Her Majesty

AUTHORSHIP McCartney (1.00)
The medley, or 'the Long One' as it was known in the studio, went through a number of changes before reaching its final order. The little fragment known as "Her Majesty," which Paul wrote in Scotland, was originally placed after "Mean Mr. Mustard" but Paul decided it didn't work there and asked the tape operator John Kurlander to edit it out and throw it away. Following normal studio practice, he attached a long piece of leader tape to it to identify it as separate from the rest of the tracks and tacked it on the end of the reel. When an acetate was made of the medley, "Her Majesty" was accidentally included. Paul liked it in its new position, and it was allowed to remain. This accounts for the long silence which precedes it, and the decaying chord with which it opens, which is in fact the last chord of "Mean Mr. Mustard."
McCARTNEY: "That was very much how things happened. Really, you know, the whole of our career was like that so it's a fitting end." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

McCARTNEY: "It was quite funny because it's basically monarchist, with a mildly disrespectful tone, but it's very tongue in cheek. It's almost like a love song to the Queen." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

RECORDED
July 2, 1969, at Abbey Road, by McCartney

McCartney, as usual, was the first Beatle in the studio and recorded this song quickly - in three takes - before the others arrived. The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962-1970

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: acoustic guitar, lead vocal

MISCELLANEOUS
At 23 seconds, this is the shortest recorded Beatles song.
"Her Majesty" was originally meant to be placed in the middle of the album's medley, between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam." When a rough edit of the medley was put together July 30, McCartney changed his mind.

JOHN KURLANDER, second engineer: "We did all the remixes and crossfades to overlap the songs, Paul was there, and we heard it together for the first time. He said, 'I don't like "Her Majesty," throw it away,' so I cut it out - but I accidentally left in the last note. He said, 'It's only a rough mix, it doesn't matter,' in other words, don't bother about making a clean edit because it's only a rough mix. . . .
"I'd been told never to throw anything away, so after he left I picked it up off the floor, put about twenty seconds of red leader tape before it and stuck it onto the end of the edit tape. The next day, down at Apple, Malcolm Davies cut a playback lacquer of the whole sequence and, even though I'd written on the box that 'Her Majesty' was unwanted, he too thought, 'Well, mustn't throw anything away, I'll put it on at the end.'
"I'm only assuming this, but when Paul got that lacquer he must have liked hearing 'Her Majesty' tacked on the end. . . . We never remixed 'Her Majesty' again, that was the mix which ended up on the finished LP."
This is why "Her Majesty" doesn't have a final guitar chord - it lays, unheard, at the beginning of "Polythene Pam." And the jarring electric guitar chord that begins "Her Majesty" is actually from the end of the original "Mean Mr. Mustard." The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions: The Official Story of the Abbey Road Years 1962-1970
"Her Majesty" was not originally listed on the album package. Beatles Forever

Hello Little Girl

AUTHORSHIP Lennon (1.00)
LENNON: "This was one of the first songs I ever finished. I was then about eighteen and we gave it to the Fourmost. I think it was the first song of my own that I ever attempted to do with the group." Beatles in Their Own Words

LENNON: "We were all excited, you know, Decca and all that. So we went down, and we met this Mike Smith guy, and we did all these numbers and we were terrified and nervous. You can hear it on the bootlegs. It starts off terrifying and gradually settles down. We were still together musically. You can hear it's primitive, you know, and it isn't recorded that well, but the power's there. It was the tracks that we were doing on stage in the dance halls. We then went back to Liverpool and waited and waited and then we found out that we hadn't been accepted. We really thought that was it. We thought that was the end." (January 1972) The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions & Unrehearsed Interviews

McCARTNEY: "Unfortunately the words aren't too wonderful. They're a bit average, but the Fourmost were eager to have a hit and they were very good friends of ours. They were more of a comedy group, a really very funny cabaret act, and when it came to making a record and being serious on a TV show, they always laughed and giggled. They were always having such a laugh, it was very difficult for them. They just weren't the kind of guys who were going to get a major hit. I tried a few times." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

Recorded by the Fourmost on July 3, 1963, at Abbey Road.

