John Lennon Has a Secret Wife and Child. By FORREST WICKMAN First published on APRIL 10, 2013

John Lennon’s son Julian famously inspired some of the Beatles’ greatest songs. When he was 4 years old, one of his pastel drawings for school inspired the title of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.” When he was 5, his father wrote him a lullaby, which made it onto the White Album as “Good Night.” That same year McCartney was inspired to write “Hey Jude” for Julian—it was “Hey Jules,” originally—as his parents were going through a separation. But on April 8, 1963, when Julian was born, his parents were determined to keep him under wraps.

In fact, the marriage of John and Cynthia Lennon (née Powell) had been a secret from the beginning. The two met at the Liverpool College of Art a few years before, when John was only a teenager. Though he could be quite mean to her, even violent, and wasn’t always loyal, John wrote her letters even during the band’s wild days in Hamburg. When, in the summer of 1962, Cynthia Powell discovered that she was pregnant—the two never gave a thought to using contraception, according to Cynthia—John knew what he had to do. “I said yes, we’ll have to get married,” Lennon later recalled. “I didn’t fight it.” (In the Northern England of 1963, abortion wasn’t much of an option, with hospitals only agreeing to them when they were deemed medically necessary.)

Beatles manager Brian Epstein was disappointed at the news. He had wanted to sell the Beatles as eligible young bachelors. (The Beatles still weren’t widely known, but he had seen the way their loyal fans reacted to them in Liverpool.) Still, he couldn’t very well kick John Lennon out of the group. Seeing no other option, he gave his blessing on the one condition that the Beatles keep the wedding, and the baby, on the down low. Once he’d gotten John’s assurance on that score, he did everything he could for him, even securing their marriage license and letting them stay at his apartment.

The wedding was quiet, to not alarm Beatles fans, but also because their families weren’t terribly proud of them: Cynthia’s parents didn’t attend, nor did John’s guardian, Aunt Mimi. Paul and George came out, but they didn’t even tell new bandmember Ringo. Lennon remembered the civil service as an odd affair:

There was a drill going on all the time outside … I couldn’t hear a word the bloke was saying. Then we went across the road and had a chicken dinner. I can’t remember any presents. We never went in for them.

That evening, on Aug. 23, 1962, Lennon spent his wedding night playing with the Beatles in Chester.

From that point on Cynthia lived what she called an “undercover existence,” leaving her wedding band at home and staying away from the band’s shows. She was even forced to deny her last name. On the rare occasions when John was home, they made sure not to go out in public together.

This was made somewhat easier by the press’ ready compliance with their demands. Beatles biographer Bob Spitz points to the transcript of a fall 1963 interview conducted by Judith Simons of the Daily Express. Simons politely asks, “We still can’t mention your marriage, can we, John?” Asking was just a formality.

John also enjoyed the arrangement for the relative freedom it afforded him, allowing him to live his life as a rock star without ties or obligations. According to Bill Harry, the editor of Mersey Beat and an old friend who had seen him carrying on affairs, “It was as if Cynthia or Julian didn’t exist.”

When Julian was born, John was still on tour with Chris Montez and Tommy Roe, though Cynthia has said that “having fathers present for the birth just wasn’t the custom then.” In her book John, she describes the scene when he showed up at the hospital, two or three days later:

He came in like a whirlwind, racing through the doors in his haste to find us. He kissed me, then looked at his son, who was in my arms. There were tears in his eyes: “Cyn, he’s bloody marvelous! He’s fantastic.”

According to Cynthia, a thought seemed to occur to him as he cradled the baby in his arms. “Who’s going to be a famous little rocker like his dad, then?” he said.

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THE BEATLES MEET THE STONES. by JOHN MCMILLIAN - First published APRIL 16, 2013.

Everybody knows how adorably goofy and good-natured the Beatles could come across in their radio and television interviews, especially during the first flush of Beatlemania. In real life, however, they often struck people differently. Writer Barry Miles recalls that when the Beatles relocated to London from Liverpool in the spring of 1963, they seemed bent on projecting an “an intentionally intimidating image.” The teen-oriented Boyfriend magazine went so far as to describe the Beatles as “almost frightening looking young men.” When they weren’t smiling, the magazine said, “they looked wicked and dreadful and distinctly evil, in an eighteenth-century sort of way.” Around the same time, a low-level PR flack said the Beatles exuded a “F#ck You, we’re good and we know it” sort of attitude.

It probably would not have been easy, in the spring of 1963, to impose upon the Beatles, or to ask them for a favor. Nevertheless, on the afternoon April 14, Giorgio Gomelsky—a Soviet-born, Swiss-educated rhythm and blues promoter—approached the Fab Four at a television studio where they were taping their third appearance on the pop music show Thank Your Lucky Stars.

“Hey you guys, you’ve got to listen to this band on the way home tonight,” he pleaded. “You’ve got to come see this band when you finish recording the show, it’s on the way back, you’ve just got to come.”

He was talking about the Rolling Stones. And his timing was propitious. Having recently arrived in London, the Beatles and their entourage were curious to find out what was happening in the city’s music scene.

Sure enough, shortly after the Stones started their second set at the Crawdaddy Club, in Southwest London, bassist Bill Wyman was “staggered” to look up and see “four shadowy figures” standing shoulder-to-shoulder in the audience, all of them dressed in matching suede overcoats and leather caps. “Shit, that’s the Beatles!” he recalls exclaiming to himself. Keith Richards tells the story similarly: “We’re playing a pub … and we’re whacking out our show and everybody’s having a good time, ya know? I suddenly turn around: there’s these four guys in black leather overcoats standing there. Oh f#ck me! Look who’s here!”

The Beatles’ road manager, Neil Aspinall, thought the Stones were just “OK” that night—not particularly better or worse than a typical Liverpool band playing at the Cavern Club. But the Beatles were more effusive. “I remember standing in some sweaty room and watching them on the stage,” Ringo said years later. “Keith and Brian—wow! I knew then that the Stones were great.” George was struck by the tremendous enthusiasm of the Stones’ fans. “The audience screamed and shouted and danced on tables,” he recalled.

No one lingered around or chatted with fans for very long after the gig, since Brian Jones had invited the Beatles and their crew over to the Stones’ slummy Edith Grove apartment. The richest first-hand account of what happened next comes from James Phelge, who was living with Mick, Keith, and Brian at the time. When the Beatles arrived, Phelge recalls, “they carried themselves with the air of a professional outfit. … All the members of their entourage were smartly dressed in the same dark-colored overcoats as the band, giving the appearance of one big team.” A few in the Beatles’ camp may have been disgusted by the putrid condition of the Stones’ dimly-lit flat—the piled-high dishes, overflowing ashtrays, and accumulated rubbish—but Phelge says that Paul, at least, “did not seem unduly perturbed by anything—the look on his face said, ‘I’ve been here before.’”

All night long, records spun successively on the turntable, and the members of each group shared their musical likes and dislikes. The Stones played the Beatles five demo tracks they’d just recorded at IBC Studios, and they were eager to show off their treasured collection of American imports. They were caught off guard, however, when Lennon was sharply dismissive of one of their heroes, the blues legend Jimmy Reed.

Another big topic was how to make money in the music business. Until that point, no British pop acts had been able to maintain their success over the long term, and everyone thought it was only a matter of time before the Beatles’ pubescent fans moved on in search of someone else to idolize. Even the Beatles believed that. At the time, they were chiefly concerned with parlaying their brief burst of popular success into the biggest possible financial windfall. The most the Stones could have hoped for is that they, too, would have a brief run at the top.

