"Yesterday Was Just the Beginning of My Life" is a song written by

Vanda & Young Vanda & Young were an Australian songwriting and producing duo composed of Harry Vanda and George Young. They performed as members of 1960s Australian rock group the Easybeats where Vanda was their lead guitarist and backing singer and Young wa ...

and recorded by

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

-born singer songwriter, Mark Williams. The song was released in May 1975 as the second and final single from his debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, '' Mark Williams'' (1975). The song peaked at number 1 on the New Zealand charts and was the highest selling single by a New Zealand artist in New Zealand in 1975.

Background

Williams' manager and music producer, Alan Galbraith had chosen a rock-pop number written by

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

n songwriting duo

Harry Vanda Johannes Hendrikus Jacob van den Berg (born 22 March 1946), better known as his stage name Harry Vanda, is a Dutch Australian musician, songwriter and record producer. He is best known as lead guitarist of the 1960s Australian rock band the Easy ...

and George Young (aka

). Williams originally wasn't keen on the track, but backed down and recorded the song with an alternate rearrangement with a rhythm and blues-soul sound. Galbraith said, "The original demo was nothing like the end result."

Track listing

; 7" single (EMI – HR 538) Side A: "Yesterday Was Just the Beginning of My Life"
Side B: "Jimmy Loves Marianne"

Chart performance

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References