Written by: Lennon-McCartney
Recorded: 29, 30, 31 July, 1 August 1968
Producer: George Martin
Engineers: Ken Scott, Barry Sheffield
Released: 30 August 1968 (UK), 26 August 1968 (US)
Available on:
Past Masters
1
Anthology 3
Love
Personnel
Paul McCartney: vocals, piano, bass
John Lennon: backing vocals, acoustic guitar
George Harrison: backing vocals, electric guitar
Ringo Starr: backing vocals, drums, tambourine
Uncredited: 10 violins, 3 violas, 3 cellos, 2 double basses, 2 flutes, 2 clarinets, 1 bass clarinet, 1 bassoon, 1 contrabassoon, 4 trumpets, 2 horns, 4 trombones, 1 percussion
‘Hey Jude’ was the first release on The Beatles’ own Apple Records label. It was a ballad written by Paul McCartney, to comfort John Lennon’s son Julian during the divorce of his parents.
‘Hey Jude’ is a damn good set of lyrics and I made no contribution to that.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
It was written in June 1968, as McCartney drove his Aston Martin to Weybridge to visit Cynthia Lennon and her son. On the journey he began thinking about their changing lives, and of the past times he had spent writing with Lennon at the Weybridge house.
I thought, as a friend of the family, I would motor out to Weybridge and tell them that everything was all right: to try and cheer them up, basically, and see how they were. I had about an hour’s drive. I would always turn the radio off and try and make up songs, just in case… I started singing: ‘Hey Jules – don’t make it bad, take a sad song, and make it better…’ It was optimistic, a hopeful message for Julian: ‘Come on, man, your parents got divorced. I know you’re not happy, but you’ll be OK.’I eventually changed ‘Jules’ to ‘Jude’. One of the characters in Oklahoma! is called Jud, and I like the name.
Anthology
The music was partly inspired by The Drifters’ 1960 hit ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’.
We pinched ideas from records all the time. There’s nothing immoral or dishonest about it because the imitation’s only a way of getting started. In my mind ‘Hey Jude’ is a nick from The Drifters. It doesn’t sound like them or anything, but I know the verse, with those two chords repeating over and over, came when I was fooling around playing ‘Save The Last Dance For Me’ on the guitar. There’s no mystery involved. Plenty of people who don’t know anything about music can do it.
Australasian Post, 6 December 1976
McCartney recorded a piano demo of ‘Hey Jude’ at his home in Cavendish Avenue, London. On 26 July 1968 played the song to Lennon for the first time.
I finished it all up in Cavendish and I was in the music room upstairs when John and Yoko came to visit and they were right behind me over my right shoulder, standing up, listening to it as I played it to them, and when I got to the line, ‘The movement you need is on your shoulder,’ I looked over my shoulder and I said, ‘I’ll change that, it’s a bit crummy. I was just blocking it out,’ and John said, ‘You won’t, you know. That’s the best line in it!’ That’s collaboration. When someone’s that firm about a line that you’re going to junk, and he said, ‘No, keep it in.’ So of course you love that line twice as much because it’s a little stray, it’s a little mutt that you were about to put down and it was reprieved and so it’s more beautiful than ever. I love those words now…Time lends a little credence to things. You can’t knock it, it just did so well. But when I’m singing it, that is when I think of John, when I hear myself singing that line; it’s an emotional point in the song.
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles
The lyrics struck an immediate chord with the record-buying public, who related to the hopeful sentiments. Its universality was demonstrated when John Lennon later revealed that he felt the song had been directed at him.
He said it was written about Julian, my child. He knew I was splitting with Cyn and leaving Julian. He was driving over to say hi to Julian. He’d been like an uncle to him. You know, Paul was always good with kids. And so he came up with ‘Hey Jude’.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. The words ‘go out and get her’ – subconsciously he was saying, Go ahead, leave me. On a conscious level, he didn’t want me to go ahead. The angel in him was saying, ‘Bless you.’ The devil in him didn’t like it at all because he didn’t want to lose his partner.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
It wasn’t until 1987 that McCartney came to discuss ‘Hey Jude’ with Julian Lennon, after a chance encounter in a New York hotel.