Hey Jude

CHART ACTION
UNITED KINGDOM: Released as a single August 26, 1968. It hit No. 1 within two weeks and held that position for three weeks. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

UNITED STATES: Released as a single August 26, 1968. It entered the Top 40 September 14, held the No. 1 position for nine weeks, and remained on the chart for nineteen weeks. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles and Billboard

This was the Beatles' most successful single. It was a No. 1 hit in Holland, Ireland, Belgium, West Germany, Denmark, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, and Sweden, with world sales totaling more than 5 million by the end of 1968 and 7.5 million by October 1972. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles and Beatles Forever
Billboard published a special chart in 1976 which listed the biggest hits of the past two decades. "Hey Jude" placed second, behind Chubby Checker's "The Twist." Beatles Forever
McCartney said he was "worried stiff" while this song was being released because he wasn't sure whether it was any good. He said he isn't able to make that kind of critical distinction. RS (April 30, 1970)
"Revolution" was originally going to be the A side (it was recorded earlier) and "Hey Jude" was going to be the B side. But those plans were reversed. The Beatles Diary, Volume 1 : From Liverpool to London
Lennon reluctantly agreed to relegate his song to the B side. Lennon : The Definitive Biography

"Hey Jude" was the Beatles' most successful single, selling more than 5,000,000 copies worldwide in six months; 7,500,000 in four years. It was number one in the USA for nine weeks, as well as going to number one in Britain and ten other countries. Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

AUTHORSHIP McCartney (1.00)
McCARTNEY: "'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 sang 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.
"I finished it all up in Cavendish and I was in the music room upstairs when John and Yoko came to visit and they were right behind me over my right shoulder, standing up, listening to it as I played it to them, and when I got to the line 'The movement you need is on your shoulder', I looked over my shoulder and I said, 'I'll change that, it's a bit crummy. I was just blocking it out,' and John said, 'You won't, you know. That's the best line in it!' That's collaboration. When someone's that firm about a line that you're going to junk, and he says, 'No, keep it in.' So of course you love that line twice as much because it's a little stray, it's a little mutt that you were about to put down and it was reprieved and so it's more beautiful than ever. I love those words now, 'The movement you need is on your shoulder.' Of course I now feel that those are terribly deep words; I've had letters from religious groups and cults saying, 'Paul, you understand what this means, don't you? The wherewithal is there, whatever you want to do ...' And it is a great line but I was going to change it because it sounded like a parrot or something; not entirely logical. Time lends a little credence to things. You can't knock it, it just did so well. But when I'm singing it, that is when I think of John, when I hear myself singing that line; it's an emotional point in the song.
"The end refrain was never a separate song. I remember taking it down to a late night hashish-smoking club in a basement in Tottenham Court Road: the Vesuvio club. We were sitting around on bean bags as was the thing. I said to the DJ, 'Here's an acetate. Do you want to slip it in some time during the evening?' He played it, and I remember Mick Jagger coming up: 'Fuckin' 'ell, fuckin' 'ell. That's something else, innit? It's like two songs.' It wasn't intended to go on that long at the end but I was having such fun ad-libbing over the end when we put down the original track that I went on a long time. So then we built it with the orchestra but it was mainly because I just wouldn't stop doing all that 'Judy judy judy - wooow!' Cary Grant on heat!" Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

McCARTNEY said he was idly singing "Hey Jules" while he was driving: "And then I just thought a better name was Jude. A bit more country and western for me." Beatles in Their Own Words
An influence on McCartney when he began writing this was the Drifters' "Save The Last Dance For Me."

Written at Cavendish Avenue, on the top floor, in Paul's music room. Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

McCartney and Lennon finished writing the song at Paul's house, on July 26, 1968. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles and The Beatles Diary, Volume 1 : From Liverpool to London

PAUL AS A LYRICIST

McCARTNEY, describing a demo tape he made of the song: "I remember I played it to John and Yoko, and I was saying, 'These words won't be on the finished version.' Some of the words were, 'The movement you need is on your shoulder,' and John was saying, 'It's great!' I'm saying, 'It's crazy, it doesn't make any sense at all.' He's saying, 'Sure it does, it's great.' I'm always saying that, by the way, that's me, I'm always never sure if it's good enough. That's me, you know." RS (January 31, 1974)

LENNON: ". . . Paul is quite a capable lyricist who doesn't think he is. . . . 'Hey Jude' is a damn good set of lyrics, and I made no contribution to that. A couple of lines he's come up with show indications he's a good lyricist, but he just never took it anywhere." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

RECORDED
Rehearsed by all four Beatles on Monday, July 29, 1968, at Abbey Road. The next night they recorded it while being filmed for a feature about the music of Britain. On Wednesday they discarded that version and recorded the song again, at Trident Studios. On Thursday a forty-piece orchestra was used to hold single notes for long periods and to clap and sing the "na-na-na" chorus. (McCartney wanted a full symphony orchestra, but George Martin said booking one so quickly was impossible.) the final remix was done early Friday, and by the afternoon acetates were made.

