“Hey Jude” by the Beatles: Lyrics, song meaning and facts behind Paul McCartney’s …

26 June 2024, 11:23

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When it comes to signature songs, the Beatles simply don’t have one.

They have released too many important songs, too many incredibly popular songs, and too many of the best songs of all time for their back catalogue to be reduced to one, two, or even a dozen standout songs.

Instead, it feels like we’re treated to an endless, glorious conveyor belt of Beatles songs, each resurfacing every now and then to make their grand entrance before another takes its place in the spotlight.

One of these songs is, of course, “Hey Jude,” the standalone masterpiece that catapulted to the top of the charts in 1968.

But who wrote the song, who is “Jude,” and what is it really about? Read on to find out everything you need to know.

Who wrote “Hey Jude”?

Paul McCartney – Hey Jude – Live in London 2012 | Music Monday

As you know, almost all of The Beatles’ songs fall under the headings Lennon/McCartney, Harrison or “covers”.

“Hey Jude” was one of around 180 Beatles songs with Lennon/McCartney as the label, but as all Beatles fans know, that doesn’t mean that Paul McCartney and John Lennon sat down and wrote the song together.

In fact, in the spirit of Paul McCartney, “Hey Jude” was a song that Macca wrote during a car ride to visit John’s estranged wife Cynthia Lennon and his then five-year-old son Julian at their Kenwood house in Weybridge.

Who is “Jude” anyway and what is “Hey Jude” about?

Hey Jude (Remastered 2015)

The “official” identity of “Jude” is no big secret. Paul wrote the song on the way to meet Cynthia and Julian and the working title was “Hey Jules”.

“I started with the idea of ​​’Hey Jules’, which was: Julian, don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better,” McCartney said in Barry Miles’ wondrous Paul McCartney: In many years.

“Hey, try to deal with this terrible thing. I knew it wouldn’t be easy for him. I always feel sorry for children who get divorced.”

The title was changed to “Hey Jude” not necessarily to anonymize the song, but because Paul decided that “Jude” simply sounded better.

Paul also said that the name was inspired by the character of “Jud” in Oklahoma.

It probably didn’t hurt that the name “Jew” has a lot of interesting connotations. There’s Judas the Apostle, plus Judas Iscariot, plus Thomas Hardy’s classic novel Judas the Unknown.

The name change caused some problems when they decided to announce the upcoming release by painting the name white in the now vacant Apple store.

Less than 30 years after the rise of the Nazis in Germany, it was not the best idea JEW “There it is written on glass on your storefront, given the unintended connotations, and apparently that’s why someone threw a brick through the window.”

But while “It’s about Julian Lennon” is a nice and simple “explanation,” art is always open to interpretation and reinterpretation, no matter what its primary creator says.

“He thinks all the songs are about him,” said Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher about his brother Liam. “He even thinks ‘Wonderwall’ is about him.”

Well, it seems Liam has more in common with John Lennon than he thinks, because John has actually implied that despite the song title and Paul’s candid declaration, “Hey Jude” is about… him.

“Yoko just came into the picture,” Lennon said in his last major interview. “He says, ‘Hey, Jude – Hey, John.'”

“I know I sound like one of those fans who reads things into it, but you may hear it as a song for me.

“By saying ‘go out and get her,’ he was subconsciously saying, ‘Go ahead, leave me alone.’ On a conscious level, he didn’t want me to continue.”

In response, McCartney apparently suggested that if there was a subconscious projection, Jude might oneself.

When he wrote the song, he was engaged to Jane Asher, but later had an affair with Linda Eastman.

No matter who the song is “really” about, Paul immediately knew that he had come up with something very special.

Friends, co-workers, and probably even the gas man. He played it to anyone who would listen, apparently, before finally playing it at full volume to John in July 1968.

What on earth does “the movement you need is on your shoulder” mean?

Well, your guess is as good as ours.

McCartney revealed that he promised John he would “fix” that part when he first played him the work-in-progress “Hey Jude.”

