Yesterday's Gone

"Yesterday's Gone" is the title of a hit single by Chad & Jeremy which was released in 1963.

The song was written in 1962 by Chad Stuart who comprised Chad & Jeremy with Jeremy Clyde. Stuart shares the song's writing credit with Wendy Kidd, the manager of a band Stuart belonged to at the time of the song's writing; according to Stuart, Kidd was given the songwriting credit in return for allowing him to compose "Yesterday's Gone" on her piano. Kidd also facilitated Stuart's being hired as a staff writer at Rogers Music who published "Yesterday's Gone" although the song remained unrecorded until Stuart and Clyde began performing as a duo eventually recording "Yesterday's Gone" in July 1963 in a session at Abbey Road Studios produced and arranged by John Barry^[1] who'd discovered Chad & Jeremy at a London club and signed them to Ember Records, a newly formed independent label in which Barry was a partner.

Released 27 September 1963, "Yesterday's Gone" entered the UK Top 50 on the chart dated 30 November 1963 and remained on the chart for seven weeks with a #37 peak; the followup single "Like I Love You Today" was released in January 1964 with no evident reaction. Chad Stuart would recall: "There was just no way a little independent label could compete in those days...John Barry bought himself out of his contract and we were stuck. I think we would've broken up then and there except for the fact that Noel Rogers, who published 'Yesterday's Gone' fenced it off to this other company in America called World Artists"^[2] referring to the Pittsburgh-based World Artists Records who gave the track its US release in March 1964. ("Yesterday's Gone" had already had one international release: by Australia's Festival Records in February 1964, which was not a success.)

In the United States, "Yesterday's Gone" would become a beneficiary of the "British Invasion" craze, entering the Billboard Hot 100 in May 1964 to share the Top 40 that summer with such fellow "Brit hits" as "A World Without Love" and "Nobody I Know" by Peter and Gordon, "Bad to Me" and "Little Children" by B. J. Kramer & the Dakotas, "Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying" by Gerry and the Pacemakers and "Can't You See That She's Mine" by the Dave Clark 5. "Yesterday's Gone" did not join these last-named records in the Top Ten instead peaking at #21 but it has proven the equal of these higher ranking hits as a touchstone of the "British Invasion" sound. Chad & Jeremy would subsequently place three singles in the US Top 20 but only their one Top Ten hit: "A Summer Song", rivals "Yesterday's Gone" as the duo's signature song.^[3]

The American success of "Yesterday's Gone" occasioned a re-release of the track in Australia ^[4] where it charted over the summer of 1964 with a #26 peak, and also a major label cover in the UK, where in March 1964 Pye Records released a version of "Yesterday's Gone" recorded by the Overlanders with Tony Hatch producing; the Overlanders' version did not chart in the UK but as picked up by Hickory Records for US release in May 1964 became a regional hit reaching #75 that July, marking the only Billboard Hot 100 appearance of the Overlanders which preceded that group's sole charting in their native UK (with the #1" Michelle") by almost two years. ^[5][6]

"Yesterday's Gone" has also been recorded by the Boxmasters, the Browns, Brenda Lee and the Osborne Brothers. A mid-1960s recording by the Bee Gees is featured on their 1998 Brilliant From Birth compilation CD. Translated as "Pas Aujourd'hui", "Yesterday's Gone" charted in France at #94 in France for Les Missiles in the autumn of 1964.