Despite being the hottest group in England at the time, in some respects the Beatles may have felt apprehensive in the Stones’ company. Like many Merseysiders of Northern England, the Beatles were sensitive to any hint of condescension from their Southern neighbors. They dreaded being stereotyped as Scousers, hicks, or provincials. That may well explain why they could seem so standoffish to outsiders; it was a defensive posture.

Meanwhile, the Stones fancied themselves hip Londoners; they were obsessed with a particular style of cool—which they associated with reticence and self-possession—and so they were bemused by the Beatles’ amiable goofball shtick: their corny repartee and obvious eagerness to please. They were also proud to have built up a cult following with the “right” type of fans: discerning bohemians, as opposed to the hysterical teenyboppers the Beatles were winning over. They didn’t yet have a record contract, but they surely sensed that one was in the offing.

John likely enjoyed talking with Brian, perhaps the most musically gifted and deeply knowledgeable member of the Stones. When the two fell into conversation they discovered that they both had infant sons named Julian. (Lennon’s son was only six days old.) But Jones’ musical knowledge could also be intimidating. Years later, Lennon recalled the moment that night when Brian asked him whether it was a harmonica or a harp that he’d played on “Love Me Do.”

Oblivious to the subtle distinction between the two instruments, Lennon answered, “A harmonica with a button,” meaning a chromatic harmonica, of the type that was used by the jazz and big band acts of the ’40s and ’50s. (Lennon had shoplifted it from a music store in Arnhem, Holland, in 1960.) A “harp,” or diatonic harmonica, offers fewer notes, but allows players to get a wailing bluesy sound by bending pitches. All the classical bluesmen used harps, and an aficionado like Jones likely would have regarded chromatic harmonicas as passé.

Lennon apparently came around to that view as well. Six weeks later, on June 1, 1963, the Beatles were getting ready to perform Chuck Berry’s “I Got To Find My Baby” for the BBC radio show Pop Goes the Beatles. When deejay Lee Peters tried to introduce the song by saying that it would feature Lennon on the harmonica, Lennon sharply cut him off.

“Harp! It’s a harp,” Lennon said.

“What’s a harp?” Peters asked, obviously taken aback.

“The harp. I’m playing a harp on this one.”

“You’re playing a harp?”

“Harmonica I play on ‘Love Me Do.’ Harp on this one.”

There wasn’t any “rivalry” yet between the Beatles and the Stones, of course. But for all they had in common, the members of the two bands must have recognized they had some opposing qualities as well. It wasn’t for nothing that in January 1988, when Mick Jagger inducted the Beatles into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame, he dwelled at some length about the very first time he met the Beatles. He didn’t regard them as the least bit cuddly or lovable. Instead, he said, they struck him as a “four-headed monster.”

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REVOLUTION AND ITS INCREDIBLE RECORDING PROCESS.

The first time "Revolution" was committed to tape was on May 28th, 1968 when The Beatles all met at George's 'Kinfauns' home in Esher, Surrey, to make demo recordings of songs they were going to include on their next album. These recordings laid on George's four-track Ampex tape recorder, the group taking turns acoustically playing their newly written songs and then performing various overdubs as ideas of what they would do when they got in EMI Studios.

This demo recording of “Revolution” is very lighthearted and spirited, conveying the semi-political lyrics in a way that one could easily envision as their next single. John plays acoustic guitar and sings while the other Beatles clap along and occasionally join in on backing vocals with a great sense of harmony. John then double-tracks himself on acoustic guitar and vocals but, as the final verse begins to kick in, his timing gets noticeably off. This results in the overdubbed tambourine in this verse, probably played by Ringo, to compensate in order to catch the beat correctly. (This awkwardness stands corrected on the 50th Anniversary "White Album" releases.) All in all, while containing flaws, this acoustic version is very impressive and paints a very accurate picture of how Lennon originally conceived of the song.

The first song The Beatles took to recording during the extensive sessions for their new album, which became the “White Album,” was “Revolution.” Please refer to the “Revolution 1” page on this website for the detailed Recording History for that song.

Regarding the need to re-record the song a second time, John explains: “When George and Paul and all of them were on holiday, I made 'Revolution' which is on the LP. I wanted to put it out as a single, but they said it wasn't good enough...We recorded the song twice. The Beatles were getting real tense with each other. The first take, George, and Paul were resentful and said it wasn't fast enough. Now, if you go into the details of what a hit record is and isn't, maybe. But The Beatles could have afforded to put out the slow, understandable version of 'Revolution' as a single, whether it was a gold record or a wooden record. But, because they were so upset over the Yoko thing and the fact that I was again becoming as creative and dominating as I was in the early days, after lying fallow for a couple of years, it upset the applecart. I was awake again, and they weren't used to it.”

Engineer Geoff Emerick, in his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” details the disagreements about what would be their next single. “In the early days, George Martin had picked the songs that would comprise the A-side and B-side of a Beatles single. But by this point in their career, it would be the group's decision; George might offer some input or suggestions, but it was their final call. Apparently, John and Paul had been arguing for some time about what would be the next A-side. John was pushing hard for 'Revolution 1,' but Paul resisted, telling John he thought it was too slow; eventually, he brought George Martin in as an ally. Personally, I think Paul felt that the song simply wasn't all that good, and he was using its slow tempo as an excuse not to have it released as a single, but John had defiantly taken him up on the challenge and so was insisting that they cut it again, faster.”

With this in mind, John ran them through a series of rehearsals for a more up-tempo version of the song, designated as "Revolution (Remake)," in EMI Studio Three on July 9th, 1968 in the early morning hours after they continued their extensive work on Paul's “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da.” This occurred at approximately 1 am the following morning, The Beatles running through the song repeatedly, all of this still recorded with clean electric guitar minus any distortion. Common EMI practice at the time was to re-record over recorded material when decided that the contents of the tape ranked unusable, as this was. However, six minutes of these rehearsals, which comprised John on electric guitar and vocals, Paul on bass on harmony vocals, George on electric guitar and Ringo on drums, were discovered at the end of a re-recorded reel of tape sometime in 2018 when mixing new material for the 50th Anniversary "White Album" releases. These six minutes reveal an interesting transition between the sessions that resulted in "Revolution 1" and the harder "Revolution" as released as the b-side of "Hey Jude" in August of 1968, George touching on elements of his future Beatles composition "Old Brown Shoe" in the process. The session on this day ended at 3:30 am that morning.

The brief snippet of this taped discovery that appears on the Super Deluxe 50th Anniversary release of the "White Album" shows that it was John that plays lead guitar this time around. “On 'Revolution,' I'm playing the guitar,” he explained in an interview at the time, “and I haven't improved since I was last playing. It sounds the way I wanted it to sound. It's a pity I can't do it better, the fingering, you know. But, I couldn't have done that last year; I would have been too paranoiac. I couldn't play. George must play, or somebody better. My playing has probably improved a little bit on this session because I've been playing a little. I was always the rhythm guitar anyway, but I always wanted to fiddle about in the background.”

