Hey Jude – A classic Beatles song and a stunning cover by an R&B legend with one of the best guitarists ever. #MusicisLife #TedTocksCovers #TheBeatles #WilsonPickett #DuaneAllman

Here is a question that technically has three answers. What is the ‘longest song’ by duration to make it to #1 on the U.S. Billboard charts.

The answer is ‘Hey Jude’ at 7:11 BUT let’s give a shout out to Don McLean and ‘American Pie’ (featured on February 3rd) which clocks in at 8:27 BUT the ‘single’ was split into two parts. DJs of the day preferred the long version but technically this was not the single. So American Pie loses on a technicality, mostly due to the radio format of the day still favouring shorter songs BUT neither of these songs comes close to Meatloaf’s epic ‘I’d Do Anything for Love’ (But I Won’t Do That). The album version of this song checks in at 12 minutes but the U.S. single was released after being edited down to just over five minutes. In the U.K this song was edited to 7:52 which makes it the longest depending on how the question is phrased.

There is some trivia to dazzle your friends with at parties.

Back to the song of the day. ‘Hey Jude’ is yet another fine example of the Lennon – McCartney songwriting partnership. Paul McCartney wrote ‘Hey Jude’ for John’s son Julian because he was concerned for the the younger Lennon’s emotional state after the breakup of John and Cynthia Lennon’s marriage. It was mostly a McCartney composition but as always Lennon was around to lend the perfect line where needed.

So let it out and let it in,
Hey, Jude, begin
You’re waiting for someone to perform with
And don’t you know that it’s just you,
Hey, Jude, you’ll do
The movement you need is on your shoulder

Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah nah yeah

Hey, Jude, don’t make it bad
Take a sad song and make it better
Remember to let her under your skin
Then you’ll begin to make it better, better, better, better, better… oh!

‘The movement you need is on your shoulder’ is a classic example of Lennon offering the perfect contribution at the right moment. This type of interplay occurs over and over with this duo.”

John Lennon and Paul McCartney

The passage above leads into the final refrain of

Nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah nah, nah nah yeah…which lasts for four minutes.

This promotional video is actually a combination of several takes. It represents Ringo Starr’s return to The Beatles following a two week hiatus, where he stated he was leaving the band over a dispute with McCartney who had challenged the quality of his drumming contributions. McCartney and Harrison also feuded over George’s guitar role in the song. Drama behind the scenes but in true Beatles form the result was magical.

50 years ago R&B legend Wilson Pickett recorded ‘Hey Jude’ at Muscle Shoals Studios in Alabama with a relative unknown guitarist. The session player thought ‘Hey Jude’ was the perfect song for Pickett so the cover version was recorded and released. Upon hearing the recording, guitar ‘god’ Eric Clapton was captivated by the guitar performance in the song. To this day he claims there is no better guitar playing on an R&B record. The Muscle Shoals session men who played on Pickett’s piece say that the solo in this song ‘created Southern rock’. The guitarist was Duane Allman, soon to become one half of the guitar foundation of The Allman Brothers Band. He would ultimately become a member of Eric Clapton’s project ‘Derek and the Dominoes’ which produced the stunning duelling guitar solo in the song Layla. Duane Allman is widely considered to be one of the most influential guitar players ever.