HE GOT ‘HELP’
How star of ‘Yesterday’ remade Beatles hits
After Ed Sheeran is upstaged by his opening act, the pop star challenges the up-andcomer to a contest: write a new song in a matter of minutes. The new kid, Jack Malik, blows Sheeran and his entourage away with a piano ballad so beautiful that Sheeran gives up. Malik’s song: “The Long and Winding Road.”
In the movie “Yesterday,” the entire world is hit by a brief blackout after which seemingly no one remembers the Beatles … except for Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), who was knocked into a coma by a bus during the incident. A struggling singer-songwriter about to give up on his career, Malik seizes the opportunity and presents the biggest hits of the 20th century as his own creations — but first he has to remember the lyrics and figure out the music to all those classic tunes.
The biggest challenge for screenwriter Richard Curtis (“Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Notting Hill”) and director Danny Boyle (“Trainspotting,” “Slumdog Millionaire”) was choosing the songs. Boyle says they were fortunate that production company Working Title Films had a deal with Apple and Sony allowing up to 18 songs. It also allowed them to choose the songs, even swapping selections out during filming or editing without approval.
Curtis says they needed to stick with the biggest hits. (He did try to balance John Lennon’s and Paul McCartney’s contributions.) “For the jokes to work it has to be songs people recognize,” he says. “If Jack sat down at the piano in that Ed Sheeran scene and plays “Not a Second Time,” most people won’t know it’s the Beatles.”
Every song needed to fit the story but each one has a story unto itself. Here are some highlights:
“Eleanor Rigby”
In the movie Jack struggles mightily to remember the lyrics to this song. To capture that struggle Curtis largely avoided listening to the Beatles while writing. “I had to think like Jack,” he says. “At first, I couldn’t remember there was a fireman in “Penny Lane.” When I wrote the “Eleanor Rigby” scene I wandered around outside my house singing it and writing it down. I came back and checked it — I got it so wrong.” The mistakes Jack makes in the movie are ones Curtis made at home. “Help”
The song plays as Jack’s lowest emotional moment, in front of a huge crowd. “I was very keen to do a punk version,” Boyle says. “The crowd knew the song but this wasn’t the singalong version.”
“Danny shapes scenes that pushes you in new directions,” Patel says. “That had to come from a raw place though it took a toll on my voice doing it time and time again.”
“I Saw Her Standing There”
Nearly six decades ago, having a 20-year-old sing “Well, she was just 17, you know what I mean” felt appropriate, but for a 28-yearold musician to pretend he just wrote that line may strike #MeToo audiences as tone deaf. “Afterward I said, ‘Oh God, that’s a bit weird isn’t it,’” Patel says.
Boyle says that Patel asked about changing the line. “We ummed and aahed but then thought that would just draw attention to ourselves,” he says.
“Hey Jude”
Curtis says that when he wrote the joke in which Sheeran suggests Jack change the name to “Hey Dude” his first thought was, “I hope Universal doesn’t demand that be the name of the movie.”
Now he says, “I’m really cross with myself now because I should have had Ed also say, ‘That end is too depressing — instead of ‘Nah, nah nah,’ why don’t you say, ‘Yes, Yes Yes’ but I only thought of that a couple of weeks ago.”
“The Long and Winding Road”
“That one was a challenge to play so I’m quite proud of it,” Patel says. “I love how it feels on the fingers when you play it on piano.”
Boyle says having Jack play the song with just a piano was “very much in honor of Paul,” who originally recorded a similarly stripped down version only to have the other Beatles allow producer Phil Spector to layer on strings afterward. “When Paul sees the movie, I hope he appreciates that we tried to pay respect to that.”
Even discussing that possibility makes Patel nervous: “I can’t even think about the idea that Paul McCartney is going to watch this movie.”