According to Wikipedia, "Hey Jude" was released on August 26 1968 in the United States and August 30 in the United Kingdom, backed with "Revolution" on the B-side of a 7" single. The single was the debut release of the Beatles' record label Apple Records; in the US, it was also the first Beatles' single to be issued in a company sleeve rather than a picture sleeve. Even though "Hey Jude" was recorded during the sessions for the album The Beatles, also known as the White Album, it was always intended as a single and not an album track. Lennon wanted "Revolution" to be the A-side of the single, but the other Beatles did not agree. In his 1970 interview with Rolling Stone, he said "Hey Jude" was worthy of an A-side, "but we could have had both." Ten years later in 1980, he told Playboy he still disagreed with the decision.
The single has sold approximately eight million copies and is frequently included on professional critics' lists of the greatest songs of all time.
More than seven minutes in length, it was at the time the longest single ever to top the British charts. It also spent nine weeks at number one in the United States—the longest run at the top of the American charts for a Beatles single—and tied the record for longest stay at number one until the record was broken by Debby Boone's "You Light Up My Life.
"Hey Jude" was nominated for the Grammy Awards of 1969 in the Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Pop Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal categories but failed to win any of them. It did win the 1968 Ivor Novello Award for "A-Side With the Highest Sales". In the 1968 NME Readers' Poll, "Hey Jude" was named the best single of the year. In 2001, "Hey Jude" was inducted into the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Grammy Hall of Fame. In 2004 and later in 2010, Rolling Stone magazine ranked the song at #8 on "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time," making it the highest ranked Beatles song on the list. Also in 2010, Rolling Stone ranked the song at #7 on the Beatles' 100 Greatest Songs. It came in third on Channel 4's list of 100 Greatest Singles. The Amusement & Music Operators Association ranked "Hey Jude" the 11th-best jukebox single of all time. It was also voted the greatest song of all time by Mojo readers
Nice post, thanks. As a big Beatles fan agree with John Lennon. Revolution was a better song for the A side. Hey Jude gets annoying with the long ending. IMHO of course.
It's puzzling that they didn't simply designate it as a double-A side single. They already had one or two of those, so it wasn't without precedent. "Revolution" is a killer tune--odd that the other three felt it wasn't as strong as "Hey Jude".
Just played it at full blast, as it deserves...absolute belter...
You’re right, there is a big difference, thanks! I remember how radical “Revolution” was when it was released, yet the lyrics are not about revolt. I appreciated Lennon’s efforts at pushing the envelope, even if I didn’t agree with some of his positions. He was a genius at expressing himself through his lyrics, often very thought-provoking, where McCartney seemed often content with producing “pop” music and lyrics. Not that anything is wrong with either, just sayin’. I think Lennon’s “Strawberry Fields Forever” lyrics did the best job ever of capturing and expressing the essence of a conversation with “She Said, She Said” being a close second. Happy 45th, “Hey Jude”!
Let me be the one to defend Hey Jude's length: I don't find it dull and repetitious at all because not only is it a superb hook, but McCartney's scatting throughout the last section keeps it from sounding like the exact same thing over and over.
Let me be the one to defend Hey Jude's length: I don't find it dull and repetitious at all because not only is it a superb hook, but McCartney's scatting throughout the last section keeps it from sounding like the exact same thing over and over.
Agreed. I've never understood why anyone would bash this beautiful song. But, to each his own....
Let me be the one to defend Hey Jude's length: I don't find it dull and repetitious at all because not only is it a superb hook, but McCartney's scatting throughout the last section keeps it from sounding like the exact same thing over and over.
Agreed. I've never understood why anyone would bash this beautiful song. But, to each his own....
I'll defend it, too. Going out on the whole slowly-fading mantra is fully half of the point "Hey Jude" makes.
One of my favorite Mike Oldfield quotes is that there is nothing wrong with repeating oneself if that thing is worth repeating. And he oughta know!
(Actually, since this topic began I sat down and tried to make a shorter edit. I never tried "Hey Jude" before. I got it down to 4:10, but I didn't just do an early fade--I cherrypicked alternating 8-bar sections, and ended it with the very last passage where Ringo doubles up the tempo. It came out pretty well. My kid knows the song quite well and he couldn't detect the edit points. Hee-hee. )
Again it's just one's opinion, but I feel the same way with music scores where they play the same theme over once too many times. Disco , well we know why they do it, because of the people dancing at disco's but while I did enjoy some disco music over the years listening on the radio to it can be a restless experience after awhile. I thought the Stylistics had more class then other soul groups, because they just didn't linger on with shouts and repetitive sounds. but to each it's own and that 's what makes discussions interesting
Again it's just one's opinion, but I feel the same way with music scores where they play the same theme over once too many times. Disco , well we know why they do it, because of the people dancing at disco's but while I did enjoy some disco music over the years listening on the radio to it can be a restless experience after awhile. I thought the Stylistics had more class then other soul groups, because they just didn't linger blah blah blah
Do I have this story right: Paul wrote the song for John's son, Julian (nicknamed "Jude" as a child), to try to cheer him up during his parents' divorce. It helps me to appreciate some of the lyrics better when I remember the backstory. Can anyone corroborate?