McCARTNEY: "I remember on 'Hey Jude' telling George not to play guitar. He wanted to 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." Musician (February 1985)
"The rule was whosoever's song it was got to say how we did the arrangement for it. That pissed him off . . ." Musician (October 1986)

McCARTNEY: " 'Hey Jude' was a very special take when we did it. In actual fact, Ringo was in the toilet. I started the song without drums, I thought he was in his drum booth. He heard me starting - 'Hey Jude, don't make it . . .' Hey, he does up his fly, leaps back into the studio, and he's creeping past me, I'm doing this take realizing the drummer is trying to make his way back to the booth. He makes his way very quietly, just got there in time for his entry, so it was kind of a magic take." Washington Post via Musician (February 1985)

McCARTNEY: "There is an amusing story about recording it. We were at Trident Studios in Soho, and Ringo walked out to go to the toilet and I hadn't noticed. The toilet was only a few yards from his drum booth, but he'd gone past my back and I still thought he was in his drum booth. I started what was the actual take, and 'Hey Jude' goes on for hours before the drums come in and while I was doing it I suddenly felt Ringo tiptoeing past my back rather quickly, trying to get to his drums. And just as he got to his drums, boom boom boom, his timing was impeccable. So I think when those things happen, you have a little laugh and a light bulb goes off in your head and you think, This is the take! and you put a little more into it. You think, oh, fuck! This has got to be the take, what just happened was so magic! So we did that and we made a pretty good record." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, piano, lead vocal
LENNON: acoustic guitar (Gibson J-160E), backing and harmony vocal
HARRISON: lead guitar, backing vocal
STARR: drums, tambourine
Forty-piece orchestra
The song begins with McCartney's piano and vocal and, after instruments are added one by one, concludes with about fifty instruments playing and a large number of voices. Beatles Forever

McCARTNEY: "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 realise 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: Many Years from Now

MISCELLANEOUS
"Hey Jude" is the Beatles' longest single - 7:11 long - four minutes of which is the fadeout.
The single was the Beatles' first release on Apple. Beatles Forever

PETER BROWN, Beatles associate: "To help publicize the release of 'Hey Jude,' Paul decided to put the closed boutique at Baker and Paddington streets to some good use. Late one night he snuck into the store and whitewashed the windows. Then he wrote HEY JUDE across it in block letters. The following morning, when the neighbourhood shopkeepers arrived to open their stores, they were incensed; never having heard of the song 'Hey Juden' before, they took it as an anti-Semitic slur. A brick was thrown through the store window before the words could be cleaned off and the misunderstanding straightened out." The Love You Make : An Insider's Story of the Beatles

A promotional video was made at Twickenham Studios. The group was filmed for five hours, and about fifty to sixty invited fans participated in singing the long fadeout. The Beatles warmed up for their performance by playing versions of "Hang Down Your Head, Tom Dooley" and other songs.
In the promo Lennon and Harrison are both playing instruments different from the ones they used during the recording session. Guitar (November 1987)

COMMENTS BY BEATLES
LENNON: "That's his best song." Hit Parader (April 1972)

LENNON: ". . . I always heard it as a song to me. If you think about it . . . Yoko's just come into the picture. He's saying, 'Hey Jude' - 'Hey John.' I know I'm sounding like one of those fans who reads things into it, but you can hear it as a song to me. The words 'go out and get her' - subconsciously he was saying, 'Go ahead, leave me.' On a conscious level, he didn't want me to go ahead. The angel in him was saying, 'Bless you.' The devil in him didn't like it at all, because he didn't want to lose his partner." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

Happiness Is A Warm Gun

AUTHORSHIP Lennon (1.00)
LENNON: "A gun magazine was sitting around, and the cover was the picture of a smoking gun. The title of the article, which I never read, was 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun.' " September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

