Kasey Payton

Ryan Myers

English 1201

February 4, 2020

Music Video Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Marvin Gaye’s cover of “Yesterday” gives a new twist to the Beatles classic song by

making it appeal to soul music fans as well as fans of the Beatles. “Yesterday” was

written by the Beatles in August of 1965. It was automatically a hit so many people were

covering it very early in its release. One of the people to cover the song was Marvin

Gaye. Marvin covers the song “Yesterday” a little later than everyone else, in 1970, and

it was a huge hit because no one had heard the song in the soulful style that Marvin

sings in.

The Beatles were inspired to write the song “Yesterday” by the sadness that Paul

McCartney felt after his breakup with his girlfriend. In the song, he mentions that he

wished that it was yesterday, meaning that he wished that they were still together and

happy. The song is a little different than most of the music we listen to today because it

is in a baroque pop style. Which is basically just pop music and rock mixed together.

They did that so you could tell that it is a song that is about something serious and sad

while not really sounding like it. The music video does a pretty good job of showing that

because it shows them performing in front of an audience and not really jumping around

but standing there and singing their little hearts out. This is pretty surprising to me

because the Beatles were like the One Direction of their generation, so I would imagine

that they would jump around and try to look cute while performing for their fans which
were mainly teenage girls. But they didn’t, they were able to reach out to their fans in a

different way, by using pathos. They used their emotion and sadness in the song to get

girls to swoon after them, which I would say is pretty smart of them.

The cover of the song “Yesterday” by the Beatles that I chose was the one with

Marvin Gaye. Marvin covered the song in 1970 and it really surprised people because

the Beatles were such a huge music group that no one thought that there would be a

cover of one of their songs that were close to being as good as their original song. But

Marvin Gaye proved them wrong because his version was a hit! His version appealed

not only to soul loving Marvin Gaye fans, but also to fans of the Beatles that loved the

song but wanted a new twist onto it. Marvin has a very soulful sound that is original to

him, but with that also comes with some haters that don’t really like soulful music at all

which is why it was very surprising to see it get as big as it did. Marvin doesn’t have an

official video for his cover of “Yesterday” which is to be expected because it is the

1970’s and it’s not his original song. But people still loved it either way because it really

appealed to their emotions because of its slow tempo and adding a guitar line that pulls

at your heartstrings.

The songs are similar to the way that they are sung because they both sing in a

slower way to show emotion through the song. But are also different because the

original is in a faster tempo and is sung with less flow than the version by Marvin Gaye.

Marvin’s version has a tempo that is a lot slower than the original and flows together a

lot more than the original. This is to be expected because when Marvin sings, he takes

his time and just goes with the flow. Either version of the song is loved by fans of the

Beatles and by fans of Marvin because they are similar but both have their own style
added onto them, which is appreciated because it makes the song more original to the

singer.
Works Cited

The Beatle. Yesterday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXTJBr9tt8Q December 15,

2013. February 9, 2020.

Marvin Gaye. Yesterday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc-V4NTOn5s February 6,

2011. February 9, 2020.

The Cosmopolitan. Shannon Carlin.

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/music/a28210974/the-beatles-yesterday-

lyrics-meaning/ June 28, 2019. February 9, 2020.

The Songs In My Head Today. Holly A Hughes.

http://thesonginmyheadtoday.blogspot.com/2008/03/yesterday-marvin-gaye-usually-

beatles.html March 12, 2008. February 9, 2020.