7/11 vs. 7:11

Summer time in the 60s always made things so much better for this Southern California kid. The beach vs. classrooms, Dodger baseball vs. Football season, Disneyland closes at 1:00 am vs. 6:00 pm, later bedtime hour vs. school night curfew, and two-week vacations vs. long weekends. Just about everything I experienced during Summer outweighed joys or thrills experienced away from Summer. The main reason might point to the circumstance I had the fortunate progression to grow a little older each Summer. Oh, technically one could say we all grow a little older each day, but July holds extraordinary dominance as my birth month. The official annual spurt falls on July 11 or (7/11), which bears the reality that I’m a brought into the world Seven-Eleven phenomenon. Another Summer Seven-Eleven phenomenon happened during August 1968 and came to us all courtesy of the Beatles. Hmm, you may wonder. What does Don mean by this 1968 Seven-Eleven? Have I got you scratching your heads? Are your minds a complete blank as to the Beatles Seven-Eleven phenomenon? Well, wait no more. . . One of the many all time great compositions credited to Lennon & McCartney, Hey Jude (actually penned alone by McCartney), holds captive any audio audience for a whopping Seven minutes and Eleven seconds or (7:11), an unheard-of possibility on radio stations. However, because the Beatles are the Beatles, radio made an exception. Phenomenal!

Sit back and let me share a little info in connection with what millions believe to be the best song our Beatles ever released.          

In 1968, it could easily have been said by countless people that the bloom of the rose that spanned the career of The Beatles had certainly seen its day and was in the eventual process of wilting away to nothing. As for their beginnings in America, their emergence in 1964 saw them holding down the entire Top Five positions on the Billboard singles chart on April 4th, 1964. Nearly every subsequent single release thereafter had raced up the charts, either reaching the summit or nearly missing it. Their live concerts consistently broke new ground with record breaking attendances. Their growth in musicianship and songwriting paved the way for newer as well as already established acts to use as a template for their own success.

However, interviewers regularly asked our favorite Liverpudlians when they thought the “bubble might burst” and their popularity fade. In 1966, concert attendance began to dip somewhat and then they decided to discontinue touring altogether. The innocent pop songwriting that fans expected of them gave way to mind expanding subject matter such as “Strawberry Fields Forever” which, at the time, left many diehard followers disillusioned. While 1967's “Sgt. Pepper” album loomed an artistic as well as a commercial triumph; critics were merciless toward their “Magical Mystery Tour” film, plus Beatle fanatics worldwide had to agree its content equaled rubbish. Their follow-up single, “Lady Madonna,” while a masterstroke in recorded music, failed to get any higher than #4 on the U.S. charts, which proved quite uncharacteristic for them. It appeared that maybe the “bubble” had indeed 'burst.

Then, on August 26th, 1968, The Beatles made the most remarkable comeback of their career, gaining back any naysayers who thought they'd already heard everything that the band had to offer. Their new single, “Hey Jude,” released on their own new Apple Records with its stunning green label, took over the airwaves as well as our television screens. The majority of music fans today who were alive at that time have vivid and cherished memories related to hearing the song, some remembering the first time they heard it. The impact was so great that it only took three weeks for it to reach #1 on the U.S. Billboard singles chart and stayed there for a remarkable nine weeks, becoming the most successful American single of their career. It also ranked as the most popular record of the sixties, according to Billboard Magazine.

If anything had tarnished the reputation of The Beatles to any degree up to that point in history, they went way above and beyond to redeem themselves in most people's eyes with the release of “Hey Jude." Even to this day, the respect generated by this one song is astronomical, and there is no hint of that respect abating any time soon.

"Hey Jude" never won the blue ribbon as the most complicated of compositions, just two verses, two bridges and a faded conclusion. The production also kept itself down to the bare-bones; no psychedelic rave-ups or masterful overdubs required. So why did the song have such an amazing and long-standing impact on the music scene, one that continues to impress future generations?

John Robertson's book “The Complete Guide To The Music Of The Beatles” puts it this way. “'Hey Jude' sounded like a community anthem, from the open-armed welcome of its lyrics to its instant singalong chorus. The fact that it didn't come with a controversial political message made its universal application complete.” Even though the lyrics don't make any distinguishable sense, its delivery makes it appear as a song of hope and encouragement despite the trials and drama one can experience in life. Whatever “sad song” may be our story, The Beatles made us believe that we can learn from these experiences and, with a little help from our friends, we can truly “make it better.”

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