LENNON: "George Martin had a book on guns which he had told me about - I can't remember - or I think he showed me a cover of a magazine that said 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun'. It was a gun magazine, that's it: I read it, thought it was a fantastic, insane thing to say. A warm gun means that you just shot something." Beatles in Their Own Words
Lennon saw the American gun magazine a few days after Robert Kennedy's assassination. Beatles Forever

LENNON: "Like 'God', I had put together some three sections of different songs, it was meant to be - it seemed to run through all the different kinds of rock music. It wasn't about 'H' at all." Lennon Remembers: The Full Rolling Stone Interviews from 1970

RECORDED
September 23, 1968, at Abbey Road, but none of the forty-five takes was deemed good enough. Of the twenty-five takes recorded September 24, one had a good first half and another had the best second half. They were edited together and overdubs were added September 25.

McCARTNEY: "We [Linda and I] re-met in a pretty funky way. I said, 'Come on over, then,' and she arrived the night when we were doing 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun'. She arrived at the house and phoned, and I had Mal go round to check that she was all right. She remembers the fridge had half a bottle of sour milk and a crust of cheese, a real British fridge. She just couldn't believe the conditions I was living in." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, backing vocal
LENNON: lead guitar, tambourine, lead and backing vocal
HARRISON: lead guitar, backing vocal
STARR: drums
The guitars are in 3/4 time and the drumming is in 4/4. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

MISCELLANEOUS
This song was banned by the BBC because of its sexual symbolism.

COMMENTS BY BEATLES
LENNON: "Oh, I like that, one of my best, I had forgotten about that. Oh, I love it. I think it's a beautiful song. I like all the different things that are happening in it." Beatles in Their Own Words

McCARTNEY: "It's very similar to 'Bungalow Bill' in that it's a piss-take of all the people who really do think happiness is a warm gun. There's a great vocal on it, good lyrics, and it's a very interesting song because it changes tempo a lot, it's quite a complex piece. It's very Lennon. I was thinking the other day how poignant it was that John, who was shot in such tragic circumstances, should have written this song." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

LENNON: "They all said it was about drugs but it was more about rock 'n' roll than drugs. It's sort of a history of rock 'n' roll. . . . I don't know why people said it was about the needle in heroin. I've only seen somebody do something with a needle once, and I don't like to see it at all." Hit Parader (April 1972)

McCARTNEY: "I think this is my favourite on The Beatles album." Beatles in Their Own Words
Harrison named this song as one of his favourites on the album. Late 1969, The Beatles: A Celebration

COMMENTS BY OTHERS
RON REAGAN: "I remember once, when I was about thirteen, I borrowed the White Album from [my sister] Patti, and my mother got upset when she heard me listening to 'Happiness Is A Warm Gun.' It really bothered her a lot." RS (February 16, 1984)

Hello Goodbye

CHART ACTION
UNITED KINGDOM: Released as a single November 24, 1967. It entered the chart November 29 at No. 3 and was No. 1 by December 6. It stayed in the top spot for six weeks. The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

UNITED STATES: Released as a single November 27, 1967. It entered the Top 40 December 9, climbed to No. 1 for three weeks, and remained in the Top 40 for ten weeks. Billboard and The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles

John had wanted "I Am The Walrus" to be the A side of the Beatles' next single, but it was not as commercial as "Hello Goodbye" and was relegated to the B side. "Hello Goodbye" became the Beatles' best-selling single since "She Loves You", with seven weeks at the top of the English charts. Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

AUTHORSHIP McCartney (1.00)
Added to the soundtrack album was the Beatles' latest single, 'Hello Goodbye', the end chorus of which was used over the closing credits of the film.
McCARTNEY: "'Hello Goodbye' was one of my songs. There are Geminian influences here I think: the twins. It's such a deep theme in the universe, duality - man woman, black white, ebony ivory, high low, right wrong, up down, hello goodbye - that it was a very easy song to write. It's just a song of duality, with me advocating the more positive. You say goodbye, I saw hello. You say stop, I say go. I was advocating the more positive side of the duality, and I still do to this day." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