For campy fun, there's no beating Bing Crosby's cover, from his 1968 album "Hey Jude/Hey Bing!"
It's not just a send-up. I don't think Bing really understands the "mantra" part, but he gives it his all, and the arrangement does have moments of genuine funkiness.
Is it the worst song they ever did I don't know but I do know plenty of people who didn't care for it.
There is nothing about it that makes it "the worst". Sometimes you do a song just because it's harmless fun and there is nothing wrong with that. And when it comes to the Beatles in particular, I sure as hell don't always want to hear John using music as some sort of emotional confessional about how messed up life can be. I listen to music primarily to be entertained.
Do I have this story right: Paul wrote the song for John's son, Julian (nicknamed "Jude" as a child), to try to cheer him up during his parents' divorce. It helps me to appreciate some of the lyrics better when I remember the backstory. Can anyone corroborate?
That's what I've always read too. And Paul has said the same thing in various documentaries.
My favorite bit is when Paul expressed some hesitation to John about the line "The movement you need is on your shoulder", and John told him that it was the best line in the song. The line stayed as is and to this day Paul needs some extra composure when singing the line. Brings a lump to my throat.
Do I have this story right: Paul wrote the song for John's son, Julian (nicknamed "Jude" as a child), to try to cheer him up during his parents' divorce. It helps me to appreciate some of the lyrics better when I remember the backstory. Can anyone corroborate?
In 1968, John Lennon and his wife Cynthia Lennon separated due to John's affair with Yoko Ono. Soon afterwards, Paul McCartney drove out to visit Cynthia and Lennon's son, Julian. "We'd been very good friends for millions of years and I thought it was a bit much for them suddenly to be personae non gratae and out of my life," McCartney said. Cynthia Lennon recalled, "I was truly surprised when, one afternoon, Paul arrived on his own. I was touched by his obvious concern for our welfare.... On the journey down he composed 'Hey Jude' in the car. I will never forget Paul's gesture of care and concern in coming to see us."
The song's original title was "Hey Jules," and it was intended to comfort Julian Lennon from the stress of his parents' divorce. McCartney said, "I started with the idea 'Hey Jules,' which was Julian, don't make it bad, take a sad song and make it better. Hey, try and deal with this terrible thing. I knew it was not going to be easy for him. I always feel sorry for kids in divorces ... I had the idea [for the song] by the time I got there. I changed it to 'Jude' because I thought that sounded a bit better." Julian Lennon discovered the song had been written for him almost twenty years later. He remembered being closer to McCartney than to his father: "Paul and I used to hang about quite a bit—more than Dad and I did. We had a great friendship going and there seems to be far more pictures of me and Paul playing together at that age than there are pictures of me and my dad."
Although McCartney originally wrote the song for Julian Lennon, John Lennon thought it had actually been written for him:
But I always heard it as a song to me. If you think about it... Yoko's just come into the picture. He's saying. 'Hey, Jude—Hey, John.' I know I'm sounding like one of those fans who reads things into it, but you can hear it as a song to me ... Subconsciously, he was saying, Go ahead, leave me. On a conscious level, he didn't want me to go ahead.
Other people believed McCartney wrote the song about them, including Judith Simons, a journalist with the Daily Express. Still others, including John Lennon, have speculated that McCartney's failing long-term relationship with Jane Asher when he wrote "Hey Jude" was an unconscious "message to himself."In fact, when Lennon mentioned that he thought the song was about him, McCartney denied it and told Lennon he had written the song about himself.
Writer Mark Hertsgaard noted "many of the song's lyrics do seem directed more at a grown man on the verge of a powerful new love, especially the lines 'you have found her now go and get her' and 'you're waiting for someone to perform with.'" Tim Riley wrote, "If the song is about self-worth and self-consolation in the face of hardship, the vocal performance itself conveys much of the journey. He begins by singing to comfort someone else, finds himself weighing his own feelings in the process, and finally, in the repeated refrains that nurture his own approbation, he comes to believe in himself."
McCartney changed the title to "Hey Jude" because the name Jude was easier to sing. Much as he did with "Yesterday", McCartney played the song for other musicians and friends. Ron Griffith of Badfinger (known at this time as the Iveys, and the first band to join the Beatles-owned record label Apple Records), recalled that on their first day in the studio, "Paul walked over to the grand piano and said, 'Hey lads, have a listen', and he sat down and gave us a full concert rendition of 'Hey Jude'. We were gobsmacked."
