Editing Hey Jude (section)

==Inspiration and writing==
{{quote box|quote=I started with the idea "Hey Jules," which was Julian, don't make it bad, take a sad song and make it better. Hey, try and deal with this terrible thing. I knew it was not going to be easy for him. I always feel sorry for kids in divorces ...{{sfn|Miles|1997|p=465}}|source=– [[Paul McCartney]], 1997|width=25%|align=left|style=padding:8px;}}
In May 1968,{{sfn|Riley|2011|p=397}} [[John Lennon]] and his wife [[Cynthia Lennon]] separated due to his affair with artist [[Yoko Ono]].{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=389}} The following month, [[Paul McCartney]] drove out to visit the Lennons' five-year-old son [[Julian Lennon]],<ref>{{cite magazine |title=The Beatles, 'Hey Jude' |magazine=[[Rolling Stone]] |date=7 April 2011 |access-date=14 August 2007 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-20110407/the-beatles-hey-jude-20110516 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121019192602/http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/the-500-greatest-songs-of-all-time-20110407/the-beatles-hey-jude-20110516 |archive-date=19 October 2012 |url-status=live}}</ref> at [[Kenwood, St. George's Hill|Kenwood]], the family's home in [[Weybridge]].{{sfn|Sounes|2010|pp=208, 221}} Cynthia had been part of [[the Beatles]]' social circle since before the band's rise to fame in 1963;{{sfn|Sounes|2010|p=221}} McCartney later said he found it "a bit much for them suddenly to be ''[[Persona non grata|personae non gratae]]'' and out of my life".{{sfn|Miles|1997|p=465}} Cynthia Lennon recalled of McCartney's surprise visit: "I was touched by his obvious concern for our welfare ... On the journey down he composed 'Hey Jude' in the car. I will never forget Paul's gesture of care and concern in coming to see us."<ref>{{cite news |first=John |last=Kehe |title=Paul McCartney: 40 career highlights on his birthday |newspaper=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |date=17 June 2012 |access-date=23 March 2019 |url=https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2012/0617/Paul-McCartney-40-career-highlights-on-his-birthday/Hey-Jude-single-1968 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190323174420/https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2012/0617/Paul-McCartney-40-career-highlights-on-his-birthday/Hey-Jude-single-1968 |archive-date=23 March 2019 |url-status=live}}</ref> The song's original title was "Hey Jules", and it was intended to comfort Julian from the stress of his parents' separation.{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=389}} McCartney said, "I knew it was not going to be easy for him", and that he changed the name to "Jude" "because I thought that sounded a bit better".{{sfn|Miles|1997|p=465}}

According to music journalist Chris Hunt, in the weeks after writing the song, McCartney "test[ed] his latest composition on anyone too polite to refuse. And that meant {{em|everyone}}."<ref name="Hunt/MojoSpecial">Hunt, Chris. "Here Comes the Son". In: {{harvnb|''Mojo Special Limited Edition''|2003|p=39}}.</ref> On 30 June, after recording the [[Black Dyke Mills Band]]'s rendition of his instrumental "Thingumybob" in [[Yorkshire]],{{sfn|Miles|2001|p=302}} McCartney stopped at the village of [[Harrold, Bedfordshire|Harrold]] in [[Bedfordshire]] and performed "Hey Jude" at a local pub.{{sfn|Norman|2016|pp=336–37}} He also regaled members of [[the Bonzo Dog Band]] with the song while producing their single "[[I'm the Urban Spaceman]]", in London, and interrupted a recording session by [[the Barron Knights]] to do the same.<ref name="Hunt/MojoSpecial"/> Ron Griffiths of the group the Iveys – soon to be known as [[Badfinger]] and, like the Black Dyke Mills Band, an early signing to the Beatles' new record label [[Apple Records]] – recalled that on one of their first days in the studio, McCartney "gave us a full concert rendition of 'Hey Jude{{'"}}.{{sfn|Matovina|2000|pp=42, 45}}{{refn|group=nb|Griffith added that he and his fellow Iveys were "gob-smacked" by the performance.{{sfn|Matovina|2000|p=42}}}}

