Paul McCartney writes “Hey Jude” and visits Cynthia Lennon

In May 1968, John Lennon and his wife Cynthia separated, due to John’s affair with artist Yoko Ono.

Sometime in June, Paul McCartney decided to visit Cynthia and her five-year-old son, Julian, at Kenwood, the family home in Weybridge. Ahead of his visit, Paul began composing a song originally titled “Hey Jules,” intended as a comforting message for Julian to help him cope with his parents’ divorce. This early version of the song evolved into “Hey Jude,” the recording of which began with The Beatles on July 29, 1968.

I happened to be driving out to see Cynthia Lennon. I think it was just after John and she had broken up, and I was quite mates with Julian [their son]. He’s a nice kid, Julian. And I was going out in me car just vaguely singing this song, and it was like “Hey Jules.” I don’t know why, “Hey Jules.” It was just this thing, you know, “Don’t make it bad/ Take a sad song…” And then I just thought a better name was Jude. A bit more country & western for me.

Paul McCartney – From interview with Rolling Stone, January 1974

Was “Hey Jude” written for Julian Lennon?

Yes. I happened to be driving out to see Cynthia Lennon and Julian after the divorce. It’s an hour’s drive and cars are good places to get ideas. I just thought, “Hey Jude.” It was originally, “Hey Jules, take a sad song and make it better, take this divorce situation you find yourself in young man and try to stick it out.” Then I changed it to “Hey Jude” and found out it meant “Jew” and some guy got really mad at me because he thought it was anti-Semitic.

Paul McCartney – From press conference, October 1984

“Hey Jude” was a song which I originally thought of whilst driving my car out to visit Cynthia and Julian Lennon after John’s divorce from them. We’d been very good friends for millions of years and I thought it was a bit much for them suddenly to be personae non gratae and out of my life, so I decided to pay them a visit and say, ‘How are you doing? What’s happening?’ I was very used to writing songs on my way out to Kenwood because I was usually going there to collaborate with John. This time 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. The adults may be fine but the kids… I always relate to their little brain spinning round in confusion, going, ‘Did I do this? Was it me?’ Guilt is such a terrible thing and I know it affects a lot of people and I think that was the reason I went out. And I got this idea for a song, ‘Hey Jude’, and made up a few little things so I had the idea by the time I got there. I changed it to ‘Jude’ because I thought that sounded a bit better.

Paul McCartney – From “Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now” by Barry Miles, 1997

The song had started when I was travelling out one day to see Julian and his mother Cynthia. At this point John had left Cynthia, and I was going out to Kenwood as a friend to say hi and see how they were doing. People have suggested I fancied Cynthia, as people will, but that’s not at all the case. I was thinking about how tough it would be for Jules, as I called him, to have his dad leave him, to have his parents go through a divorce. It started out as a song of encouragement.

What often happens with a song is that it starts off in one vein – in this case my being worried about something in life, a specific thing like a divorce – but then it begins to morph into its own creature. The title early on was ‘Hey Jules’, but it quickly changed to ‘Hey Jude’ because I thought that was a bit less specific

Paul McCartney – From “The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present“, 2021

During the divorce proceedings, I was truly surprised when, one afternoon, Paul arrived on his own. I was touched by his obvious concern for our welfare and even more moved when he presented me with a single red rose accompanied by a jokey remark about our future. ‘How about it, Cyn. How about you and me getting married?’ We both laughed at the thought of the world’s reaction to an announcement like that being let loose. On his journey down to visit Julian and I, Paul composed the beautiful song ‘Hey Jude’. He said it was for Julian. I will never forget Paul’s gesture of care and concern in coming to see us. It made me feel important and loved, as opposed to feeling discarded and obsolete.

Cynthia Lennon – From “The Beatles: Off the Record” by Keith Badman, 2008

The only person who came to see me was Paul. He arrived one sunny afternoon, bearing a red rose, and said, ‘I’m so sorry, Cyn, I don’t know what’s come over him. This isn’t right.’ On the way down to see us he had written a song for Julian. It began as ‘Hey Jules’ and later became ‘Hey Jude’, which sounded better. Ironically John thought it was about him when he first heard it. […]

Paul stayed for a while. He told me that John was bringing Yoko to recording sessions, which he, George and Ringo hated. Paul had broken up with Jane Asher a couple of weeks after John had left me. I was sorry because I’d really liked Jane. In a scenario bizarrely like ours, Jane had come home a few days early from a theatre tour and had caught him in their home with another girl. Understandably she had walked out. But that was where their story parted from ours. Paul blamed himself and was heartbroken.

He joked about us getting married – ‘How about it, Cyn?’ – and I was grateful to him for cheering me up and caring enough to come. He was the only member of the Beatles family who’d had the courage to defy John – who had apparently made it quite clear that he expected everyone to follow his lead in cutting me off. But Paul was his own man and not afraid of John. In fact, musically and personally, the two were beginning to go in separate directions so perhaps Paul’s visit to me was also a statement to John.

He drove off, promising to keep in touch, but a month or two later he got together with American photographer Linda Eastman and his life began a new phase. It was many years before we met again.

Cynthia Lennon – From “John“, 2005

It was “Hey Jules” at first, but that didn’t quite sit well rhythmically. “Hey Jude” was a better interpretation. Paul wrote it to console Mum, and also to console me. It’s a beautiful sentiment, no question about that, and I’m very thankful—but I’ve also been driven up the wall by it. I love the fact that he wrote a song about me and for Mum, but depending on what side of the bed one woke up on, and where you’re hearing it, it can be a good or a slightly frustrating thing. But in my heart of hearts, there’s not a bad word I could say about it.

Julian Lennon – From Esquire.com, December 18, 2023

In the month between writing and recording, with the song in need of just a little refinement, McCartney opted to test his latest composition on anyone too polite to refuse. And that meant everyone. The Bonzos recall Paul bashing through Hey Jude when he should have been hard at work producing I’m The Urban Spaceman. “He was just enjoying singing and playing it, like you do when you first write a song,” recalls Neil Innes. “You want to go through it in public to see if there might be something else in there. It was at that demo stage.” The Barron Nights, too, remember the Beatle interrupting their session at Abbey Road: “He said, ‘I’ve just written this song, would you like to hear it, it’s hopefully going to be our next single’,” says Pete Langford. “He actually forgot the words too.” Badfinger, meanwhile, were treated to a performance just the day after they signed to Apple as The Iveys. “Paul walked over to the grand piano and said, ‘Hey lads, have a listen’,” remembered bass player Ron Griffith. “He sat down and gave us a full concert rendition of Hey Jude. We were gobsmacked.”

From “The Beatles : ten years that shook the world“, 2004

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