7 & 9

On this day in music history: July 30, 1968 - The Beatles begin recording “Hey Jude” at Abbey Road Studios in London, in Studio Two. Written by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon - McCartney), McCartney is inspired to write the song (originally titled “Hey Jules”) while driving over to visit band mate John Lennon’s five year old son, Julian and former wife Cynthia at their home in Weybridge, Surrey. Paul begins writing the song to console Julian after his parents have separated and are in the process of getting divorced. Though McCartney later states another inspiration for the song is his recent break up with long term girlfriend actress Jane Asher, John Lennon also feels that Paul is speaking (indirectly) to him in the song as he has begun his relationship with Yoko Ono at this time. The rehearsal sessions are filmed and are first seen on the NBC network program “Music! Experiment In Television”, providing a rare glimpse of the band working in the studio. The master take of the song is recorded at Trident Studios in Soho the next day. For the recording, McCartney plays Trident’s Bechstein grand piano, which over time appears on numerous landmark recordings including ones by Elton John, David Bowie and Queen. “Hey Jude” becomes The Beatles biggest single spending nine weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100, selling over four million copies in the US alone.


thanks as ever to Jeff Harris at his wondrous Behind The Grooves