| Paul McCartney wrote this as "Hey Jules," a
song meant to comfort John Lennon's son Julian as his parents were
getting a divorce. The change to "Jude" was inspired by the
character "Jud" in the musical Oklahoma!. McCartney loves
show tunes. |
| This was the Beatles longest single, running
7:11. It was the first long song to get a lot of airplay, as radio
stations still preferred short ones so they could play more of them.
When this became a hit, stations learned that listeners would stick
around if they liked the song, which paved the way for long songs
like "American Pie" and "Layla." Disc jockeys were the real winners
here, as they could finally take a reasonable bathroom break. |
| This was the first song released on Apple
Records, The record label owned by The Beatles. |
| This was recorded over 2 days with a 36 piece
orchestra. Orchestra members clapped and sang on the fadeout. They
earned double their normal rate for their efforts. |
| McCartney didn't like the initial lyrics,
especially the line "The movement you need is on your shoulder."
Lennon convinced him to keep them. |
| This is the most commercially successful
Beatles song. It was #1 in at least 12 countries. |
| Lennon: "I always heard it as a song to me." |
| This was going to be the B-side to "Revolution,"
but it ended up the other way around. It is a testament to this song
that it pushed "Revolution" to the other side of the record. |
| George Harrison wanted to play a guitar riff
after the vocal phrases, but Paul wouldn't let him. Things got tense
between them around this time as McCartney got very particular about
how Harrison played on songs he wrote. |
| Ringo was in the toilet when recording started.
He made it to his drums just before his cue. |
| The Beatles performed this, along with "Revolution,"
on The David Frost Show in 1968. It was their first
performance in 2 years. |
| This starts with one instrument, ends with 50. |
| The fadeout takes 4 minutes. The chorus is
repeated 19 times. |
| Sesame Street did a parody of this (and
tribute to healthy eating) called "Hey Food." |
| Wilson Pickett recorded this shortly after The
Beatles did. His version hit #16 UK and #23 US and provided the name
for his album. Duane Allman played on it and got a huge career boost
when the song became a hit. He spent the next year as a session
guitarist for many famous singers and then formed The Allman
Brothers, who are considered the greatest Southern Rock band of all
time. |
| Paul McCartney played this at the 2005 Super
Bowl halftime show. |
| In America, an album called Hey Jude
(originally titled "The Beatles Again") was released in 1970
containing this and several other Beatles songs that were released
as singles or B-sides. The album has not appeared as a CD because
Apple Records made the decision to copy only the British LP releases
onto CD. In the '60s the American record company managed to get
extra LPs off the British releases by cutting down the number of
tracks, then putting them out with singles and B-sides as additional
albums. (thanks, Tommy - Glasgow, Scotland) |
| McCartney played this at the 2005 Live8
concert in London. He started with "The Long And Winding Road" and
flowed it into the end of this, which ended the Live8 concert.
(thanks, Ethan - Ridgely, MD) |
| After the "Oh" in the crescendo, McCartney
sings "YEAH!" in a non-falsetto voice. The note he hits is F Natural
above male High C, a very difficult note for a male to hit in a
non-falsetto voice. |
| The original 1968 version was recorded in
mono, and many listeners find it far superior to the stereo remake
from 1970, which is much more heavily produced. |
