Sept 28th in Pop History

On this day, September 28th, in:

• 1968 - The Beatles’ Hey Jude started a 9 week run at # 1. Paul McCartney wrote the song about John Lennon’s first son, Julian. It was the band’s 16th US # 1.

Hey Jude was released as a non-album single in August 1968. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to the Lennon-McCartney partnership. The single was the Beatles' first release on Apple Records🍏, their new record label, marking the label's public launch.

1968 was a critical, dramatic year for the American people. The country was in shock. Early in the year, the news from the Vietnam war was grim, from the Tet Offensive, launched by the Vietcong, to the unthinkable My Lai massacre. In April, Dr. Martin Luther King had been assassinated in Memphis. Six weeks later, in June, it was the assassination of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles, having just won the California Presidential Primary. There were massive anti war protests and demonstrations on college campuses in the US and internationally, and racial unrest and riots in many US cities. The Democratic National Convention in Chicago had ended in chaos and bloodshed. The National Guard was protecting federal buildings and national monuments in Washington. Everywhere there was turmoil.

Against this cultural backdrop, were a number of timely songs being heard on the radio, that spoke to issues. One of those was Hey Jude. The song was fairly simple — not really intended to solve all the world’s problems. Just a friend’s advice and encouragement to a friend who is hurting, and going through a time of adversity and difficulty. But somehow Hey Jude seemed to become a universal anthem of comfort and consolation. We all sort of felt the kind words vicariously, as if spoken into our own hurt and discouragement. It felt like a message calming and consoling all of us somehow.

The writing and recording of Hey Jude coincided with a period of upheaval in the Beatles as well. It was a growing period of discontent and frustration and conflict among members of the group. The song evolved from "Hey Jules" (changed to “Hey Jude” because it was easier to sing), a song McCartney wrote to comfort John Lennon’s first son, Julian, after Lennon had left his wife for the artist Yoko Ono (Lennon later had a 2nd son, Sean Ono Lennon with Yoko). The lyrics espouse a positive outlook on a sad situation, while also encouraging "Jude" to pursue his opportunities to find love. After the fourth verse, the song shifts to a “coda” (a “tail” that brings a piece of music to a conclusion), featuring a "Na-na-na na" refrain that lasts for over four minutes.

At over seven minutes in length, Hey Jude was the longest single to top the British charts up to that time. Its arrangement and extended coda encouraged many imitative works through to the early 1970s. In 2013 Billboard magazine named it the 10th "biggest" song of all time in terms of chart success. McCartney has continued to perform Hey Jude in concert since Lennon’s death in 1980, leading audiences in singing the coda.

Contrasting with the problems afflicting the whole world and even the band itself in 1968, performances of Hey Jude over the years seem to capture the song's theme of optimism and togetherness, as seen by audiences around the world spontaneously joining in to sing the closing Na, Na, Nas.

Hey Jude was a number-one hit in many countries around the world and became the year's top-selling single in the US, the UK, Australia and Canada. Its nine-week run at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 tied the all-time record in 1968 for the longest run at the top of the US charts, a record it held for nine years. It has sold approximately eight million copies and is frequently included on music critics' lists of the greatest songs of all time.

Here it is, on Spotify: (link below)

Hey Jude

Hey Jude • Beatles

The Lyrics:

Hey Jude, don't make it 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 it better.

And anytime you feel the pain, hey Jude, refrain,
Don't carry the world upon your shoulders.
For well you know that it's a fool who plays it cool
By making his world a little colder.

Hey Jude, don't let me down.
You have found her, now go and get her.
Remember to let her into your heart,
Then you can start to make it better.

So let it out and let it in, hey Jude, begin,
You're waiting for someone to perform with.
And don't you know that it's just you, hey Jude, you'll do,
The movement you need is on your shoulder.

Hey Jude, don't make it bad.
Take a sad song and make it better.
Remember to let her under your skin,
Then you'll begin to make it
Better better better better better better, oh.

Na na na nananana, nannana, hey Jude...
(repeat X number of times, fade)

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: John Lennon / Paul McCartney