors, it is also vital to learning of any kind.  In one study, students were presented with a math lesson followed by a series of related math problems.  The researchers wanted to see how sleep would impact the students’ ability to identify a shortcut in solving the problems.  Half the students were brought back to work on math problems twelve hours after the initial lesson. Twenty percent of those students discovered the shortcut.  The second group was also brought back after twelve hours; however, eight of the twelve hours included sleep.  Remarkably, sixty percent of these students discovered the shortcut (2).

Recall, Retrieve, Recite, Ruminate, Reflect, Reason:  How did Paul McCartney use sleep to write Yesterday, and what evidence is there that sleeping can improve learning?

Challenge - Chief Nourisher of Life’s Feast - What is the best thing anyone has ever said about sleep?  Do a search for some quotations.  When you find one you like, write it down and explain why you like it.

ALSO ON THIS DAY:

October 20, 1968: Dick Fosbury set an Olympic record jumping 7 feet 4 ¼ inches at the Mexico City Games with his status quo busting new method of high jumping: See THINKER’S ALMANAC - March 8.

October 20, 1973:  On this day, the Sydney Opera House in Australia opened. While the opera house is one of the most famous and distinctive buildings in the world, it is also a monument to the planning fallacy -- a phenomenon related to predictions where we tend to underestimate the amount of time, effort, and money it will take to complete a task.  When construction began in 1959, the structure was expected to be completed in 1963 at an estimated cost of $7 million.  In actuality, construction was not complete until 1973, ten years later than expected.  The cost was $102 million.

Sources:

1-McGuinness, Paul. “‘Yesterday’: The Story Behind The Beatles’ Song”

UDiscover Music 14 June 2021

2. Medina, John.  Brain Rules. Seattle, Wa: Pear Press, 2014: 49.