History Music / Yes

** The opening sitar strum of "It Can Happen" quotes from the opening sitar strum of Music/TheBeatles' "[[Music/{{Revolver}} Love You To]]".

* ContemptibleCover: ''Going for the One'', the U.K. ''Time and a Word'' cover and the back cover of the ''Yesterdays'' compilation.

[[caption-width-right:350: Yes' ''Union'' 8-man lineup, circa 1991 (l-r: Music/TrevorRabin, Tony Kaye, Music/RickWakeman, Alan White, Chris Squire, Jon Anderson, Music/BillBruford, Steve Howe).[[note]]This is the collection of Yes members that were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.[[/note]]]]

* ''Music/TimeAndAWord'' (1970) – "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed" (Richie Havens cover), "Everydays" (Buffalo Springfield cover), "Sweet Dreams", "Time and a Word".

* RevolvingDoorBand: Chris Squire is the only member who's appeared on every album. His 2015 announcement that he would be replaced for a tour by Billy Sherwood (himself a former member) while receiving treatment for leukemia would mean the first lineup without any of the band's founding members.

* MohsScaleOfRockAndMetalHardness: Between 2 and 4, with the occasional 1 or 5. While they could be loud and heavy if they wanted, they were never quite as hard as Music/JethroTull or Music/UriahHeep; their weirder experiments more than compensated.
** The live version of "The Fish" on ''Yessongs'' might reach a 6 or 7. It was shockingly loud for its day and would easily have qualified as an 11 at the time. Some live versions of "Ritual", particularly from the Moraz era, would have also scored an 11.
** "The Gates of Delirium" from ''Relayer'' covers everything from 1 to 6, with "Soon" being the 1 and the middle section going up to 6, especially at the bit where a rack of car parts they were bashing on in the studio to simulate the noise of weapons clashing in battle is accidentally pushed over. It's certainly the noisiest Yes ever got on any of their studio albums.
** "Heart of the Sunrise" also ranges from 1 to 6 and back again, often with little to no transition.
** Yes does have pieces that could be classified as ProgressiveMetal, notably "Machine Messiah" and "Endless Dream" (the former was covered by Music/DreamTheater, to drive the point home even more).
** "Mood for a Day" and "Clap" are two acoustic guitar pieces by Howe that easily earn 1s.
** ''Heaven & Earth'' is fairly light listening compared to most Yes albums, thanks to a preference of acoustic guitars over electric. The majority of it ranks as 1 or 2, with "The Game" edging towards a 3 thanks to an electric guitar solo. "Subway Walls" is arguably up there as well, due to more bombastic orchestration.
** ''Big Generator'' {{Title Track}}, despite for the most part being a 3, the riff and the "heavy" parts do hit the rank of 6.

After an internal conflict and falling out, Anderson and Wakeman left in 1980, being replaced by vocalist/experienced RecordProducer Trevor Horn and keyboardist Geoff Downes of Music/TheBuggles. The resulting lineup recorded one album, ''Drama'', which showcased a heavier, harder rock sound than before and earned mixed reception, before disintegrating the next year. [[note]]It may be worth noting that ''Drama'' and ''Tormato'' have undergone similar reappraisals to that of ''Tales'' in recent years, with ''Drama'' in particular cropping up on a rather large number of "Favourite Yes albums" lists.[[/note]]

* [[Music/TheBuggles Trevor Horn]] - vocals (1980–81), [[RecordProducer production]] (1983–87, 2011)

In 2017, Anderson, Rabin & Wakeman began performing vintage Yes material with their self-titled band, which was later officially renamed... well, let's just say it wasn't "No"[[note]]The official name is "Yes featuring ARW"[[/note]]. The band released a live album in 2018 and plan to release a new studio album, ''The Quest'', in October of 2021. Anderson has indicated a desire to have some sort of "final Yes event" involving Howe and others; Howe performs on the track "Now and Again" from Anderson's 2019 solo album, so this is not entirely outside the realm of possibility.

* ''The Quest'' (upcoming; set for 2021)

* EpicInstrumentalOpener: Many of their songs have at least one minute of instrumental buildup; "Close to the Edge" is the probably the most recognizable example.

-->Jon Anderson, "Perpetual Change," ''Music/TheYesAlbum''

-->Jon Anderson, "Perpetual Change, ''Music/TheYesAlbum''"

-->"Perpetual Change, ''Music/TheYesAlbum''"

-->"Perpetual Change"

* ''Music/TheYesAlbum'' (1971) – "Yours Is No Disgrace", "I've Seen All Good People", "Starship Trooper".
* ''Music/{{Fragile}}'' (1971) – "Roundabout", "South Side of the Sky", "Long Distance Runaround", "Heart of the Sunrise".

->''Owner of a lonely heart,\\
Owner of a lonely heart,\\
(Much better than a) owner of a broken heart,\\
Owner of a lonely heart!''
-->"Owner of a Lonely Heart"

In 2017, Anderson, Rabin & Wakeman began performing vintage Yes material with their self-titled band, which was later officially renamed... well, let's just say it wasn't "No"[[note]]The official name is "Yes featuring ARW"[[/note]]. The band released a live album in 2018 and planned to release a studio album in 2018 or 2019, but this has apparently been put on hold until 2020 or 2021. Anderson has indicated a desire to have some sort of "final Yes event" involving Howe and others; Howe performs on the track "Now and Again" from Anderson's 2019 solo album, so this is not entirely outside the realm of possibility.