And how he wanted it was much different from the earlier version, as Geoff Emerick continues: “John wanted the second, up-tempo version of 'Revolution' to be even tougher and more biting than the first one. That was typical of him in those days; that was his vibe: pissed off. Ever since we'd first started work on the 'White Album,' John had wanted to play louder and louder – he kept winding his guitar amp full up, but there were acoustic limitations as to how loud you could play and still capture the sound before it turned into a mess, leaking onto everything else and becoming all muddy. He didn't understand that, no matter how many times I tried to explain it to him, so he just became more and more frustrated and angry. Making things worse was the fact that, behind the scenes, Magic Alex (Mardas) was telling him that he would be able to play as loud as he wanted, without restriction, in the new studio he was building for them.”

The following day (that is, later that evening), July 10th, 1968, The Beatles re-entered EMI Studio Three at around 7 pm to officially start recording the newer, faster version of “Revolution.” After the session tape from the previous day's rehearsal tape was rewound, the rhythm track was recorded on top of it first, this time consisting of John and George's electric guitars recorded on tracks one and two of the four-track tape, and Ringo's drums recorded on track three. “We got into distortion on that,” George Martin explains in the “Anthology” book, “which we had a lot of complaints from the technical people about. But that was the idea: it was John's song, and the idea was to push it right to the limit. Well, we went to the limit and beyond.”

Tape operator Phil McDonald remembers how they achieved the guitar distortion. “John wanted that sound, a really distorted sound. The guitars were put through the recording console, which was technically not the thing to do. It completely overloaded the channel and produced the fuzz sound. Fortunately the technical people didn't find out. They didn't approve of 'abuse of equipment.'" Kevin Howlett, in the "Track By Track" section of the Super Deluxe 50th Anniversary "White Album" book, describes this distortion effect as being achieved by plugging the guitars "straight into the mixing desk using KIT (Direct Injection Transformer) boxes. The overloaded mic amps in the desk produced a particularly abrasive form of distortion."

Ten 'takes' of the rhythm track were recorded on this day, one of which Apple included in the Super Deluxe 50th Anniversary "White Album" box set, apparently mislabeled as "take 14 - instrumental backing track" because of obvious differences between it and 'take 10,' which documented notes refer as the 'keeper.' Then, onto track four, was overdubbed handclaps and added snare drum beats from Ringo which, according to Mark Lewisohn's book “The Beatles Recording Sessions,” was “very heavy...compressed and limited and generally squashed to sound hard and uncompromising.” All four tracks of the tape were full at this point, so three attempts at a reduction mix were made, placing both guitars onto track one and all drums and handclaps onto track two, this reduction mix taking the song to 'take 13.' Onto this John concentrated on overdubbing his lead vocals onto track three, then manually double-tracking the odd word here and there for emphasis on track four, even though detected obvious flubs occurred on the released recording. This second vocal overdub also included the blood-curdling scream in the song's introduction. This filled up the four-track tape once again, so two more attempts remedied a tape reduction, this taking the song to 'take 15' with apparently both guitars on track one, all drums and percussion on track two, and both of John's vocals on track four. Rough mono mixes were made for John to take home. This session was complete at 1:30 am the following morning.

Later that day, July 11th, 1968, The Beatles returned to EMI Studio Three for two recording sessions, the first three-hour session used exclusively for an overdub on “Revolution.” This session started at 4 pm and lasted until 7 pm; the only thing accomplished here being an electric piano overdub during strategic parts of the song. This electric piano was surprisingly not played by any of The Beatles but by studio musician Nicky Hopkins, who was an in-demand session player who had recently worked with The Rolling Stones on their late 1967 hit “She's A Rainbow.” He got on well with George, Paul, and Ringo on their June 25th recording session for George's song "Sour Milk Sea" for Apple artist Jackie Lomax, so he was thought of to contribute to this Beatles song as well. Nicky Hopkins relationship with The Beatles continued afterward with his contributions to various solo albums by John, George, and Ringo in the '70s.

The second session in EMI Studio Three on this day started immediately afterward, running from 7 pm to 3:45 am the following morning, the change in sessions probably due to the switching of 2nd engineers from Richard Lush to Phil McDonald. While most of this session engaged work on Paul's “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” a further tape reduction of “Revolution” was made in order to open up yet more tracks for overdubbing, 'take 15' becoming 'take 16.' on a song now documented as "Revolution No. 2." Onto this, Paul recorded his first bass guitar part for the song onto open track four.

One more session was determined to be necessary to complete this new version of “Revolution,” this session held in the now vacant EMI Studio Two beginning at midnight, July 13th, 1968, after an hour break following an eight-hour session on the evening of the previous day.

Geoff Emerick recalls the frustration of recording this song which came to a head on this day. “All that week...John had been exceptionally moody. 'No, no, I want that guitar to sound dirtier!' He kept demanding of me, often without even giving me a moment's space to try something out. By the end of the week, it was really starting to get to me. Fridays were usually a little more tolerable than the other nights because I at least had the weekend to look forward to – two days away from the nastiness in the studio. But on this evening, Lennon arrived at the studio looking ready to chew someone's head off, and I was the nearest target.”

“'Haven't you sorted out that bloody guitar sound yet, Geoff?' he asked me almost as soon as he walked in the door. Actually, I had an idea I wanted to try – one that I thought might satisfy John, even though it was equipment abuse of the most severe kind. Because no amount of mic preamp overload had been good enough for him, I decided to try to overload two of them patched together, one into the other. As I knelt down beside the console, turning knobs that I was expressly forbidden from touching because they could literally cause the console to overheat and blow up, I couldn't help but think: 'If I was the studio manager and saw this going on, I'd fire myself.' The ironic thing was that, years later, this ended up being precisely the guitar sound every grunge band in the world aspired to.”

“Lennon stood over me as I knelt there, a relentless taskmaster hammering his guitar harder and harder as I delicately moved the knobs, trying to come up with the maximum amount of overload the board could take without bursting into flames. Suddenly he ran out of patience and growled, 'You know, three months in the army would have done you good.' The nasty remark implied that I was just some kind of upper-class twit who had never been exposed to the real world...I somehow managed to keep my cool and finish the session.”

While, as Geoff mentioned above, the highly distorted guitar sound heard on “Revolution” became the touchstone for various genres of rock and roll throughout the decades, it was very startling for 1968. "You had a full spectrum of frequencies distorted," Emerick explained in Andy Babiuk's book "Beatles Gear," adding, "Today, you'd just have 5kHz distorting, or maybe 60Hz distorting." Even George

Harrison, when interviewed for the book “Beatles Anthology,” states: “The thing about 'Revolution' (and you could get into a debate about this), is that it's not so much the song but the attitude in which it was done. I think 'Revolution' is pretty good, and it grooves along, but I don't particularly like the noise that it makes, and I say 'noise' because I didn't like the distorted sound of John's guitar.”

Paul countered with “I liked the sound on 'Revolution,'" but many in the record-buying public thought differently. Chris Ingham's book “The Rough Guide To The Beatles” relates that “the track's brutally over-driven guitars caused many a 'Hey Jude' lover to attempt to return the record, imagining there was something wrong with the B-side. Harassed record department assistants were heard explaining, 'it's called distortion, apparently. It's meant to sound like that.'" Since the sound level in the second half of "Hey Jude" needed to be lower because of it being such a long song contained on a seven-inch disc, it habitually startled many record owners when they simply turned the record over to play the b-side. This, of course, is what John intended.

After John recorded another distorted guitar part, Paul superimposed another bass guitar part. The result of the final master tape comprised John and George's original distorted electric guitars on track one, all drums and handclaps on track two, Nicky Hopkins playing electric piano, two lead vocals and final John electric guitar on track three, on Paul's bass on track four. Four attempts at a mono mix took place, made by George Martin, Geoff Emerick, and Richard Lush, documented as 'remixes 10 through 13,' and the session was over by 4 am.

