Hey Jude / Revolution

“Hey Jude / Revolution” was the eighteenth UK single from The Beatles.

From Wikipedia:

“Hey Jude” was released on a 7-inch single on 26 August 1968 in the United States and 30 August in the United Kingdom, backed with “Revolution” on the B-side. It was one of four singles issued simultaneously to launch Apple Records – the others being Mary Hopkin’s “Those Were the Days“, Jackie Lomax’s “Sour Milk Sea“, and the Black Dyke Mills Band’s “Thingumybob”. In advance of the release date, Apple declared 11–18 August to be “National Apple Week” in the UK, and sent gift-wrapped boxes of the records, marked “Our First Four”, to Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the royal family, and to Harold Wilson, the prime minister. The release was promoted by Derek Taylor, who, in author Peter Doggett’s description, “hyped the first Apple records with typical elan”. “Hey Jude” was the first of the four singles, since it was still designated as an EMI/Parlophone release in the UK and a Capitol release in the US, but with the Apple Records logo now added. In the US, “Hey Jude” was the first Capitol-distributed Beatles single to be issued without a picture sleeve. Instead, the record was presented in a black sleeve bearing the words “The Beatles on Apple”.

Author Philip Norman comments that aside from “Sour Milk Sea”, which Harrison wrote and produced, the first Apple A-sides were all “either written, vocalised, discovered or produced” by McCartney. Lennon wanted “Revolution” to be the A-side of the Beatles single, but his bandmates opted for “Hey Jude”. In his 1970 interview with Rolling Stone, he said “Hey Jude” was worthy of an A-side, “but we could have had both.” In 1980, he told Playboy he still disagreed with the decision.

Doggett describes “Hey Jude” as a song that “glowed with optimism after a summer that had burned with anxiety and rage within the group and in the troubled world beyond”. The single’s release coincided with the violent subjugation of Vietnam War protestors at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, and condemnation in the West of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia and its crushing of attempts to introduce democratic reforms there. In this climate, Lennon’s espousal of a pacifist agenda over violent confrontation in “Revolution” drew heavy criticism from New Left activists. By contrast, with its more universal message, “Hey Jude” was adopted as an anthem by Czech citizens in their struggle.

The song was first released on an album in February 1970, as the title track to Capitol’s North American compilation Hey Jude. The album was conceived as a way to generate income for the Beatles by Allen Klein, the American businessman who, despite McCartney’s strong opposition, the other Beatles had appointed to manage the ailing Apple organisation in 1969. “Hey Jude” subsequently appeared on the compilation albums 1967–1970, 20 Greatest Hits, Past Masters, Volume Two and 1. […]

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