* ''Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe'' (1989)[[note]]billed as an independent offshoot group, but considered by many fans to be a ''de facto'' Yes album, as it was made up entirely of ex-Yes members and the ABWH members were absorbed back into Yes proper with ''Union'' (which actually started life as an ABWH album)[[/note]]

** ''From a Page'' (EP, 2019) - EP consisting of four tracks ("To the Moment", "Words on a Page", "From the Turn of a Card", "The Gift of Love") recorded in 2010 but left unused on ''Fly from Here''.

** ''Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe'' (1989) is considered by many fans to be a ''de facto'' Yes album, as it was made up entirely of ex-Yes members and the ABWH members were absorbed back into Yes proper with ''Union'' (which actually started life as an ABWH album).

* ''Tormato'' (1978) – "Onward", "Don't Kill the Whale", "Release, Release", "On the Silent Wings of Freedom".

* HeavyMeta: "Release, Release". ''Rock is the medium of our generation...''

** "Siberian Khatru", "Tempus Fugit" ([[PlayingWithATrope sort of]]; the phrase is "time flies" when translated into English, which ''does'' appear) "Future Times", "Into the Lens", "Sound Chaser", "Life on a Film Set"; there are plenty of examples.

* ProducePelting: Rick Wakeman, displeased at the proposed Creator/{{Hipgnosis}} cover for the upcoming album ''Yes Tor'', threw a tomato at the artwork. The tomato was incorporated into the album cover and it was renamed ''Tormato''.

* PunBasedTitle: ''Tormato'' was originally going to be named ''Yes Tor'' after [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yes_Tor a peak in Devon]].
** As the album's final title came from Rick Wakeman throwing a tomato at the cover art, they ended up swapping out one pun for another.

* SpaceWhale: Invoked on "Don't Kill the Whale", which refers to whales as "our last heaven beast."

* {{Mondegreen}}: The line "armies gather near" in "Yours Is No Disgrace" is frequently misheard as "armies scatter the earth", which is understandable given how it's sung in the studio version. Anderson's enunciation is much clearer in pretty much every available live version, confirming the intended reading of the line.
** In ''Fly From Here'', the third song of the suite, "Madman at the Screens" saw a lyrical dispute - is the madman "Laying dark" or "Playing God" behind the scenes? Refer to the official Yes website and it's the former, but refer to the official booklet, and it's the latter. Doesn't help that Trevor Horn [[LyricSwap slightly changed around some of the lyrics for seemingly no reason]] for the 2018 re-release ''Fly From Here - Return Trip'', and the booklet included with that does not update the lyrics to reflect that either.

* ''Time and a Word'' (1970) – "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed" (Richie Havens cover), "Everydays" (Buffalo Springfield cover), "Sweet Dreams", "Time and a Word".

[[/index]]

* ''Union'' (1991) – "Lift Me Up", "Saving My Heart", "Masquerade". [[note]]a Steve Howe guitar {{instrumental|s}} that was nominated for a Grammy[[/note]]

* CoversAlwaysLie: The band picture on the front of the US version of ''Time and a Word'' has Steve Howe in it... Despite the fact that ''he just joined'' and didn't play on the album at all.

* ''Time and a Word'' (1970) – "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed" (Richie Havens cover), "Everydays" (Buffalo Springfield cover), "Sweet Dreams", "Time and a Word".* ''Music/TheYesAlbum'' (1971) – "Yours Is No Disgrace", "I've Seen All Good People", "Starship Trooper".

* ''Yes'' (1969) – "Beyond and Before", "Every Little Thing" (Music/TheBeatles cover), "Harold Land", "Survival".
* ''Time and a Word'' (1970) – "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed" (Richie Havens cover), "Everydays" (Buffalo Springfield cover), "Sweet Dreams", "Time and a Word".[[index]]
* ''Music/TheYesAlbum'' (1971) – "Yours Is No Disgrace", "I've Seen All Good People", "Starship Trooper".

* ''Music/NineOhOneTwoFive'' (1983) – "Owner of a Lonely Heart", "Leave It", "It Can Happen", "Changes", "Cinema". [[note]]An instrumental that was awarded Yes' only Grammy to date[[/note]][[/index]]

* ''Time and a Word'' (1970) – "No Opportunity Necessary, No Experience Needed" (Richie Havens cover), "Everydays" (Buffalo Springfield cover), "Sweet Dreams", "Time and a Word".

* ''Relayer'' (1974) – "The Gates of Delirium", "Sound Chaser", "To Be Over" ([[RunningGag again]], the only songs on the album).

* ''Music/NineOhOneTwoFive'' (1983) – "Owner of a Lonely Heart", "Leave It", "It Can Happen", "Changes", "Cinema". [[note]]An instrumental that was awarded Yes' only Grammy to date[[/note]]

* EverythingIsAnInstrument: "The Gates of Delirium" notably features a percussion rig created by Jon Anderson and Alan White out of discarded metal parts. It can be heard in the direct center of the song, including said rig accidentally being pushed over.

* LyricalDissonance: "The Gates of Delirium", whose first section features excited, even triumphant music alongside lyrics about preparing for a battle, with such unnerving lines as "Kill them/Give them as they give us/Slay them/Burn their children's laughter/''On to hell''".

* ''GoingForTheOne'' (1977) – "Going for the One", "Wonderous Stories", "Awaken".

* ''Going for the One'' (1977) – "Going for the One", "Wonderous Stories", "Awaken".

* HolyPipeOrgan: "Parallels" and "Awaken" from ''Going For the One'' both prominently feature a church organ.

* LongestSongGoesLast: ''Going for the One'' closes with the 15 and a half minute "Awaken".