John took one of these mono mixes home to review over the weekend and determined that engineers could do better. Therefore, on July 15th, 1968, the first order of business in EMI Studio Two at 3:30 pm was to create a new mono mix for “Revolution.” The same engineering team of Martin, Emerick, and Lush gave it two more tries, indicating them as 'remixes 20 and 21' for some reason, but the final mix sounded worthy of The Beatles next single.

Or was it?  Two weeks later, Paul brought a song into the recording studio that he felt was more suited for the next Beatles single, and everyone agreed it was better. “We put out 'Hey Jude,' which was worthy – but we could have had both,” Lennon remarked in 1970, eventually admitting in 1980 that it was “one of his masterpieces.” John relinquished the A-side to the next single to Paul's “Hey Jude” but did end up striking a startling note with the general public with “Revolution” as the B-side.

On August 8th, 1968, George Martin made a tape copy of 'mono remix 21' in the control room of EMI Studio Two, which he indicated as 'number 5,' to review in preparation for the upcoming single release along with the recently created mono mix for “Hey Jude.”

George Martin saw fit to make yet another tape copy of "Revolution" on September 3rd, 1968 in the control room of EMI Studio Two but for an entirely different purpose. The Beatles were to mime to this recording for a promotional film for television and, in order to escape the British Musicians' Union ban on miming, needed to sing live for the clip. The tape copy made on this day was instrumental only, panning out all vocals for their use the following day at Twickenham Film Studios.

Since “Revolution” was only intended as a single, no stereo version of the song was created in 1968, mono being the format used for all singles at that time. The first stereo mix for the song occurred on December 5th, 1969 in preparation for the soon-to-be-released American album “Hey Jude” (aka “The Beatles Again”). This single attempt at a stereo mix was made in EMI Studios Room 4 by George Martin, Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald, and Neil Richmond. The startling left / right separation on this mix is quite jarring, diluting the impact of the overall sound on the superior mono mix. In 1974, Lennon expressed his dissatisfaction in this stereo mix by saying that "they took a heavy record and turned it into a piece of ice cream!" John's distorted guitar work is also quite softer in the mix, which is somewhat disappointing.

The Beatles did perform two impromptu renditions of "Revolution" during the filmed and taped rehearsals for what became the "Let It Be" movie. While they were rehearsing new material at Twickenham Film Studios in January of 1969, they touched on the song on both January 2nd and 7th, but neither were officially released as of yet.

Meanwhile, the officially released stereo mix of "Revolution" was improved upon sometime between 2004 and 2006 when George Martin and his son Giles Martin returned to the master tape to create a new stereo version of the song for use in the Cirque du Soliel production “Love.” This superior stereo version is included on the resulting compact disc album of the same name in a truncated form, although the entire stereo mix they made at this time is available on the DVD and iTunes version of the album.

Sometime in 2018, Giles Martin, along with engineer Sam Okell, took to creating stereo mixes of both the newly discovered studio rehearsal of the song on July 9th, 1968 and one of the instrumental takes recorded on July 10th for inclusion on the Super Deluxe 50th Anniversary edition of the "White Album" as released in 2018. The original Esher demo of the song, as The Beatles recorded on May 28th, 1968, was also mixed during this time and was included on various 50th Anniversary editions of the "White Album."

Song Structure and Style

The structure for "Revolution" is quite standard, namely 'verse/ bridge/ chorus/ verse/ bridge/ chorus/ solo/ verse/ bridge/ chorus' (or abcabcdabc) with an introduction and conclusion thrown in. The song is predominantly in 4/4 time with a swing beat but with exceptions as we'll see below.

The introduction is four measures long, the first three measures taken up primarily with John on manic highly distorted guitar playing triplets, moving to a startling riff in the fourth measure to usher in the first verse that follows. Ringo joins in with a thud on snare and kick drum on the downbeat of the third measure and then provides a simple snare drum fill at the end of the fourth measure as a segue into the verse. One final element not to be forgotten is the blood-curdling shriek John gives at the end of the third measure which extends throughout the fourth measure, undoubtedly shredding his vocal cords to an equal degree as he did nearly five-and-a-half years earlier on “Twist And Shout.”

The first verse, like all the verses, last twelve-measures long and are mostly in 4/4 time, the exception being the second and eighth measures which are in 6/4 time to allow John to stretch out his phrase “well, you know” on both occasions. The full band kicks in for this entire verse, both John and George playing electric rhythm guitar with John overdubbing another guitar on top, Paul on bass and Ringo playing a double-tracked full drum beat focusing on toms and heavy snare without the use of any cymbals. John's vocals are double-tracked sporadically, such as on the words “revolution,” “know” and “world” in the first phrase, and then on the third syllable of the word “evolution” in the second phrase with what sounds like the word “juice,” making it appear that he's singing “evo-juice-tion”! Then after he double-tracks the words “well, you know,” the chords change to move nicely into the bridge that follows.

The bridges are all five measures long, all of which are in 4/4 time except for the third measure which is in 6/4. The guitars all play staccato chops on the downbeats of measures one through three and then power chords on the accents at the end of the third measure which holds out nicely into the final measures of the bridge. Paul's bass accentuates the guitar chords throughout while Ringo plays a double-tracked snare and kick drum pattern for the first three measures, heard here with handclaps, and then accents the power chords at the end of that measure with added crashing cymbals. Speaking of cymbals, Ringo's cymbal crash swells in the first measure of this bridge and then dissipates just before the second measure begins, possibly the result of the use of compression during the mixing stage. The fourth measure has Ringo thumping on the kick drum while he then plays a triplet drum fill on mostly the snare drum in the fifth measure to bring on the following chorus. As for John's vocals, his double-tracking kicks in on the words “destruction” and “count me out,” as well as the phrase that brings in the chorus, namely the falsetto “don't you know it's gonna be.”

The chorus is a standard eight measures long and is fully in 4/4 time for a change. For the first six measures, three electric guitars are churning away playing various rhythm and lead patterns while the bass follows nicely and the drums plod along similarly to how they played during the first verse. John sings his simple “all right” phrase three times, his double-tracking appearing on the word “all” the first time and then on the word “right” for the other two times. The seventh and eighth measures break the intensity as Ringo cymbal crashes an abrupt 'Beatles break' with the guitar chords and bass ringing out. In the break, John performs a transitional chord-like lead guitar run while Ringo finalizes the eighth measure with another triplet pattern drum fill.

Next comes a virtual repeat of another verse, bridge, and chorus, the instrumentation remaining identical to the first. John's vocal double-tracking in the verse consists of the middle syllable of the word “solution” and then “well, you know” and “love” in the first phrase, then “you ask” and “you know” in the second phrase. No double-tracked vocals occurred in this bridge, but the second and third “all right” in the chorus that follows is double-tracked, the second occurrence being noticeably off in timing. The final two measures in this chorus have two additional elements, these being John giving out a falsetto “ooh” at the end of measure seven and a highly fuzzed additional guitar overdub which slightly bends and bleeds into the solo section that follows.

