Two songs and the english ...

Yesteray

Yesterday is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. It was first released on the album Help! in August 1965, except in the United States, where it was issued as a single in September of that year. The song reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart. It subsequently appeared on the UK EP Yesterday in March 1966 and made its US album debut on Yesterday and Today, in June 1966.

McCartney's vocal and acoustic guitar, together with a string quartet, was essentially the band's first solo performance. It remains popular today and, with 2200 cover versions, is one of the most covered songs in the history of recorded music. It was also was voted the best song of the 20th century in a 1999 BBC Radio 2 poll of music experts and listeners. The song was also voted the No. 1 pop song of all time by MTV and Rolling Stone magazine the following year. In 1997, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI) says that that it was performed over seven million times in the 20th century.

Yesterday is a melancholic ballad about the break-up of a relationship. The singer nostalgically laments for yesterday when he and his love were together before she left because of something he said. McCartney is the only member of the Beatles to appear on the track. The final recording was so different from other works by the Beatles that the band members vetoed the song's release as a single in the United Kingdom. However, other artists quickly recorded versions of it for single release. The Beatles' recording was issued in the U.K. as a single in 1976 and peaked at number 8 on the UK Singles Chart.

Whiter Shade of Pale

A Whiter Shade of Pale is a song by the English rock band Procol Harum that was issued as their debut record on 12 May 1967. The single reached number 1 in the UK Singles Chart on 8 June and stayed there for six weeks.Without much promotion, it reached number 5 on the US Billboard Hot 100. One of the anthems of the 1967 Summer of Love, it is one of the most commercially successful singles in history, having sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. In the years since, "A Whiter Shade of Pale" has become an enduring classic, with more than 1,000 known cover versions by other artists.

With its Bach-derived instrumental melody, soulful vocals, melancholic tone, and unusual lyrics, the music of "A Whiter Shade of Pale" was composed by Gary Brooker and Matthew Fisher, while the lyrics were written by Keith Reid. Originally, the writing credits only listed Brooker and Reid. In 2009, Fisher won co-writing credit for the music in a unanimous ruling from the Law Lords.

In 1977, the song was named joint winner (along with Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody") of "The Best British Pop Single 1952–1977" at the Brit Awards. In 1998, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004, the performing rights group Phonographic Performance Limited recognised it as the most-played record by British broadcasting of the past 70 years and Rolling Stone placed it 57th on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time". In 2009, it was reported as the most played song in the last 75 years in public places in the UK.

The 7-single version is only 4:08 long and consists of only six versus with the bridge repeated four times. The full version of the song is actually over nine minutes long and features two additional versus. 

Here is a good explaination of what the lyrics mean.

What the British say and what they mean.

An article appeared in the Independant in 2015 which discussed a widely shared social media chart that claims to illustrate the differences between what British people say, what they truly mean, and how others understand it.

The three-part chart, first mentioned online in 2011, is divided into three columns: "what the British say," "what they really mean," and "what others understand". It suggests that British people often don't express their thoughts directly. For example, when a British person says "I hear what you say," they supposedly mean "I disagree and do not want to discuss it further," but non-British people understand it as "I accept your point of view". Or, when someone hears "That's not bad" from a British person they supposedly think "That's good," but non-Brits interpret it as a poor performance.

Here is the original newspaper article and the chart.