He told me that he’d been thinking about my circumstances all those years ago, about what I was going through. Paul and I used to hang out a bit – more than dad and I did. We had a great friendship going and there seem to be far more pictures of me and Paul playing together at that age than there are pictures of me and dad.
Mojo, February 2002
The recording notes for ‘Hey Jude’ were bought at auction by Julian Lennon in 1996 for £25,000. In 2002 a sale of the original handwritten lyrics was announced by Christie’s in London, with an estimated price of £80,000. Paul McCartney took out a court order to prevent the auction, saying the paper had disappeared from his London home.
Although by 1968 The Beatles had stopped performing live, the anthemic ending of ‘Hey Jude’ was perfect for crowd participation. It was fitting, then, when later years McCartney made it a key part of his live shows.
I went into the Apple shop just before ‘Hey Jude’ was being released. The windows were whited out, and I thought: ‘Great opportunity. Baker Street, millions of buses going around…’ So, before anyone knew what it meant, I scraped ‘Hey Jude’ out of the whitewash.A guy who had a delicatessen in Marylebone rang me up, and he was furious: ‘I’m going to send one of my sons round to beat you up.’ I said, ‘Hang on, hang on – what’s this about?’ and he said: ‘You’ve written “Jude” in the shop window.’ I had no idea it meant ‘Jew’, but if you look at footage of Nazi Germany, ‘Juden Raus’ was written in whitewashed windows with a Star of David. I swear it never occurred to me.
Anthology
Take one of ‘Hey Jude’ was released in 2018 on the super deluxe 50th anniversary reissue of the White Album, and take two was on 1996’s Anthology 3. The Love album, meanwhile, contained a subtly remixed version of the final version.
If you listen on YouTube to the ‘Love’ version of HJ, you can hear a different, more lively version of the bass part during the Na-na-na’s. It sounds like the Fender VI bass, so I’m guessing this is an alternate track, with George taking some liberties. listen starting at 3:00 on the video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNv_Bu_L6C8
Actually, Paul was the only bassist at the recording session and I have seen a photograph taken of him at Trident Studios with his left-handed Fender Jazz Bass, so it was most likely the first time he used it on a recording, not his Rickenbacker or Hofner basses.
George only played the Fender 6-string bass on the David Frost Show performance and it was partially mimed with live vocals, due to a Musicians’ Union ban on lip-synching.
I suppose that would explain why Paul sings along with himself on the ‘Frost’ performance.
It’s always interesting to read through the comments on personal interpretations of these songs. I am guilty of doing it myself. And, of course, the Beatles themselves have been known to revise and invent things over time. For this one, I could never reconcile the last 3 verses with the first one, which is obviously about Julian. That is, until I heard a little snippet about the song from Paul on the Beatles channel. He talked about how John felt the later verses were about him and Yoko. In actuality, according to Paul, they were about Paul and Linda, with Paul trying to convince himself that it was ok to get serious with her (e.g., “Don’t be afraid, you were made to go out and get her”). It actually makes more sense this way.
Paul did try and dodge the meanings of some of his more personal songs. I don’t believe Paul saying it was about Linda one bit. I think it’s just convenient for him for how people want to interpret it. No doubt it was inspired by Julian but the lyrics are more about self-reproach. Firstly, it was written just after Jane Asher left him. And, like Paul said, written on the journey to see Julian where Cynthia said Paul was heartbroken over Jane and had admitted it was all his fault. A little too coincidental? This was corroborated by others around this time and later by Elvis Costello when he worked with Paul on Flowers in the Dirt (several songs on that album were about unrequited love). There was nothing to stop Paul reaching out to Linda during this time. Instead he made a big effort to win Jane back and had affairs with Francie Schwartz and Maggie McGivern before settling with Linda months later. Either it’s Paul’s pride or ego or he’s trying to protect the image of his marriage, especially after the Heather Mills debacle. A bit of both probably.