This solo section can be parsed out to be eight measures long and in 4/4 time except for the second measure, which is in 6/4 as the verses are. Instrumentally, the same elements are present and played in a similar fashion as in the verses but with some added elements. Most noteworthy is the presence of Nicky Hopkins on electric piano which appears throughout this entire section of the song. He's not playing a solo per se but is vamping appropriately and heard most prominently in the first two measures, John kicking in with raunchy lead guitar work in measures three through eight which leads to a transitional climax. Another element is John 's rhythmic grunting which huffs throughout this section at various volumes. Interestingly, Ringo adds a rapid-fire snare drum fill in the sixth measure followed thereafter by his usual triplet snare fill in the final measure.

Next follows another verse, bridge and chorus set, not unlike the first set except for new lyrics. An overdubbed lead guitar passage arrives in the final three measures of the bridge which extend into the final chorus but are faded down and out by the end of the third measure of said chorus. Double-tracked vocals in this verse consist of the third syllable of the word “constitution” and “well, you know” in the first phrase, and the first syllable of the word “institution” in the second phrase. In the bridge, John made sure he double-tracked the word “Mao,” the rhyming word “anyhow,” and the falsetto phrase “don't you know it's gonna be.” As for the chorus, he double-tracked the first “all right,” the word “all” the second time the phrase is repeated, and the word “right” the third time the phrase enters. The final measure of this last chorus features John's excited “All right!” as repeated seven more times in the conclusion of the song that follows.

This conclusion is eight measures long and features all instrumentation as heard throughout the song as well as the return of Nicky Hopkins on electric piano playing rhythmic flourishes intended to bring the song to a climactic finish. John vibrantly repeats the phrase “All Right!” seven more times, each one accelerating in intensity until the rawness of the final one in the seventh measure. An overdubbed lead guitar passage reaches such a fever pitch in volume that it cuts in and out of the mix, giving the impression that it was overloading the circuitry of the equipment, which it undoubtedly was. (Witness the solo in Badfinger's song “Love Is Easy” which is said to have been recorded the same way as “Revolution” by Beatles producer Chris Thomas.) Ringo puts in another rapid-fire snare fill at the end of the fourth measure and then brings the song to a natural conclusion within the eighth measure with the multiple distorted guitars ringing out, leaving the listener breathless.

With John at the wheel, all four Beatles, along with Nicky Hopkins, performed with the utmost enthusiasm to create what is arguably the raunchiest, ear-splitting Beatles song in their catalog. “Helter Skelter,” which they recorded approximately two months later, may have been thought of as equal to what was done here, as was a couple other heavy tracks included on the “White Album” to a lesser degree, but “Revolution” brought this organized cacophony of sound to AM radio unlike anything heard there before. What better precursor to The Sex Pistols or Nirvana could there have been but none other than The Beatles, once again the 'pied pipers' for the future of popular music.

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HEY JUDE AND ITS INCREDIBLE RECORDING PROCESS.

John Lennon's memory may have been a little sketchy when a reporter asked in 1968 about when he first heard "Hey Jude." He stated, "When Paul first sang 'Hey Jude' to me, or played me the little tape he'd made of it..." This suggests that Paul may have made a home demo recording of "Hey Jude" and this is how John possibly first heard the song. However, Paul vividly remembers first playing it to John in person as indicated above. And since no home demo of "Hey Jude" has ever surfaced, it's most likely that Paul never made one and John was confusing this song with others around that time.

The first time the recorded song officially rolled was on July 29th, 1968, which was the day after The Beatles' famous photo-shoot in a variety of London locations, this photography session later referred to as their "Mad Day Out." The following day's recording session occurred in EMI Studio Two, the session beginning at 8:30 pm. George Martin had the night off, engineers Ken Scott and (new recruit) John Smith handling the recording process in what actually only turned out to be a rehearsal session for this new song that Paul had high hopes for as becoming their new single.

Nonetheless, six 'takes' of what they rehearsed were put to tape on this day, only three of which were complete versions. 'Take one' clocked in at 6:21, 'take two' was 4:17 long, and 'take six' came in at 5:25; the rest broke down early. The instrumentation on these recordings were Paul on vocals (track one) and piano (track two), John on acoustic guitar with George on electric guitar (both on track three) and Ringo on drums (track four).

Interestingly, the first two 'takes' of "Hey Jude" as recorded on this day have been officially released in later years, 'take one' appearing on the "'White Album' 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe" box set, and 'take two' appearing on "Anthology 3." Both of these takes feature George noodling around on lead guitar during the final minutes of the song, which indicates that he naturally figured that a guitar solo would be featured here.

Subtle lyrical differences from the released version are also heard on these early 'takes,' the line "she has found you, now go and get her" as seen in the original lyric sheet instead of "you have found her" being one example, as well as the final verse containing the line "remember to let her into your heart" as intended, instead of "under your skin" as the released single contains. Both of these early takes contain humorous introductions, 'take one' displaying Paul's repeated attempts at getting the correct tone of the first word "Hey," and 'take two' beginning with John exclaiming “From the heart of the black country...” continued by Paul “...when I was a robber, in Boston Place, you gathered 'round me with your fond embrace...” Boston Place, as explained in the liner notes for “Anthology 3,” was a small street in London where their newly formed Apple Corps. had just installed an electronics laboratory. On both 'takes,' Paul sings with exaggerated vibrato during the "na, na, na" refrain, while encouraging John to sing along. According to the accompanying book with the "'White Album' 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe" box set, 'take three' ends with a reference to Elvis Presley's song "Milk Cowblues Boogie," John stopping the take by exclaiming, "Hold it, Paul. That don't move me!" This session ended by 4 am the following morning, but the only thing truly accomplished was a good part of the arrangement of the song.

The next day, which was actually later that day, or July 30th, 1968, The Beatles brought “Hey Jude” to EMI Studio Two for more work, the session shown to begin at 7:30 pm. However, it appears that, for various reasons, this session was not intended to officially capture the song to tape either. The next three days were already booked for London's Trident Studios with intentions to record the song there with their eight-track recording capabilities, something that EMI Studios hadn't had in place yet.  Since a decision was made to utilize a large orchestra for the final minutes of the song, George Martin had already lined up the musicians to arrive at Trident Studios for a session two days later. Meanwhile, a film crew from The National Music Council of Great Britain was scheduled to arrive at EMI Studios on this day to film the group recording the song (or appearing to) for a documentary entitled “Music!” So, why not put on a good show for them?

In the process, seventeen further 'takes' of “Hey Jude” were put to tape, 'takes' 7 through 23, several hours of filming being done for this documentary with two small segments, running 2:32 and 3:05, making it to the finished product. This documentary, including footage of The Beatles recording early 'takes' of "Hey Jude," was aired on American television on February 22nd, 1970, while moviegoers in Britain saw it in October of 1969 as an accompanying film with the Mel Brooks movie "The Producers." “The film crew was supposed to work in such a way that no-one would realize they were there,” engineer Ken Scott recalls, “but of course they were getting in everyone's way, and everyone was getting uptight about it.” One person who did like the idea was Paul McCartney, who suggested doing the same thing on a larger scale. A little over five months later, in early January of 1969, filming began for what eventually became the “Let It Be” project and movie.

The first take of "Hey Jude" recorded on this day, 'take seven,' featured Ringo on drums (track one), Paul on piano and John on acoustic guitar (track two), George on electric guitar (track three), and Paul's vocals (track four). It appears to be after this first 'take' of the day that Paul had an uncomfortable interchange with George Harrison about his guitar contribution to the song. “I remember sitting down and showing George the song,” Paul recalls in his book “Many Years From Now,” “and George did the natural thing for a guitar player to do, which is to answer every line of vocal. And it was like, 'No, George.'  And he was pretty offended and looking back, I think, 'Oh, sh*t,' of course you'd be offended. You're blowing the guy out. I said, 'No, no. You come in on the second chorus maybe; it's going to be a big build, this.'” In a 1985 interview, Paul explained: “He wanted to do echo riffs after the vocal phrases, which I didn't think was appropriate. He didn't see it like that, and it was a bit of a number for me to have to 'dare' to tell George Harrison – who's one of the greats – not to play. It was like an insult. But that's how we did a lot of our stuff.”

