When you start writing a vocal arrangement, as far as I’m concerned, the key signature is not fixed. In most cases, first you decide which voice group will be singing the lead. Then you decide on the height of the melody and from that follows the key. Classical musicians often disagree with this way of working. In their opinion the key signature of a piece of music is fixed, because it’s a deliberate choice of the composer. And even in pop and jazz, they don’t dare to change the key.
In one of my arranging lessons, one of the students summarized this view like this: “Shouldn’t Yesterday be in F?” For me the answer would be: “No”. The original is sung in F, just because for Paul McCartney this was a comfortable key to sing in. But that’s all there is to it.
I thought it might be interesting to know in what key other artists perform Yesterday. I chose this song, because apparently it is the song most covered ever in pop history. So, it should be no problem finding sufficient covers. Here is a list of well-known versions and the keys in which they are sung:
Ray Charles: F
Perry Como: C
John Denver: C#
Neil Diamond: B@
Bob Dylan: C
Tom Jones: F
Elvis Presley: C
Frank Sinatra: C
James Taylor: C
Shirley Bassey: A
Eva Cassidy: C
Judy Collins: B@
Marianne Faithfull: A
Brenda Lee: G
Nana Mouskouri: C
Diana Ross: B@
Sarah Vaughan: F
Of these seventeen versions, only three are in F. This is not a big surprise, because in F the melody contains some fairly high notes.
There is another striking fact about this list. Most singers perform the song in C. It might be naive of me, but I always thought that professional singers were looking for the most perfect height of a song. Carefully choosing between C#
-major, D-major and E@
-major, searching for the best balance between warmth and brightness. But none of that. My romantic image of the famous singers from pop and jazz history is shattered to pieces. The song is simply performed in C, cause that will do.
By the way, Paul McCartney is playing the song in G on his guitar. The snares are tuned down a whole tone. Thus, for him the song is actually in G. What’s more, he doesn’t know how to read notes, so he will never ever have written down the notes in F.