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Kalle,
Paul McCartney first met Linda at the Bag O’ Nail on May 15, 1967. Where he stood up and block Linda way from leaving. Paul asking Linda if she would like to go with him and his group of friends to another bar. And Paul would have said in an interview later on that he knew Linda was Woman! And Linda has a daughter Heather which Paul loves kids. So, Paul stays in touch with Linda.
Paul goes up to see Cynthia and Julian sometime in May of 1968, when John was divorcing Cynthia. And Paul decides to write a Song for Julian called “Hey Jude”.
On July 20, 1968 Jane Asher calls it quits with Paul on Simon Dee’s BBC Television Show. And I know Paul and Jane have been having troubles for years. With Songs like “We Can Work It Out” Released December 3, 1965 and “For No One” Released August 5, 1966 – “A Love that should have lasted years” – The Songs working title was “Why Did It Die?”, Paul said he have a fight with Jane while they on vacation together in the Swiss Alps. Paul knew that things were not going well for them in May of 1968 when he had gone and saw Cynthia and Julian. Paul, Knowing that Jane was finish with him when she caught him in bed with Francie Schwartz (allegedly) during the “White Album”, sometime in June- July of 1968.
When Paul was writing “Hey Jude” he was course thinking about Julian but Paul was thinking about himself, too.
“Hey Jude” – Released on August 26, 1968 (USA) and August 30, 1968 (UK).
“Hey Jude”
“Hey Jude, Don’t make bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her into your heart
Then you can start to make it better
Hey Jude, don’t be afraid
You were made to go out and get her
The minute you let her under your skin
Then you begin to make things better”
These two verses could be a message to himself – Saying it is over between Jane and himself {Paul} (Sad Song). And by letting Linda in, you {Paul} could start to make things better. But, first you {Paul} have to go out and get her {Linda}.
He does! And Paul & Linda daughter Mary McCartney was born a year later on August 28, 1969.
I, believe that Paul has Linda on his mind when writing “Hey Jude”.
I would to add to the comment I just made about “Hey Jude” on February 2, 2023 – When
John Lennon and Paul McCartney went to the USA to promote “Apple” on May 11, 1968, Paul saw Linda Eastman. So, I believe Paul McCartney when he said that “Hey Jude” was about him getting the confidence to go out and get Linda.
Hello all, I’m from Melbourne Australia. I remember Hey Jude on the radio, and every Sunday night a local radio station would play its top ten or twenty and every week for ages Hey Jude/Revolution was number one. I always enjoyed listening to it. My question is was Hey Jude/Revolution released as a double A side here in Australia. I read once on the Beatles Bible site that Revolution was the B side, but I was always under the impression it was a double A release . Maybe the radio station released its own list but I was always under the impression it was double A. Anyone can enlighten me?
Stephen Holland, “Hey Jude” was recorded on July 31, 1968, and August 1, 1968. “Hey Jude” was released on the A side on August 26, 1968. And on the B SIDE (Not A DOUBLE A) was Revolution.
When I was a kid, I wondered if the nah nah nah hey Jude part of the song was influenced by the song Nah Nah Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye by a group called Steam. I see now that the latter wasn’t released until later in 1969. So it must have been the other way around. Imagine that…a 1960’s song influenced by the Beatles! Go figure…
Saw the boys do both “Hey Jude” and “Revolution” on the Smothers Brothers TV show. At the time, I thought it was live, didn’t realize it was taped beforehand.