In January of 1969, as captured in the “Let It Be” movie, Paul once again brings this very subject up as he once again is instructing George in how to play a current song, this resulting in George angrily exclaiming, “Whatever it is that will please you, I'll do it” and then temporarily quitting The Beatles for a few days!

Regarding the roles played by the band members regarding song arrangements, Paul continues in “Many Years From Now”: “That's the difficulty of a group. You are not the director bossing around a dance company where they naturally expect you to boss them around. You're just a guy in a very democratic unit; which a group, at best, is. We were all equal in voting; our status within the group was equal. We were joking when we made the 'Anthology': I was saying, 'I realize I was a bossy git.' And George said, 'Oh no, Paul, you never did anything like that!' With a touch of irony in his voice, because obviously I did. But it was essential for me and looking back on it, I think, Okay. Well, it was bossy, but it was also ballsy of me because I could have bowed to the pressure.”

One thing caught on film, making it to the released documentary, was George Harrison in the control room with George Martin and engineer Ken Scott. The guitarist acted disgruntled about being told by Paul that his ideas for the song were unsuitable, so he decided to sit out the rest of the day, joining the engineering team in the control room instead of picking up another instrument, such as a bass guitar, as he had done on earlier occasions when his guitarist services were not needed. As included in the documentary, George voices his opinions to George Martin: “You see, that's the difficulty, I find, because it's only a concept. 'Cause though his opinion says, 'No, it doesn't go like that, it goes like that,' but it goes like that, and it goes through everything. I mean, it can be, you know what I mean, just one bit of music can be pop, jazz, classic or whatever you're going to do to it, it is.”

With George Harrison no longer contributing to the recordings on this day, John's acoustic guitar strummed isolated on track three, which left Paul's piano on track two by itself. Incidentally, the snare drum and toms of Ringo's drum kit were draped with towels to dampen the sound, something that he would use more regularly in later sessions. By the time 'take 16' was recorded, and the three Beatles ran through an impromptu version of the Louis Armstrong classic "St. Louis Blues," it appeared that George Harrison had lightened his mood. This is evidenced by his calling out on the talkback microphone, "And two crates of beer if you do 'Twist And Shout," a reference to their experiences in Hamburg, Germany in the early '60s. John responded "Boys," recalling the popularity of the Shirelles B-side that they habitually performed on stage during those early days.

After they ran through a version of the Ray Charles hit "Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying," a tape reduction of the final take ('take 23') was made to combine Paul's piano with John's acoustic guitar and open up more room for overdubs. Apparently, they must have felt happy enough with this performance that they considered it acceptable for the finished product after all. Two attempts at this reduction mix were made, which took that recording to takes 24 and 25, 'take 25' and later mixed into stereo for the purpose to let George Martin use in arranging a simple orchestra score for the studio musicians to play at a later session. This session was completed by 3:30 am the following morning.

The next session for recording "Hey Jude" was on July 31st, 1968, this occurring at London's Trident Studios, this session beginning at 2 pm. “Such independent studios were setting up all over London,” says engineer Ken Townsend. “They were really trying to attract work and were installing new technology which was leaving the EMIs and Deccas a bit behind.” Both Paul and George individually were already utilizing this independent studio for production work on artists recently signed to their new Apple Records, Paul producing Mary Hopkin and George producing Jackie Lomax. The first order of business on this day was to transfer 'take 25' from EMI's four-track tape to Trident's eight-track tape to allow for more overdubs. In the end, however, it was decided to start from scratch here at Trident studios instead, thus rendering all 25 previously recorded 'takes' of the song unsuitable.

Four 'takes' of the rhythm track were recorded on this day, the first one ending up being the best. It was decided, apparently, that it would be best for the vocals to be recorded as overdubs so as to get the best performance possible, so the instrumentation fell to the usual Ringo on drums (track one), Paul on piano (track two), George on electric guitar (track three), and John on acoustic guitar (track four). According to Andy Babiuk's book “Beatles Gear,” George “played some melodic electric guitar lines at the end of each long verse.”

In his book “Many Years From Now,” Paul recollects what transpired during the recording of 'take one' of “Hey Jude.” “We were at Trident Studios in Soho, and Ringo walked out to go to the toilet, and I hadn't noticed. The toilet was only a few yards from his drum booth, but he'd gone past my back, and I still thought he was in his drum booth. I started what was the actual take, and 'Hey Jude' goes on for hours before the drums come in and while I was doing it I suddenly felt Ringo tiptoeing past my back rather quickly, trying to get to his drums. And just as he got to his drums, boom boom boom, his timing was absolutely impeccable. So I think when those things happen, you have a little laugh and a light bulk goes off in your head, and you think, 'This is the take!' and you put a little more into it. You think, 'Oh f#ck! This has got to be the take; what just happened was so magic!' So we did that, and we made a pretty good record.”

Although engineer Geoff Emerick was not present for this recording session, he relates an occurrence of this day that made it onto the finished product. In his book “Here, There And Everywhere” he explains: “Just after the start of the third verse, right between the lines 'The minute you let her under your skin / Oh, then you begin,' you can clearly hear Paul curse off-mic, saying 'F#cking hell!' (Engineer) John Smith had a vivid memory of John Lennon pointing that out when they were playing the tape back. 'Paul hit a clunker on the piano and said a naughty word,' Lennon gleefully crowed, 'but I insisted we leave it in, buried just low enough so that it’s barely heard. Most people won't ever spot it...but we'll know it's there.' That was just the kind of sophomoric humor Lennon was into, but I have to admit it's amusing to think that millions of fans have heard the record millions of times without ever realizing that it contains a dreaded four-letter word that was strictly taboo back in 1968.”

By 4 am the following morning, the session came to a close with a usable rhythm track to build on later that day.

August 1st, 1968, brought the recording of the classic song “Hey Jude” to its conclusion. The Beatles entered Trident Studios at around 5 pm to record various overdubs to the rhythm track recorded the previous session. Paul overdubbed his bass guitar part (track 7) as well as his lead vocal along with John and George's backing vocals and Ringo's tambourine (all on track eight). It was here that Paul finally changes the lyric from "she has found you" to "you have found her." Paul adds another piano part along with George on electric guitar while all four Beatles perform community singing in the later section of the song (all on track five). It was during this overdub that we hear Paul practice the line "let it out and let it in, Hey Jude” during the third verse, just after the lyric "now go and get her." John and George also perform electric guitar overdubs (track six) which are panned quite low in the final mix. By 8 pm, all Beatles overdubs had completed.

At 8 pm the orchestra arrived for recording what was basically a backdrop of symphonic chords for the second half of this legendary song. There were 36 instruments used, but only two of their names are known to this day; Bobby Kok on cello and Bill Jackman on flute (the latter previously playing tenor sax on “Lady Madonna”). Bill Jackman recalls, “We just played the refrain over and over, the repeated riff which plays in the long fade-out.” George Martin's assistant Chris Thomas, who was also present on this day, remembers: “The studio at Trident was long and narrow. When we did the orchestral overdub we had to put the trombones at the very front so that they didn't poke anyone in the back!” Interestingly, since all eight tracks of the tape were filled by the time these musicians arrived, the orchestra was recorded on tracks three and six at the point in the song where they were needed. This means that George's electric guitar on track three, as well as John and George's electric guitars on track six, were wiped at the point in the song where these musicians begin to play, the decision that these guitar performances were not needed anymore for the finished recording had priority.

