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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