Phillip, Paul often talks about people and writes songs about the past or near past in the present tense. It’s unusual and he does this with John Lennon as well. He’s never said Hey Jude was about Linda in the past, not in 1970 or 1980 or when she died in 1998. Or in Many Years From Now. Why not though? And why recently? There was nothing to stop him attributing it to Linda at any time if that was the case. He knows that line you quoted can be interpreted about any woman. He continued his loveless affair with Francie Schwartz for a short time while still trying to win Jane back before taking Maggie McGivern on holiday for two weeks in September. Wasn’t Linda and her child supposed to be ready and waiting for him? Why didn’t he ‘go out and get her’? Yes, he did – eventually, that is. Hey Jude wasn’t written with Linda in mind and because of their seemingly happy marriage it’s all to easy to attribute an interpretation retrospectively. As Paul does. To be honest, I don’t think Paul ever lacked the confidence to find himself a partner, and if he was that enamoured with Linda when he met her at the Bag of Nails he would have called off his relationship with Jane there and then, but obviously not. It wasn’t just Cynthia who said Paul was heartbroken over Jane, it was also Alistair Taylor and several others. But the most illogical thing of all is if Paul didn’t write Hey Jude about himself because of Jane, then why write the song in the first place? The problem with Paul being evasive about Hey Jude and other personal songs is that it could lead to doubts over what he says about the songs he wrote with John Lennon. However, I’d like to think Paul probably has his reasons for keeping some deeply-held personal feelings to himself.
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After reading comments about the lyrics involving Jane Asher I can see how they can be interpreted that way. Maybe it was originally titled Hey Jane? I can also see them being about John so maybe it was called Hey John? Or maybe even Hey Paul? But I never read them being about Julian. Lyrically that just never made sense to me.
In the live version, McCartney sings some lyrics from, “The Weight”, by The Band, which was just released only months earlier.
just noticed that “It’s Now Or Never” has the same chords as Hey Jude. You can sing it well over it, only the 5th bar differs by major/minor. Was it John’s irony to play that song briefly?
The story that Paul tells about Ringo coming back from the toilet and getting to his drum booth just in time to start the drums at exactly the right time and in the right place, I have never believed that tale. There’s so much against it, not least that, are we really to believe that the Beatles would begin a take without one of the members on the song in the studio ?
I think that sometimes in their later history, the Beatles tried to revise history and sometimes told tall tales, like Paul saying that the makers of the “Yellow Submarine” film wanted new songs from the band so they went and recorded “Only a Northern Song,” when we all know that it was George’s initial effort for the Sergeant Pepper LP. The one where Ringo says he went to John and told him that he felt left out because the other 3 were getting on so well and John said he thought it was the other 3 that were getting on so well, then he went to see Paul and told him the same thing and Paul said that he thought that it was the other 3 that were getting on so well – well, I just do not believe that story. When I watched the Anthology series back in ’95, and I heard Ringo say this, my first thought was, “Hang on, what about Yoko and all of the tension that was evident from day one of recording the White album ?”
So yeah, I think that retrospectively, sometimes, band members would say things that weren’t true, but made what they thought were great stories, or conflated events that had may have happened some years previously.
Paul wrote some truly great songs as a Beatle. Sometimes they were obscure and “tucked away” on albums and aren’t world-renowned {although we fans adore them} and sometimes, they were singles that sold millions in their own right. “Hey Jude” is such a barnstormer. Everything about it is a winner, but my favourite part of the song is possibly its least recognized – it’s the bass in the “Any time you feel the pain….” part. That section is sublime.
I have a friend who, back in the early ’90s, was once convinced that the song was about taking heroin. I asked her how in the world she came up with that interpretation, and she said “well, it’s those lines, ‘so let it out and let it in…’ they’re referring to needles aren’t they ?”
Needless to say, I had to explain that this was not the case….
So the “Hey Jude” close out. The jam like coda sung by the supporting vocals while the lead singer weaves in & out with a soulful tour de force shouting whatever he feels. Did Paul invent this new song structure with Hey Jude?
Nothing comes to mind prior to 1968, but plenty of notable songs’ close outs come to mind after; “Aquarius/(Let the Sunshine in)”, “One of these Nights”, “The Chain”, “Cuts Like a Knife”.
The more I read into the lyrics I do believe it was about Julian and John. I have a greater respect for McCartney’s lyrics as a result.
John was super sensitive to Paul’s lyrics and song meanings and I’m sure he called this right. Their connection was super tight so I don’t think John was fooled.
I also wonder about the outro Na Na Na section. That seems very John melodically and harmonically, which also scans with Paul choosing to ad lib over this melody. Never heard this section in any demos including the Cavendish one so likely the result of a studio jam with John leading.