Before they were allowed to leave, however, they were asked to participate further. In his book “All You Need Is Ears,” George Martin relates: “The only time we have had real objections from an orchestra was during the recording of 'Hey Jude,' the biggest-selling single of all. I wanted them to sing and clap their hands as well as play, and one man walked out. 'I'm not going to clap my hands and sing Paul McCartney's bloody song,' he said, in spite of the fact that he was getting double rates for his trouble.” The orchestra's community singing and hand-clapping appeared onto 'track five,' which wiped Paul's piano and George's electric guitar overdub during the later part of the song. Although documentation shows that the orchestral performers were only booked until 11 pm, documentation shows the session extending to 3 am the following morning. The cleaning crew came in, I guess.

Later that day, August 2nd, 1968, George Martin and Trident engineer Barry Sheffield took a crack at creating the first stereo mix of the now complete “Hey Jude,” or should I say three cracks, in the control room of Trident Studios between 2 pm and 1:30 am the following morning. The third of these three attempts surfaced as the best at this point.

Then on August 6th, 1968, the same engineering team met again in the control room of Trident Studios from 5:30 to 7:30 pm to put together the first mono mix of the song. However, this was done in a most unusual way for the time, combining both channels of the stereo mix made from the previous session instead of going back to the original eight-track tape. The single attempt for a mono mix was considered suitable at the time and was taken back to EMI as a possible finished master for release as their next single.

This mono mix was brought back to EMI Studios the following day, August 7th, 1968, and a tape copy were made in the control room of EMI Studio Two between 3 and 7:45 pm by George Martin and engineers Ken Scott and John Smith. On the next day, however, August 8th, 1968, shortly after the session began in EMI Studio Two at 6:40 pm, something unusual about this recording was discovered.

Engineer Ken Scott relates: “I went to Trident to see The Beatles doing 'Hey Jude' and was completely blown away by it. It sounded incredible. A couple of days later, back at Abbey Road (EMI), I got in well before the group. Acetates were being cut, and I went up to hear one. On different equipment, with different EQ (equalizing) levels and different monitor settings, it sounded awful, nothing like it had at Trident. Later on, I was sitting in (EMI Studio Two) control room, and George Martin came in. I said, 'George, you know the stuff you did at Trident?' 'Yes – how does it sound?' I said, 'In all honesty, it sounds terrible!' 'What?' 'There's absolutely no high-end on it, no treble...It sounded as if there were curtains in front of the speaker.'"

“Just then Paul McCartney came in, and George said to him, 'Ken thinks 'Hey Jude' sounds awful.' The look that came from Paul towards me...if looks could kill, it was one of those situations. Anyway, they went down to the studio floor, clearly talking about it, and one by one all the other Beatles came in and joined them. I could see them talking and then look up at me, and then talk again, and then look at me. I thought, 'Oh God, I'm going to get thrown off the session.' Finally, they all came storming up and said, 'OK, let's see if it's as bad as you say. Go get the tape, and we'll have a listen.' Luckily, they agreed with me; it did sound bad. We spent the rest of the evening trying to EQ it and get some high-end on it. But for a while there I wanted to crawl under a stone and die.”

In his book “Here, There And Everywhere,” Geoff Emerick continues the story. “It was about an hour or so later that George (Martin) spotted me in the hallway and asked me to help out...'Geoff, are you busy doing something right now?' he asked. 'No, I'm just on my way to dinner,' I replied.  'Ah, good,' he said. 'Would you mind coming in and having a listen to something?' George opened the control room door, and I saw four very unhappy Beatles gathered around a flustered Ken Scott, who was tweaking the controls of a piece of outboard equipment that we called a Curve Bender. The song they were listening to was called 'Hey Jude'...the recording quality was poor, with no top end whatsoever.”

“When the playback ended, George said, 'I've got a visitor here who might be able to help.' Paul was the first to spot me; he broke into a big grin and gave me a wave from the back of the room. 'Ah, the prodigal son returns! ' John called out brightly. Even George Harrison gave me a warm handshake and said quietly, 'Hello, Geoff. Thanks for stopping in – we really appreciate it.'”

“'The boys recorded and mixed this track at Trident a few days ago,' George Martin explained, 'and we're having a bit of difficulty getting it to sound right. Would you mind having a go?' Ken (Scott) looked up from the console. 'I listened to the tracks at Trident, and they sounded fine,' he told me anxiously, 'but when we got back here...well, you can hear how bad it is.' Obviously, something at Trident had been misaligned, and the only hope of salvaging the mix was to whack on massive amounts of treble equalization. I walked over to the console, and Ken motioned for me to sit down. John Smith rewound the tape repeatedly while I worked at the controls. Eventually we got it to sound pretty good, although the track still didn't have the kind of in-your-face presence that characterizes most Beatles recordings done at Abbey Road...I might not have done anything that Ken himself wasn't doing – I think that all they really wanted was my stamp of approval. All four Beatles thanked me profusely as I left."

The accompanying book in the "'White Album' 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition" box set explains: "It was discovered, in time for later Beatles recordings at Trident, that part of the problem was due to the studio's American tape machines being set to the US equalization curve NAB, while (EMI) used the UK standard CCIR. To resolve this in the future, Trident tapes were always copied at Abbey Road with the correct NAB setting during playback.”

Three attempts at creating a mono mix took place on this day, numbered 2 through 4, by George Martin, Ken Scott and John Smith (with assistance from Geoff Emerick), the final one considered as the best. Since this song was earmarked by the group for their next single, its length became a concern. “It was a long song,” George Martin explained in the “Anthology” book.” “In fact, after I timed it I actually said, 'You can't make a single that long.' I was shouted down by the boys – not for the first time in my life – and 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.”

“It was longer than any single had been,” Paul mistakenly assumes in the book “Anthology,” the Richard Harris single “MacArthur Park” being released four months prior to “Hey Jude” in April of 1968, clocking in at 7:20 as opposed to “Hey Jude” at 7:11. Paul continues: “We had a good bunch or engineers. We asked how long a 45 could be. They said that four minutes was about all you could squeeze into the grooves before it seriously started to lose volume and everyone had to turn the sound up. But they did some very clever stuff, squeezing the bit that didn't have to be loud, then allowing the rest more room. Somehow, they got seven minutes on there – which was quite an engineering feat.”

The mono mix made on this day was the one used on the released single. Sometime around 11 pm, attention went to recording the rhythm track of George's composition “Not Guilty” for inclusion on what became known as the “White Album,” although the song ended up getting omitted from the album's lineup. At the end of the session, someone made a tape copy of the mono mix of “Hey Jude,” as well as the previously recorded “Revolution” (both numbered 5 for some reason) to be taken away by George Martin. The session finally ended at 6:30 am the next morning.

The next time The Beatles messed with “Hey Jude” was at Twickenham Film Studios in London on January 3rd, 1969, while rehearsing new material for what became the “Let It Be” movie. This was nothing more than an impromptu run-through which never officially saw the light of day.