{{quote box|quote=If you think about it ... Yoko's just come into the picture. He's saying. "Hey, Jude – Hey, John." I know I'm sounding like one of those fans who reads things into it, but you {{em|can}} hear it as a song to me. The words "Go out and get her" – subconsciously he was saying, Go ahead, leave me. On a conscious level, he didn't want me to go ahead.{{sfn|Sheff|2000|p=186}}|source=– [[John Lennon]], 1980|width=25%|align=right|style=padding:8px;}}
The intensity of Lennon and Ono's relationship made any songwriting collaboration between Lennon and McCartney impossible.{{sfn|Gould|2007|pp=481, 513–14}}{{sfn|Clayson|2003a|pp=126–27}} In support of his friend nevertheless, McCartney let the couple stay at his house in [[St John's Wood]], but amidst growing tensions, the couple soon moved out.{{sfn|Doggett|2011|pp=48–49}}{{sfn|Sounes|2010|pp=219–20}} McCartney presented "Hey Jude" to Lennon on 26 July,{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=192}} when he and Ono visited McCartney's home.{{sfn|Spizer|2003|p=32}} McCartney assured him that he would "fix" the line "the movement you need is on your shoulder", reasoning that "it's a stupid expression; it sounds like a parrot." According to McCartney, Lennon replied: "You won't, you know. That's the best line in the song."{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=297}} McCartney retained the phrase.{{sfn|Womack|2014|p=389}}{{refn|group=nb|He later said of his subsequent live performances of the song: "that's the line when I think of John, and sometimes I get a little emotional during that moment."{{sfn|The Beatles|2000|p=297}}}} Although McCartney originally wrote "Hey Jude" for Julian, Lennon thought it had actually been written for him.{{sfn|Everett|1999|p=192}} In a 1980 interview, Lennon stated that he "always heard it as a song to me" and contended that, on one level, McCartney was giving his blessing to Lennon and Ono's relationship, while, on another, he was disappointed to be usurped as Lennon's friend and creative partner.{{sfn|Spizer|2003|p=32}}

[[File:John Lennon en echtgenote Yoko Ono verlaten het Hilton Hotel te Amsterdam, Bestanddeelnr 922-2491.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|[[Yoko Ono]] and [[John Lennon]] in Amsterdam in March 1969]]
Other people believed McCartney wrote the song about them, including Judith Simons, a journalist with the ''[[Daily Express]]''.<ref>{{cite book |first=Bill |last=Harry |author-link=Bill Harry |year=2000 |title=The Beatles Encyclopedia: Revised and Updated |publisher=[[Virgin Books|Virgin Publishing]] |location=London |page=517 |isbn=0-7535-0481-2}}</ref> Still others, including Lennon, have speculated that in the lyrics to "Hey Jude", McCartney's failing long-term relationship with [[Jane Asher]] provided an unconscious "message to himself".<ref name="Unterberger/AM">{{cite web |first=Richie |last=Unterberger |author-link=Richie Unterberger |title=The Beatles 'Hey Jude' |website=[[AllMusic]] |url=https://www.allmusic.com/song/hey-jude-mt0002046073 |access-date=22 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171003125419/http://www.allmusic.com/song/hey-jude-mt0002046073 |archive-date=3 October 2017 |url-status=live}}</ref> McCartney and Asher had announced their engagement on 25 December 1967,{{sfn|Carr|Tyler|1978|p=70}} yet he began an affair with [[Linda McCartney|Linda Eastman]] in June 1968;{{sfn|Sounes|2010|pp=213–14}} that same month, [[Personal relationships of Paul McCartney#Asher, Eastman and Schwartz|Francie Schwartz]], an American who was in London to discuss a film proposal with Apple, began living with McCartney in St John's Wood.{{sfn|Doggett|2011|pp=47–48}}{{sfn|Sounes|2010|pp=212–13, 215}} When Lennon mentioned that he thought the song was about him and Ono, McCartney denied it and told Lennon he had written the song about himself.{{sfn|Hertsgaard|1995|p=236}}{{refn|group=nb|In a 1971 interview with [[Jonathan Cott]], Lennon recalled his and McCartney's conversation: "Ah, it's me! I said, it's {{em|me}}! He says, no it's {{em|me}}. I said, check, we're going through the same bit."{{sfn|Schaffner|1978|p=108}}}}

Author [[Mark Hertsgaard]] has commented that "many of the song's lyrics do seem directed more at a grown man on the verge of a powerful new love, especially the lines 'you have found her now go and get her' and 'you're waiting for someone to perform with.{{'"}}{{sfn|Hertsgaard|1995|p=236}} Music critic and author [[Tim Riley (music critic)|Tim Riley]] writes: "If the song is about self-worth and self-consolation in the face of hardship, the vocal performance itself conveys much of the journey. He begins by singing to comfort someone else, finds himself weighing his own feelings in the process, and finally, in the repeated refrains that nurture his own approbation, he comes to believe in himself."{{sfn|Riley|2002|p=255}}
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