"Hey Jude"or "The Movement You Need Is On Your Shoulders?"

 
 
 
 

Back in the glorious days of 1968, yours truly bought "Revolution" by the pre-Fab, er, Fab 4. It came packaged as a "45." Some of youse might not be familiar with the terminology. A long story so we will mosey onward.

Me being curiouser [ not sure if we are stealing from Dickens ] flipped the record over to notice a song entitled "Hey Jude." My first instinct was: "this tune will suck because it's the 'B' side. Well, not really suck, cos it's me boys but will probably not measure up to 'Revolution.'"

The joke was on me. [ apologies to the Bee Gees ] Number 1: "Hey Jude" was the "A" side; and secondly, the song blew me away. It had me at "hey."

I hate to admit this-you know how guys are-but I started dancing around the room. It was my first actual spiritual revelation, as I write now in hindsight. My first religious experience. It was 1968 and flower power was in vogue. I was just a mere lad of 17, but the tune transformed me into a different person. It was the most beautiful melody I had ever heard.

As chronicled earlier, "Revolution" was the song being played on the air waves, but when "Hey Jude" was broadcast on the old "Smothers Brothers" show, it immediately went through the roof in sales and popularity.

I have always said that "I Am the Walrus" is my favorite Beatles tune, but "Hey Jude" is interchangeable.

So this is tonite's foray. And thanks to youtube, who was bought by google last week.

Take a sad song and make it better, v.c.

P.S. B Side Smee Side!

P.S.S. As the story goes from Rolling Stone Magazine:

The Beatles' biggest U.S. single -- nine weeks at Number One -- was also their longest, at seven minutes and eleven seconds. During the recording sessions, the Beatles' producer, George Martin, objected to the length, claiming DJs would not play the song. "They will if it's us," John Lennon shot back. Paul McCartney wrote "Hey Jude" in June 1968, singing to himself on his way to visit Lennon's soon-to-be-ex-wife, Cynthia, and their son, Julian. The opening lines were, McCartney said in The Beatles Anthology, "a hopeful message for Julian: 'Come on, man, your parents got divorced. I know you're not happy, but you'll be OK.' " McCartney changed "Jules" to "Jude" -- a name inspired by Jud from the musical Oklahoma! -- and presented a demo tape to Lennon, who loved the song. He also thought McCartney was singing to him, about his relationship with Yoko Ono and the strains on the Lennon-McCartney partnership. But his self-centered reading underscored the universal comfort in McCartney's lyrics and the song's warm, rolling charm, fortified in the fade-out by a thirty-six-piece orchestra whose members (with one grumpy exception) also clapped and sang along -- for double their usual fee.