Paul McCartney showed The Beatles’ “Yesterday” to Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and John Lennon. They decided the song shouldn’t be a single in the United Kingdom. When it became a single there, it wasn’t as popular as it had been in the United States.
Paul McCartney said Ringo Starr, George Harrison, and John Lennon didn’t want to add anything to his demo for The Beatles’ “Yesterday.” Subsequently, the band decided the song shouldn’t be a single in the United Kingdom. It eventually became a single there 11 years after its release in the United States.In the 1997 book Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, Paul discussed the way the other Beatles reacted to an early version of “Yesterday” with no string section. “Ringo said, ‘I don’t think I can really drum on that,'” he said. “George said, ‘Well, I’m not sure I can put much on it either.’ And John said, ‘I can’t think of anything, I think you should just do it yourself.'”
Source: Matthew Trzcinski/cheatsheet.com