News How Paul McCartney offended George Harrison during the making of ‘Hey Jude’
With such a well-loved and lauded body of work to their name, it’s difficult to quantify which The Beatles song is their most popular. ‘Here Comes the Sun’ has the most streams to its name, but ‘She Loves You’ remains their highest-selling single. ‘Yesterday’ is perhaps their most covered, but ‘Come Together’ is their most sampled. Fans of the Fab Four could sit and argue about their most beloved song for hours, but ‘Hey Jude’ would always be in the running.
Released in 1968 uncoupled with any full-length release, the track was penned by Paul McCartney as an ode to his songwriting partner’s son. John Lennon was in the midst of an affair with Yoko Ono and a divorce from his wife Cynthia, so McCartney wrote ‘Hey Jude’ as a sonic form of solace for their child, Julian. Eventually, “Jules” became “Jude” and one of The Beatles’ most iconic hits was born.
More than its impact on Julian, the song has since comforted millions of Beatles fans through times of hardship, encouraging them to “take a sad song and make it better.” But before it became an anthem of hope, the song caused some friction between McCartney and guitarist George Harrison in the studio.
After McCartney had written the song, Harrison joined him to work out the guitar parts. In the process, the songwriter accidentally offended his bandmate by correcting his guitar contributions. “I remember sitting down and showing George the song,” McCartney recalled in Paul McCartney: Many Years From Now, “and George did the natural thing for a guitar player to do, which is to answer every line of vocal.”
Though this may have been the natural response for a guitarist, it was not what McCartney was looking for with ‘Hey Jude’. Rather, he was trying to create the swelling, building atmosphere of the song that now gives it its comforting gravitas. McCartney, unfortunately, delivered this feedback without considering his bandmate’s feelings, simply responding, “No, George”.
“And he was pretty offended,” McCartney recalled, “and looking back, I think, ‘Oh, s***, 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.’” Though the comment may have offended Harrison at the time, McCartney had a vision for ‘Hey Jude’, one which would pay off.
Opening with just vocals and piano keys, the minimal opening allows the song to build to its climax, those iconic, never-ending repetitions of “Na-na-na-na-na-na-na, hey Jude.” Pushing Harrison’s guitars further into the track only served this effect, though it may have caused him some brief offence.
