The lyric from “Hey Jude” is “Hey Jude, don’t make it bad.” The Beatles released the song as a non-album single in August 1968, and it became one of their most recognizable recordings.
Paul McCartney wrote the song during a difficult period for John Lennon’s family. It began as “Hey Jules,” intended to comfort Lennon’s young son Julian after Lennon’s separation from his first wife, Cynthia. McCartney later changed “Jules” to “Jude” because it sounded better when sung.
The recording was produced by George Martin and developed from a piano-based ballad into an expansive arrangement with orchestra and a famous repeated vocal coda. Running for more than seven minutes, it was unusually long for a major pop single of its era.
A common mix-up is assuming the song was written directly for John Lennon. Julian was the original emotional focus, although Lennon interpreted parts of the song as being about him. “Hey Jude” topped the US Billboard Hot 100 for nine weeks and became a defining late-1960s Beatles hit.