Over a brief span in the 1960s, The Beatles achieved a musical dominance like no other. They released their debut single in 1962, and when they announced that they were disbanding at the beginning of 1970, they had 20 number one singles under their belt. Of all the tracks that topped that charts, it’s arguable whether any of them were bigger than the triumphant ‘Hey Jude’.

Answering who wrote certain Beatles songs has never been all that easy. They functioned as a band in the truest sense, with each member adding contributions in their respective areas. However, the bulk of the songwriting was often credited to “Lennon-McCartney” on the song’s log sheet, which is indicative of how they often wrote in unison.

However, when it comes to ‘Hey Jude’, beyond being logged as another “Lennon-McCartney” effort, it is noted that the song was created by Paul McCartney. The song originated in May, 1968, during a time when John Lennon was settling his separation with his first wife, Cynthia. “I started with the idea ‘Hey Jules’, which was Julian [Lennon’s first son], don’t make it bad, take a sad song and make it better,” McCartney said in an interview with Barry Miles in 1997.

“Hey, try and deal with this terrible thing. I knew it was not going to be easy for him. I always feel sorry for kids in divorces,” he continued. McCartney then continued to work on the song alone as Lennon spent all of his hours with Yoko Ono. By the time that he presented his song to the band in July, he pretty much had it entirely finished, making ‘Hey Jude’ one of the few songs that was almost entirely written by one member of the Fab Four in isolation.

What is ‘Hey Jude’ about?

As the inspiration behind the song suggests, ‘Hey Jude’ began as a message of reassurance to Julian Lennon during the time of his parent’s divorce, but thereafter, the song taps into a more universal message of staying strong during times of hardship and trying to transfigure the situation through defiance.

However, Lennon believed that there was another subliminal angle to this message of embracing change. “If you think about it,” he mused in an interview with David Sheff, “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.”

What album is ‘Hey Jude’ on?

The track was originally released as a stand-alone single in August 1968 with ‘Revolution’ as the B-side and was not included on the White Album despite being part of those recording sessions. The track was one of four singles that were released simultaneously to serve as the launch of Apple Records, the label that the band had set up.

The other three singles were comprised of the band’s new instated labelmates. They were: Mary Hopkin’s ‘Those Were the Days’, Jackie Lomax’s ‘Sour Milk Sea’, and the Black Dyke Mills Band’s ‘Thingumybob’. While these tracks may have faded into obscurity, ‘Hey Jude’ remains one of The Beatles’ best-selling singles, with well over eight million copies snapped up worldwide.