‘Hey Jude’ was released in the U.K on 30 August 1968. The link below the video is to a nice Guardian piece on the song pointing out that it is probably now The Beatles’ most popular song (though I’d have thought ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Let It Be’ must run it close). All McCartney songs – Lennon’s most popular is surely ‘Imagine’.
I can vouch for its enduring global appeal – at an outdoor concert I was at in Shanghai recently, featuring orchestral Beatles numbers, it was ‘Hey Jude’ and those na-an-nas that had the locals singing and swaying along. Hey Jude Hitmakers, indeed.
People tend to be a bit sniffy about ‘Hey Jude’ but I’ve never understood why – it worked when it came out and it still works now half a century later. Long may it run.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/aug/21/how-hey-jude-became-our-favourite-beatles-song
Lodestone of Wrongness says
Nah, if Hey Jude was how we judge The Beatles we would think they were Abba.
deramdaze says
A very wise man (ex-cricketer/journalist) Vic Marks, talking on a different subject (cricket), recently said, “The virtues of the obvious are unfashionable nowadays.” So true.
“Hey Jude” is the absolute pinnacle of popular music and yet, bizarrely, perhaps inevitably, from this broadcast onwards, it’s downhill all the way for it.
As a consequence, and I say this with a heavy heart, in 2018 “Hey Jude” is in equal parts exhilarating and depressing.
Like “Blonde on Blonde” and “Desolation Row,” I rarely play the song.
Pop music could be THAT good, pop music would never be that good again. Not even close.
Tiggerlion says
Excellent article. I still play it (on an adjusted White Album!) and enjoy it. I believe someone once said something about being tired of life which applies here. I, for one, can’t wait for the Giles Martin remix due next month, methinks.
Moose the Mooche says
I love what he did to it on, er, LOVE.
Arthur Cowslip says
Oh yeah – the bass breakdown ! Wonderful stuff.
Carl says
I used to love it, but it just bores now.
It is not The Beatles per se. It sits alongside Alright Now, Brown Sugar and a couple of other songs that I similarly used to love but which I never need to hear again because I have heard them so many times that I know every note and hearing them no longer gives me an iota of pleasure.
Mousey says
Wot he said. I try to only listen to Tin Soldier once a year for that reason
Junior Wells says
Think HJ was in another league invyerms over exposure compared to the other 2.
As a youngster, 11 at the time, what stood out was Macca’s screaming at the end. Had only heard “proper” singing before that.
Mike_H says
Interesting mention of “Hey Jude” in that Q&A session with Jarvis Cocker.
McCartney played it to Lennon for his approval (if John hadn’t liked it, it would have been binned) and Macca said of the line “the movement you need is on your shoulder”, “I’ll be changing that later.” Lennon said “No you won’t!”.
So he didn’t change it.
Black Celebration says
I also liked the story of the Hey Jude recording. Paul has started the song and feels good about it – his voice is sounding great – this is the one that’ll be on the record. He looks around and sees an empty stool behind the drums! Paul anxiously carries on. With seconds to spare, Ringo slinks back in and smoothly gets things going. He’d gone to the toilet.
Tiggerlion says
Let’s focus on Ringo. His timing is beautiful. Naturally. But the sound of those floor toms are amazing. They sound solid and hollow at the same time, as though he’s hitting a thick cork on a bottle. The drum sound is so different to Strawberry Fields or the following year’s Get Back. It changed radically for almost every album. I know the engineers are crucial, but still.
Rigid Digit says
Agreed – Ringo’s drumming becomes more noticeable on Pepper, and is an integral part of White Album, Abbey Road and Let It Be.
No longer “the noisy one”.
And I only found out recently that the “not the best drummer in The Beatles” Lennon quip was actually by Jasper Carrott
Arthur Cowslip says
Jasper Carrott! Didn’t know that.
dai says
A story he has told approximately 15,000 times (the Lennon one)
len hyatt says
The moment he began it live was a heart stopper. Beautiful song. All inclusive.
NigelT says
I’ve always been a bit ambivalent about the song, even back in 1968. It was extraordinary at the time – here they were doing something totally new again, pushing the pop envelope in terms of length and song structure – but was never a ‘favourite’ of mine. My abiding memory is seeing them on the David Frost show – they hadn’t played a concert in two years and I’m fairly certain hadn’t been on telly (except for Magical Mystery Tour perhaps) for ages, certainly not performing, so that was a really exciting event in itself. Suddenly the psychedelic trappings had gone – this was a new Beatles, yet again renewing and moving in a different direction. I rushed out and bought it of course, and played it to death – it’s a brilliant record – but my heart does sink when he plays it live now and conducts the audience na-na-nas….
Tiggerlion says
I really like the B side.
NigelT says
It is a great 45! Beatles B Sides were invariably great…with the notable exception of ‘You Know My Name’…but I bet someone here will defend that too!
Moose the Mooche says
Me sir! I love it, especially the extended ska version on Anthology.
duco01 says
“Good evening and welcome to Slaggers – featuring Denis O’Bell”
There’s nowt wrong with it!
Moose the Mooche says
So the last George Martin-produced Beatles track to be released was this. The last thing GM did before working with the Beatles was either Right Said Fred or Hole in the Ground. Novelty records – a nice circularity.
Moose the Mooche says
I’ve only two words to say about HJ:
Fuckin’ ‘ell!
metal mickey says
To an extent, “all of the above”…
I’d happily not listen to HJ for a year or two, and I don’t think I’d ever play it on purpose (so to speak), but when it pops up on shuffle or in a playlist (or on TV), it’s always good to hear it again, and it’s probably worth taking a moment to remind ourselves of just how easy Macca made it look to come up with pan-generational anthems, a good trick if you can do it…
Tiggerlion says
It was also the first Apple Single (Apple 1, actually). I remember, as a ten year old, examining it and being impressed that the label looked exactly like a grannie smith, even though it was perfectly round. The B side looked even better (and blew my head off).
Funnily enough, it’s about the only music being released that year that I remember being released, apart, maybe, for The Temptations. I recall music in previous years much more clearly.
Rigid Digit says
Certainly was APPLE 1 – but the actual catalogue number followed the Parlephone numbering system being R5722
(welcome to pendants corner)
APPLE2 was Mary Hopkin – Those Were The Days
Tiggerlion says
See. I was right. It was Apple 1. I said nothing about a catalogue number.
(More pendantry. 😀)
fishface says
I first heard HJ round my grandma’s house, an event I can recall with crystal clarity.
Not because of the song, because she dished out mashed spuds with a mechanical ice cream scoop.
Being a easily impressed 4 year old this blew my mind….HJ didn’t.
Even at that tender age I was more a Who fan
minibreakfast says
I can’t listen to the Fabses version now, but Tom Jones did a belting cover, on a par with Wilson Pickett’s in my ‘umble…
minibreakfast says
BAY-BEH!
Clive says
One for the Triviasta… Jeremy Sinden (Donald’s lad) who played Boy Mulcaster in Brideshead first appears at 4:37 in the vid behind Ringo.
duco01 says
Is he the boy on the left in the military-style jacket or the guy on the right with the glasses, tie and grey jacket … or possibly even the taller guy with the orange top … (checks information on Google) … ah yes. Right third time. That’s him.
Blue Boy says
And it’s this sort of information, ladies and gentleman, that is what the Afterword is for. Well, this, and the stuff about Ringo’s masterful drumming of course.
I remember Sinden as an actor, and that is recognisably him. He’d have been 18 at the time – sadly died early from cancer.