TL;DR:
- Paul McCartney disliked a lyric from The Beatles’ “Hey Jude.”
- John Lennon convinced Paul to keep the line.
- “Hey Jude” became a hit single twice in the United Kingdom.
The Beatles‘ “Hey Jude” has some of the most famous lyrics in the Fab Four’s catalog. Paul McCartney felt he had to change one of the lyrics in the song. Subsequently, John Lennon convinced him to keep it.
Paul McCartney questioned a lyric in The Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’
In a 2021 Rolling Stone article, Paul said John discouraged him from changing a line in “Hey Jude.”
“I know exactly where I was,” Paul said. “I was in London, my music room at the top of the house, playing my little painted magic piano. John and Yoko were standing right behind me, on my shoulder, in fact.”
Paul was still experimenting with the song’s lyrics.
“They’re standing right behind me as I’m playing, ‘Hey Jude, da-da-da-da, da-da-da,’ and I get to, ‘The movement you need is on your shoulder,’ and I just looked by and I said, ‘I’ll fix that one,'” Paul recalled.
John Lennon was adamant that the lyric should stay
Paul continued with John’s response regarding changing the “shoulder” lyric.
“Then it was just great — you know, this was what was great about me and John,” Paul said. “He said, ‘You won’t, you know.’ Like that was a command. ‘You won’t, you know. That’s the best line in the song.'”
That encouraged Paul to keep the lyric.
“And then for me, instead of going, ‘Oh, no. No, no, no. I hate it and I want to change it,’ the minute he said, ‘You won’t, you know,’ I knew he was right,” Paul said.
How ‘Hey Jude’ performed on the charts in the United States and the United Kingdom
The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” became a massive hit in the United States. The song topped the Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks, staying on the chart for 19 weeks altogether. The track appeared on the compilation album 1967-1970. The compilation reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for one week, staying on the chart for 182 weeks in total.
The Official Charts Company reports “Hey Jude” also became successful in the United Kingdom. It topped the U.K. chart for two weeks in 1968, staying on the chart for 19 weeks altogether. In 1988, the track recharted at No. 52 and remained on the chart for two weeks. Meanwhile, 1967-1970 peaked at No. 2 and lasted 131 weeks on the chart.
“Hey Jude” is still one of the most popular Beatles songs to this day. Paul got the lyrics right with a little help from his friend John.
[Correction: An earlier version mistakenly said Paul removed the “shoulder” lyric from “Hey Jude.”]
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