Flash-forward to December 5th, 1969, where attention finally went to creating a true stereo mix of “Hey Jude,” the earlier attempt at Trident got scrapped long ago. The engineering team of George Martin, Geoff Emerick, Phil McDonald, and Neil Richmond met in Room 4 at EMI Studios between 2:30 and 5:15 pm to create this stereo mix, as well as one for “Revolution,” for inclusion on the album “Hey Jude” which was to be released primarily in the U.S. (not the U.K.). Two attempts took place for “Hey Jude,” numbered 20 and 21, the latter deemed best. While most fans were eager to finally hear the song in vibrant stereo, the majority of them probably didn't notice that it was five seconds shorter than what they were used to hearing, this stereo mix being faded out at 7:06.

Sometime in 1996, George Martin and Geoff Emerick returned to the EMI master tapes of July 29th, 1968 to create a rare mix of 'take two' of the song for inclusion on “Anthology 3.” George and his son Giles Martin then went back to the master tape for the released version of the song to create a newly mixed, but shorter version (clocking in at 3:58) for inclusion on “Beatles Love.” Giles Martin then brought the same tape out again sometime in 2015 to create yet another vibrant mix of the song to be included on a newly released version of the remarkably popular album “Beatles 1." After this, Giles brought out the original master tape once again to create a stereo mix of the original 'take one' for inclusion on the box set "'White Album' 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition.” 

Paul recorded various versions of “Hey Jude” during his solo years, mostly from his tours as released on live albums. The first, recorded on February 12th, 1990 in Cincinnati, Ohio, appeared on “Tripping The Live Fantastic” and its companion album “Tripping The Live Fantastic: Highlights!” Various versions of the song were recorded during tour rehearsals in 1995, including humorous mock/parody versions, that were heard broadcast during Paul's 1995 radio show "Oobu Joobu," these versions never officially issued released. Sometime between April 1st and May 18th, 2002, a live version of the song was recorded in New York City for release on the American live album “Back In. The U.S.” He then recorded a version of the song on June 3rd, 2002 during the Golden Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II in London, included on its accompanying album "Party At The Palace." Sometime between November 2nd and 5th, 2002, a live version was recorded in Mexico City for inclusion on his live album “Back In The World.” The song was also recorded on June 27th, 2007 at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, California, included on the album "Amoeba Gig." Then, sometime between July 17th and 21st, 2009, another live rendition of the song was recorded at Citi Field in New York to be a selection on the album "Good Evening New York City."

Song Structure and Style

The structure of "Hey Jude" is quite typical for the Lennon / McCartney catalog, namely a 'verse/ verse/ bridge/ verse/ bridge/ verse/ conclusion' (or aababac). What is anything but typical, however, is that the conclusion turns out to be longer than the entire body of the rest of the song put together. And while the extended conclusion has become a lot more common in years to follow, such as with Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" and The Allman Brothers Band's "Ramblin' Man," The Beatles didn't conclude "Hey Jude" with a guitar solo or the like, but instead made it interesting because of Paul's ad-lib vocal gymnastics.

Paul brings in the first verse of the song by himself on piano and lead vocals, this verse being a standard eight measures in length. Verse two brings in various other elements, most noteworthy is John's acoustic guitar strumming which we hear throughout the entire verse as well as Ringo's tambourine which accents the two- and four-beat of the first seven measures and then all four beats of the eighth measure. The fifth through eighth measures bring in the background vocals of John, Paul and George harmonizing “aaah” until the end of the seventh measure when they sing the word “better” with Paul's lead vocals. This verse is actually nine measures long, the extra measure acting as a nice segue into the first bridge that follows. The eighth and ninth measures are also used as a vehicle for Ringo (who arrived from the toilet just in time to play this piece) to usher in the bridge with simple, but unique drums fills.

The bridge that follows this is actually eleven measures long and is in 4/4 time throughout like the verses are but with one exception, measure nine being in 6/4 time. The band is in full swing beginning in this bridge, Ringo playing his steady driving rock beat utilizing his ride cymbal along with Paul's bass guitar thumping right from the beginning of the first measure. John, Paul and George's background harmony is also heard singing “aaah” in measures one through three and then six through eight before fading off into the distance for the time being. Measure nine reveals George's lead guitar joining in with the piano melody line and Paul's “nah, nah, nah, nah” vocals which extend into measure ten. Measure eleven then ushers in a “Beatles break” with just Paul's piano repeating the final melodic passage as heard in measure ten followed by a drum break from Ringo to bring in the next verse.

Another nine measure verse follows next with full rhythm instrumentation of piano, acoustic guitar, bass and drums (Ringo switching to hi-hat instead of his ride cymbal) along with Paul's lead vocal and John's harmony vocal in measures five through eight. Ringo's overdubbed tambourine plays a prominent role here as well, him playing a full shaking 16th-note beat rhythm in measures one through eight. Measures four and five are particularly interesting with Ringo's drum fill and Paul's practiced vocal line “let it out and let it in, hey Jude” being heard in the cracks before its official appearance that begins in measure nine of this verse. Ringo also puts in a similar drum fill in measures eight through nine as he had previously done in verse two.

The second bridge comes next, which is nearly identical to the previous one except for different lyrics and some small changes. George plays a simple guitar piece in measures four and five to accentuate the simple piano melody line heard there, this being followed by Paul's excited lead vocal phrase “and don't know that it's just you.” Ringo adds a quick additional drum fill at the end of the fourth beat of the 6/4-time ninth measure, right where you would expect one if the measure was in 4/4 like the rest of them are. Paul then differentiates this bridge from the previous one vocally in the tenth and eleventh measure with a simple “yeah” which resonates because of being double-tracked.

The fourth and final verse is then heard, which is basically a repeat of the first verse but with the full instrumentation and extra measure of the third verse. Differences include Paul's distinguishable “Ju-u-u-u-u-ude” in the first measure, the early appearance of harmony from John later in this measure on the line “don't make it bad” and continuing with harmony throughout the verse, and Paul's expletive “ooooh....f*cking hell” as heard in the sixth measure. A not-so-noticed lyrical difference is heard here as well, them singing “let her under your skin, then you'll begin” instead of “let her into your heart, then you can start” as heard in the first verse. Highly noticed, however, is the eighth and ninth measure where Paul (double-tracked) and John repeat the final word ascending vocally to a blood-curdling scream, resulting in “better, better, better, better, better, better, OOOOOOOOH!!!” Ringo also does his part in reaching this crescendo by performing drum fills throughout measures eight and nine until the pinnacle is reached, lightly tapping the hi-hat on the four-beat of the final measure while Paul's vocals are at fever pitch.

What follows next is a total of eighteen repeated four-measure refrains that, as a whole, comprise the entire conclusion of “Hey Jude.” Instrumentation includes Paul on piano, John on acoustic guitar, George on electric guitar (in the background), Ringo on drums and tambourine and, starting from the fourth refrain, a 36-piece orchestra playing a simple score to accentuate the excitement as a backdrop. Paul's excited screamed ad-libs are panned down considerably for the first four measures but are still discernible, these being brought to the fore beginning in the fourth measure of the fourth refrain with the startling “Ju-Judy-Judy-Judy-Judy, Jude, ow, wow!.” As mentioned above, the bass guitar is missing from this entire refrain section due to the need for the orchestra recorded over the bass part Paul previously played as an overdub for this section.

And for those of you who may be counting, the word “nah” appears 216 times in the song, not forgetting the nine “nah”s at the end of each of the two bridges. Just saying.

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