“I’ve used the word ‘shoulder’ before, and besides, it’s a stupid expression,” Paul said. “It sounds like a parrot. I’m going to change it.”

Lennon replied, “You wouldn’t know that. That’s the best line in the song. I know what it means – it’s great.”

And that’s how it stayed.

How long is “Hey Jude” exactly and did that stop the band from releasing it as a single?

There are epics and there are Epics.

“Hey Jude” is a whopping seven minutes and 12 seconds long. At the time, it was the longest running song to ever top the UK singles charts.

“It was a long song,” producer George Martin was quoted as saying in anthology when he said: “Actually, after timing, I actually said, ‘You can’t make a single that long.'”

He lost that argument. He said DJs wouldn’t play it. John said, “If we are, they will.” Martin conceded, “And of course he was absolutely right.”

It was a small technical feat to fit all seven minutes onto one side of a 7-inch record without it becoming inaudible.

“They did some very clever things,” McCartney recalled. “They condensed the part that didn’t need to be loud and then gave the rest more space.”

Who plays what on “Hey Jude”?

While the Beatles were at the time of The Beatles (also known as The White Album), although in some songs not all four members can be heard, on “Hey Jude” all four Fab Four can be seen doing their thing.

That’s Paul McCartney on lead vocals and piano and bass, of course. John Lennon on acoustic guitar, George Harrison on electric guitar and Ringo Starr on drums and tambourine.

There is background vocals from John, George and Ringo and clapping from everyone.

The sound is rounded off by a 36-piece orchestra, which also participated in the “Nah Nah Nahs” and handclaps.

When was “Hey Jude” released and what position did it reach in the charts?

“Hey Jude” was recorded on July 31 and August 1, 1968 and hastily released on August 26, 1968, with “Revolution” on the B-side.

Lennon campaigned for “Revolution” to be included as the A-side, but lost the vote.

In the UK and the US, the song went straight to number 1. In America, it topped the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks, which was a record at the time.

It was certified platinum in the UK and quadruple platinum in the US and sold an estimated eight million copies.

Who made the music video for “Hey Jude”?

Did you know that “Bohemian Rhapsody” was the first music video ever? Long before Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and long before MTV, there were music videos in the 1960s, and the Beatles were some of the many artists who pioneered them.

Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who you may remember from his memorable appearance in come back series, was a pioneer of music videos and was groundbreaking with his films “Paperback Writer” and “Rain”.

Following the success of these promo clips, the band commissioned ML-H to produce videos for “Hey Jude” and “Revolution”.

They had a live orchestra and sang the vocals to a playback track. The film was shot on September 4, 1968 at Twickenham Film Studios.

The video for “Hey Jude” marks an important part of Beatles history, and not just because it is so well put together.

It was actually the first time that Ringo Starr returned to the band after leaving following an argument with Macca during the recording of “Back in the USSR”. The Beatles.

Since there was no MTV or YouTube, the video had to find its audience in more traditional ways. It was shown on Frost on Sunday in Great Britain and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour in the USA.

Who covered “Hey Jude”?

“Hey Jude” isn’t quite “Yesterday,” but it has still been covered many, many, MANY times.

Before the end of the 1960s, Wilson Pickett, Dionne Warwick, Tom Jones, José Feliciano, The Temptations, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Ella Fitzgerald, Diana Ross & The Supremes, Bing Crosby and Bill Medley tried their hand at it.

Since then we’ve had everyone from Elvis Presley, Tony Christie, Bobby Darin, The Grateful Dead, Marillion, The Guess Who, Take That, Roberta Flack, the cast of Glee, Leo Sayer and Howard Jones.

While it’s not really considered a “cover,” “Hey Jude” was a staple of Paul McCartney’s live performances as a solo star and is, by all accounts, his second most played song, right after “Let It Be.”

Also not a cover, but we should also mention the simple reworking of the song for an Adidas commercial supporting the England football team and their talisman Jude Bellingham at the Euro 2024.