Release

Although McCartney had fallen in love with the song, he had a much harder time convincing the other members of the band that it was worthy of an album place, the main objection being that it did not fit in with their image, especially considering that "Yesterday" was extremely unlike other Beatles' songs at the time. This feeling was so strong that the other Beatles—Lennon, Harrison and Ringo Starr—refused to permit the release of a single in the United Kingdom. This did not prevent Matt Monro from recording the first of many cover versions of "Yesterday" to come. His version made it into the top ten in the UK charts soon after its release in the autumn of 1965. Other artists to perform cover versions of this song include McFly and Sting.

In the United States, The Beatles' influence on their record label, Capitol, was not as strong. A single was released there, pairing "Yesterday" as the B-Side of "Act Naturally", featuring Ringo as a singer who was the most popular member of The Beatles in the U.S. at that time. After the tremendous success of "Yesterday", the sequence in which the songs appeared on the sleeves was changed. The single was charting by 29 September 1965, and topped the charts for a full month, beginning on October 9. The song spent a remarkable total of 11 weeks in the American charts, selling a million copies within five weeks. "Yesterday" was the most-played song on American radio for eight consecutive years, its popularity refusing to abate.

Meanwhile, in the United Kingdom (UK), Help! debuted at number one on August 14, 1965 (the first album ever to do so), and continued to top the charts for nine weeks. According to a website, "Yesterday" was dedicated to Iris Caldwell on the show "Blackpool Night Out". Her mother, Violet, told McCartney that her daughter didn't want to speak to him again because he "didn't have any feelings". During this performance, McCartney sang the song and played acoustic guitar, backed by a string quartet, but not by his fellow Beatles. When The Beatles played "Yesterday" during their 1966 world tour, however, the band played the song with their usual live instrumental lineup of McCartney on electric bass guitar, Harrison and Lennon on electric guitars, and Starr on drums.

On 4 March 1966, "Yesterday" was released as an EP in the UK, joined by "Act Naturally" on the A-side with "You Like Me Too Much" and "It's Only Love" on the B-side. By 12 March it had begun its run on the charts. On 26 March 1966, the EP went to number one, a position it held for two months.

Ten years later on 8 March 1976, "Yesterday" was released by Parlophone as a single in the United Kingdom, featuring "I Should Have Known Better" on the B-side. Entering the charts on 13 March, the single stayed there for seven weeks, but it never rose higher than number 8. The release came about due to the expiration of The Beatles' contract with EMI, Parlophone's parent. EMI released as many singles by The Beatles as they could on the same day, leading to 23 of them hitting the top 100 in the United Kingdom charts, including six in the top 50.