beatles hey jude

It was the first Beatles single issued on the Apple label.

All original-issue U.S. Beatles Capitol 45s up through and including "Lady Madonna" were graced with the orange-and-yellow swirl design. From "Hey Jude" through "The Long And Winding Road," the Apple design was used.

Any orange label Capitols were mid-'70s reissues.

Edited by Yah Shure

thanks, as always!!

I just wanted clarification, but it is my understanding that there never was a radio edit for Hey Jude. I know some years later in the 70's in order to fit Hey Jude on a compilation album they needed to cut some time and faded it out early at about a little over 5 minutes on 20 Greatest Hits, but in 1968 there was no official radio edit of the song.

Back then I know the Beatles were pushing all sorts of boundaries, including new sounds and time limits on songs. But would the 5:05 be a valid edit since it appeared on an official Beatles comp?

Any insight anyone can share, would love to hear it.

Edited by PopArchivist

Hykker,

When all you can cite is two other songs that were both longer in the same year and one that was 6 minutes in 1965 I would still consider Hey Jude to have pushed a boundary that radio had traditionally relegated to 3-4 min tracks (and hey it was The Beatles, no one was going to shorten them!). Radio for example played the 2:52 of Light My Fire, rather than the full album version of the song. When given a choice of an edit, the radio station played that. The Beatles were so huge that they gave them no such choice, either they played it all or faded it at the 5:05 min mark like the LP 20 GH did.

The 7 minute track was by far an oddity on a 45 in 1968. In the last 10 years I can't remember a single that came out that was 7 minutes. I do recall M.C. Hammer's 2 Legit 2 Quit being 7 minutes, but that had a 5 min radio edit. Even Billy Joel lamented in his song about how radio trimmed down a great song to 3:05......



Edited by PopArchivist

Yah Shure,

Just a few objective points, trying not to let personal opinion get in the way

1) While not generally popular, you are correct it is a commercial release and an authorized edit. Which is the reason why I am trying to include it, even if its only appeared once.

2) At no time did I dismiss them. Neither of them however was #1 for 9 weeks like Hey Jude having a hold on a Hot 100 chart that had massive turnover every week. In measure of popularity for that era, being #1 for 9 weeks was virtually unprecedented (7 weeks yes, 9 weeks, rarely). Up until that time the most staying power that any song had was 1960's A Theme From A Summer Place on The Hot 100 (Elvis and his 11 weeks at #1 were before the Hot 100 beginnings)and that was at the beginning of the decade. If you look at how many top 40 songs there were just in 1968 and 1969 alone, MacArthur Park may have sounded like no other, but it was a #2 hit for 1 week. To put that in perspective, it would be quite awhile before anything hit 9 weeks or more at #1 again, which happened in 1977 for Debbie Boone's You Light Up My Life. In comparison there were numerous #2 songs that hit in the meantime. The Billboard charts of that era provide a roadmap to how popular something was during that year. They still do.

3) You are welcome to your opinion of Hey Jude that it is a singalong with a long repetitious ending, but it is not an objective view as you point out and I don't share that opinion when it stands as one of the chart toppers of the decade and the #1 song of the year ranked. I do agree that radio was going to play it because The Beatles were huge, but there was no guarantee that it would stay at #1 for 9 weeks anymore than MacArthur Park would stay at #2 for 1 week. I actually prefer Donna Summer's disco era version of MacArthur Park but I do like the song.

Yes, MacArthur Park did break through the barrier but the Beatles Hey Jude clearly was more popular at radio and sold more as evidenced by its long stay at #1 and its continued popularity to this day. Bob Dylan's Rolling Stone had a radio edit for 1965 that could break the song into two parts, which helped it along so programmers had a choice. The fact that the Beatles had a war chest can't escape that Hey Jude was so massive that radio could not avoid playing it. What I was getting at was The Beatles from 1962-1969 pushed more boundaries on more of their hits than anyone from that era.

Look what happened to Layla by Derek and The Dominos, which got a radio edit. They tried to shorten Stairway to Heaven by Led Zepplin and wisely decided not to issue a 45 single mainstream which was against the bands wishes. Radio was always trying to edit these long songs and not lose ad revenue.

I do agree with most of what you posted but The Beatles were always pushing the boundary of music since they first charted in 1964 until their last recorded note in late 1969 to early 1970. They did take notice of MacArthur Park's storm up the charts, as George Martin has said that it did inspire the Beatles to push the boundary as well (Producer George Martin, who always indulged the band’s whims, was uncomfortable with the idea of a seven-minute Beatles single, worrying that radio wouldn’t play it. Lennon correctly told him, “They will if it’s us.”)

Richard Harris might have succeeded in getting the door open, but Hey Jude's time length and chart dominance has yet to be equaled (a #1 song has yet to emerge at over 7 minutes since) and blew the door open so other bands that looked up to them would get heard if they recorded non-radio length singles. Even today no group or individual would dare release a 7 min single and not have a radio friendly edit and have radio accept it (Even Prince's Purple Rain was cut to 4:05 as a radio edit!) To say that the Beatles had no impact in smashing the door down is just not factual. What you view as a sing along is one of the catchiest late 60's songs ever (next to Sugar, Sugar by the Archies lol).

The above was posted as a different perspective. I didn't intend to get into a discussion about this, it was more of is the 5:05 really an official edit or not. The new sounds and time limit comment was not meant in any way to discount MacArthur Park and its own boundary pushing...

"I'm a pop archivist, not a chart philosopher, I seek to listen, observe and document the chart position of music."

Pop Archivist upon reading Yah Shure's well written post about MacArthur Park being a boundary setter

Edited by PopArchivist