{"id":262253,"date":"2025-09-28T21:58:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T21:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/262253\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T21:58:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T21:58:11","slug":"4-reasons-why-hey-jude-is-one-of-the-beatles-most-interesting-special-and-record-breaking-songs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/262253\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Reasons Why \u201cHey Jude\u201d Is One of the Beatles\u2019 Most Interesting, Special, and Record-Breaking Songs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not all of the 213 singles The Beatles recorded together were going to be extraordinary, though many of them were\u2014their 1968 track, \u201cHey Jude\u201d<\/a>, being no small exception. From the circumstances surrounding its composition and release to its record-breaking chart performance to an inadvertently controversial bit of guerrilla marketing, this particular track\u2019s long, storied history is part of what makes it one of the band\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

After all, John Lennon wasn\u2019t one to throw around the word \u201cmasterpiece\u201d willy-nilly.<\/p>\n

\u201cHey Jude\u201d Was Paul McCartney\u2019s Ode to Julian Lennon<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Jude behind \u201cHey Jude\u201d isn\u2019t a Jude at all, but rather a Jules. Paul McCartney famously penned this classic Beatles track as an ode to John Lennon\u2019s first son, Julian Lennon, who was struggling through his parents\u2019 divorce. McCartney and the young boy had a close, almost familial relationship. While driving alone in his car one day, McCartney began singing a pep talk to his friend\u2019s son. \u201cHey [Jules], don\u2019t make it bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was optimistic,\u201d McCartney recalled in Anthology<\/a>. \u201cA hopeful message for Julian. \u2018Come on, man. Your parents got divorced. I know you\u2019re not happy. But you\u2019ll be okay.\u201d<\/p>\n

John Lennon Thought the Song Was Really About Him<\/strong><\/p>\n

Interestingly, John Lennon thought<\/a> that The Beatles song was more about him than his son. \u201cIf you think about it, Yoko [Ono\u2019s] just come into the picture. He\u2019s saying, \u2018Hey, Jude.\u2019 \u2018Hey, John.\u2019 I know I\u2019m sounding like one of those fans who reads things into it. But you can hear it as a song to me. The words, \u201cgo out and get her,\u201d subconsciously, he was saying, \u2018Go ahead. Leave me.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

To be fair, Paul McCartney would later say performing with Lennon inherently made some of those songs about their friendship, even if McCartney didn\u2019t explicitly write the song about Lennon. \u201cTwo of Us\u201d<\/a> is another example of this duality.<\/p>\n

The Song Broke Multiple Records and Marked Important Milestone<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cHey Jude\u201d was the first song The Beatles released on their record label, Apple. And they certainly made their inaugural single count. The 1968 track became the top-selling single in the U.K., U.S., Australia, and Canada the year of its release. It was the band\u2019s best-selling single, despite being abnormally long. By that point, their star power alone was enough to boost sales.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I timed [the song], I actually said, \u2018You can\u2019t make a single that long,\u2019\u201d George Martin recalled in Anthology. \u201cJohn asked, \u2018Why not?\u2019 I couldn\u2019t think of a good answer, really, except the pathetic one that disc jockeys wouldn\u2019t play it. He said, \u2018They will if it\u2019s us.\u2019 And of course, he was absolutely right.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Drum Delay Was a Perfect but Accidental Feature<\/strong><\/p>\n

Part of the magic of \u201cHey Jude\u201d is its great use of dynamics. The song begins with Paul McCartney alone on piano before eventually building to its rousing \u201cna, na, na, na\u201d outro. Ringo Starr is noticeably absent from the beginning of the track, which, as it turns out, was only half purposeful.<\/p>\n

In Many Years From Now<\/a>, Paul McCartney recalled recording a take<\/a> of \u201cHey Jude\u201d, not realizing Starr had slipped out to use the bathroom. \u201cI started what was the actual take, and \u2018Hey Jude\u2019 goes on for hours before the drums come in,\u201d he said. \u201cWhile I was doing it, I suddenly felt Ringo tiptoeing past my back rather quickly, trying to get his drums. And just as he got to his drums, boom, boom, boom. His timing was absolutely impeccable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when those things happen, you have a little laugh, and a light bulb goes off in your head, and you think, \u2018This is the take!\u2019 And you put a little more into it. You think, \u2018Oh, f***. This has got to be the take. What just happened was so magic.\u2019 So, we did that, and we made a pretty good record.<\/p>\n

Pretty good indeed.<\/p>\n

Photo by David Redfern\/Redferns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Not all of the 213 singles The Beatles recorded together were going to be extraordinary, though many of…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":262254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[171,975,4185,978,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-262253","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-rock-music","11":"tag-the-beatles","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-unitedstates","14":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115284168139736964","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}