Recording and mixing "Hey Jude"

On this day, The Beatles continued their work on “Hey Jude,” which had been rehearsed the previous day. They recorded seventeen takes, numbered 7 through 23, featuring Paul McCartney on piano and lead vocals, John Lennon on acoustic guitar and backing vocals, and Ringo Starr on drums.

Take 23 was considered the best, leading to two tape reductions, labeled Take 24 and Take 25. A rough stereo mix (RS1 from Take 25) was made, allowing George Martin to develop the orchestral score for the song, to be recorded later at Trident Studios. However, ultimately, none of the efforts from this day were used, as The Beatles decided to start over the following day at Trident.

In the course of the session, The Beatles played an impromptu version of “St. Louis Blues,” later released on the 50th Anniversary White Album box set in 2018. Additionally, they played a rendition of Ray Charles’ “Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying.”

A film crew from The National Music Council of Great Britain was in the studio to record footage for a documentary titled “Music!” This documentary premiered in UK theaters in October 1969, paired with Mel Brooks’ “The Producers,” and aired on US television on February 22, 1970. It features two segments from the “Hey Jude” session, showing the band mostly working on Take 9.

The film crew was supposed to work in such a way that no one would realize they were there, but of course, they were getting in everyone’s way and everyone was getting uptight about it.

Ken Scott – Engineer – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988

The film shows George Harrison in the studio control room alongside George Martin and recording engineer Ken Scott. Early in the session, George and Paul engaged in a heated debate regarding the lead guitar part for the song.

I remember sitting down and showing George the song, and George did the natural thing for a guitar player to do, which is to answer every line of vocal. And it was like, ‘No, George.’ And he was pretty offended, and looking back, I think, Oh, shit, of course you’d be offended. You’re blowing the guy out. I said, ‘No, no. You come in on the second chorus maybe, it’s going to be a big build this.

That’s the difficulty of a group. You are not the director bossing around a dance company where they naturally expect you to boss them around. You’re just a guy in a very democratic unit; which a group, at best, is. We were all equal in voting, our status within the group was equal. We were joking when we made the Anthology: I was saying, ‘I realize I was a bossy git.’ And George said, ‘Oh no, Paul, you never did anything like that!’ With a touch of irony in his voice, because obviously I did. But it was essential for me and looking back on it, I think, Okay. Well, it was bossy, but it was also ballsy of me, because I could have bowed to the pressure.

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

[George] wanted to do echo riffs after the vocal phrases, which I didn’t think was appropriate. He didn’t see it like that, and it was a bit of a number for me to have to ‘dare’ to tell George Harrison – who’s one of the greats – not to play. It was like an insult. But that’s how we did a lot of our stuff.

Paul McCartney – 1985 interview

An awful lot has been written about the Beatles being at odds with each other the entire time they were recording the White Album, but that to me is completely false. […] You’ve got to take into consideration, they were working on that album for close to six months, and there isn’t a project I have worked on — even a two-week project — where at some point someone hasn’t lost their temper. So, spread that over six months and it’s going to happen a few times. But I repeat, it wasn’t that bad. And there were also outside influences that people don’t take into consideration. We were working on ‘Hey Jude’, and the first night, when everyone was up and the Beatles were still sorting out the arrangement, a couple of guys came by the studio because the next night there was going to be a film crew coming in for a documentary [Music!] being made by the National Music Council of Great Britain. ‘Don’t worry,’ they told us. ‘We’ll be in tomorrow but you won’t know we’re here.’ Yeah, right.

The next night, the film crew came in and of course they were in everyone’s faces. Well, there ended up being a huge row between George and Paul — George was playing a guitar phrase that responded to each of Paul’s vocal lines and Paul vetoed it. However, this wasn’t because the band members weren’t getting along; it was because the outside sources were putting everyone on edge, someone was going to blow his top and it just happened to be those two.

Ken Scott – From The Beatles ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ (soundonsound.com)

We recorded “Hey Jude” at EMI over two nights. The first night was just sorting out the arrangement, while a film crew from the BBC walked around checking everything out to prepare for shooting a segment for a documentary called Music for the British Arts Council. Of course, the typical film thing happened where they say, “Don’t worry, you won’t even know we’re here. We don’t want to interfere with anything so just carry on as normal.” Come the second night it’s not like that at all. The crew was all over the studio and in everyone’s way, so they managed to put everyone very much on edge. There was a huge argument between George (Harrison) and Paul as to what George should be playing, which ended up with George just hanging out in the control room for most of the takes. Of course, the film crew was shooting the entire time. The row between George and Paul was a filmmakers dream.

Ken Scott – From “Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust“, 2012

The Beatles continued working on “Hey Jude” at Trident Studios the following day.

Session activities

1. Hey Jude

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 7

2. Hey Jude

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 8

3. Hey Jude

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 9

4. Hey Jude

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 10

5. Hey Jude

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 11

6. Hey Jude

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 12

7. Hey Jude

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 13

8. Hey Jude

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 14

9. Hey Jude

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Take 15

10. Hey Jude

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 16

11. St. Louis Blues

    Written by W. C. Handy

    Recording

    AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset)

12. Hey Jude

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 17

13. Hey Jude

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 18

14. Hey Jude

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 19

15. Hey Jude

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 20

16. Hey Jude

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 21

17. Hey Jude

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 22

18. Hey Jude

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Take 23

19. Hey Jude

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Tape copying • Tape reduction take 23 into take 24

20. Hey Jude

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Tape copying • Tape reduction take 24 into take 25

21. Hey Jude

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Mixing • Stereo mixing - Remix 1 from take 25

22. Don't Let The Sun Catch You Crying

    Written by Joe Greene

    Recording

Staff

Musicians on "Hey Jude"

Production staff

Going further

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