Not all of the 213 singles The Beatles recorded together were going to be extraordinary, though many of them were—their 1968 track, “Hey Jude”, 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’s long, storied history is part of what makes it one of the band’s best.

After all, John Lennon wasn’t one to throw around the word “masterpiece” willy-nilly.

“Hey Jude” Was Paul McCartney’s Ode to Julian Lennon

The Jude behind “Hey Jude” isn’t a Jude at all, but rather a Jules. Paul McCartney famously penned this classic Beatles track as an ode to John Lennon’s first son, Julian Lennon, who was struggling through his parents’ 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’s son. “Hey [Jules], don’t make it bad.”

“It was optimistic,” McCartney recalled in Anthology. “A hopeful message for Julian. ‘Come on, man. Your parents got divorced. I know you’re not happy. But you’ll be okay.”

John Lennon Thought the Song Was Really About Him

Interestingly, John Lennon thought that The Beatles song was more about him than his son. “If you think about it, Yoko [Ono’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.’”

To be fair, Paul McCartney would later say performing with Lennon inherently made some of those songs about their friendship, even if McCartney didn’t explicitly write the song about Lennon. “Two of Us” is another example of this duality.

The Song Broke Multiple Records and Marked Important Milestone

“Hey Jude” 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’s best-selling single, despite being abnormally long. By that point, their star power alone was enough to boost sales.

“After I timed [the song], I actually said, ‘You can’t make a single that long,’” George Martin recalled in Anthology. “John asked, ‘Why not?’ I couldn’t think of a good answer, really, except the pathetic one that disc jockeys wouldn’t play it. He said, ‘They will if it’s us.’ And of course, he was absolutely right.”

The Drum Delay Was a Perfect but Accidental Feature

Part of the magic of “Hey Jude” is its great use of dynamics. The song begins with Paul McCartney alone on piano before eventually building to its rousing “na, na, na, na” outro. Ringo Starr is noticeably absent from the beginning of the track, which, as it turns out, was only half purposeful.

In Many Years From Now, Paul McCartney recalled recording a take of “Hey Jude”, not realizing Starr had slipped out to use the bathroom. “I started what was the actual take, and ‘Hey Jude’ goes on for hours before the drums come in,” he said. “While 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.”

“I think when those things happen, you have a little laugh, and a light bulb goes off in your head, and you think, ‘This is the take!’ And you put a little more into it. You think, ‘Oh, f***. This has got to be the take. What just happened was so magic.’ So, we did that, and we made a pretty good record.

Pretty good indeed.

Photo by David Redfern/Redferns