Only Yesterday is a song recorded by the Carpenters. Released on March 14, 1975, the song was composed by Richard Carpenter and John Bettis. Only Yesterday peaked at number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and number one on the Adult Contemporary (AC) charts, The Carpenters' eleventh number one on that chart.The song was The Carpenters' last top-ten single on the Billboard Hot 100—though they would have nine more top-ten singles on the AC charts, ending with AC number seven Make Believe It's Your First Time, a few months after Karen's death in 1983.
The music video features some footage of Karen and Richard at work in the studio. After Karen sang the line, the promise of morning light, it faded from the studio to a fountain in Huntington Library Gardens in San Marino, California. It then featured some footage of a Japanese bridge.