In his book Yesterday, Alistair Taylor says he was present at Cavendish Avenue when Paul got the first idea for 'Hello Goodbye'. He had asked Paul to explain exactly how he wrote songs:
"Paul marched me into the dining room, where he had a marvellous old hand-carved harmonium. 'Come and sit at the other end of the harmonium. You hit any note you like on the keyboard. Just hit it and I'll do the same. Now whenever I shout out a word, you shout the opposite and I'll make up a tune. You watch, it'll make music.' ...
'Black,' he started. 'White,' I replied. 'Yes.' 'No.' 'Good.' 'Bad.' 'Hello.' 'Goodbye.'" Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

RECORDED
October 2, 1967, at Abbey Road, with overdubs October 19, 20, and 25 and November 2

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass, piano, bongos, conga drum, lead and backing vocal
LENNON: lead guitar, organ, backing vocal
HARRISON: lead guitar, tambourine, backing vocal
STARR: drums, maracas
SESSION MUSICIANS: two violas

MISCELLANEOUS
A promotional film was shot for this song. The BBC banned it when McCartney showed he was lip-syncing the vocal, which went against rules of the British musicians' union. A-Z The film was shot November 10 at the Saville Theatre, London, with McCartney directing. The Beatles Diary, Volume 1 : From Liverpool to London
The instrumentation shown in the film was probably used to record the song - Lennon: Martin D-28 guitar. McCartney: Rickenbacker bass. Harrison: Epiphone Casino guitar. Guitar (November 1987)

COMMENTS BY BEATLES
Lennon always hated this song and felt insulted because this was the A side of the single, relegating his own "I Am The Walrus" to the B side. December 1970, Lennon Remembers: The Full Rolling Stone Interviews from 1970

LENNON: "It wasn't a great piece; the best bit was the end, which we all adlibbed in the studio." September 1980, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono

How Do You Do It

McCARTNEY: "By the time we got to 'Love Me Do', they started to feel a bit bluesier. When we eventually got down to London, that was the one we insisted on recording rather than 'How Do You Do It', [later] the Gerry and the Pacemakers song, which was more George Formby than anything else. We knew that peer pressure back in Liverpool would not allow us to do 'How Do You Do It'. We knew we couldn't hold our heads up with that sort of rock-a-pop-a-ballad. We would be spurned and cast away into the wilderness." Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

HARRISON: "When we first went to EMI and saw George Martin, he gave us a song. Some guy who was supposed to be a writer of pop songs wrote it. George said, 'Here's a song. Go back and learn it.' So we went and learnt it, but later we said, 'Look, we'd rather do our own songs.' " The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions & Unrehearsed Interviews

McCARTNEY: "There was always an underlying ambition to go in a slightly artistic direction, whereas a lot of our fellow groups didn't have that. This is why we didn't do 'How Do You Do It' when George Martin suggested it. 'It's a number one!' he said, and God knows we needed a number one. We said, 'No, no! No thanks!'" Paul McCartney: Many Years from Now

McCARTNEY: "Brian gave us a warning, 'Do it! It doesn't matter if you don't like it, just do it!' So we learnt it, and we did a demo recording of 'How Do You Do It', but we still didn't like the song. George Martin knew that it was going to be a number one hit, so we took it back to Liverpool and said, 'What are we gonna do with this? This is what he wants us to do, he's our producer, so we'll have to do it.' So we did, but we didn't like it and we came back to George and said, 'Well, it may be a number one song, but we just don't want this kind of song. We don't want to go out with that kind of reputation. It's a different thing we're going for. It's something new.' " The Beatles Off the Record: Outrageous Opinions & Unrehearsed Interviews

Honey Don't

AUTHORSHIP Carl Perkins (1.00)

RECORDED
October 26, 1964, at Abbey Road, during the last session for the album

INSTRUMENTATION
McCARTNEY: bass
LENNON: acoustic guitar, tambourine
HARRISON: lead guitar (Gretsch Tennessean [model PX6119])
STARR: drums, lead vocal
guitar from Guitar (November 1987)

MISCELLANEOUS
The original recording artist was Carl Perkins, who released it January 2, 1956, as the B side of "Blue Suede Shoes." The Long and Winding Road: An Intimate Guide to the Beatles
This song was part of the Beatles' live repertoire from 1962 to 1965 (Lennon sang lead until about August 1963). The Complete Beatles Chronicle