You may know classic Beatles songs like "Hey Jude" or "Yesterday" by heart, but you'll still be surprised to learn the incredible stories behind how they were written.
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs DivisionThe Beatles arrive at New York’s Kennedy Airport on February 7, 1964.
As the 1960s came to an end, so did the impressive reign of The Beatles. The band broke up in 1970, but the fascination with Beatles songs continues to this day.
What does it take to make a hit record? John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr seemed to understand the necessary ingredients. They penned hit after hit, including “Hey Jude,” “Here Comes The Sun,” and “Strawberry Fields Forever.”
Here, we take a look at some of The Beatles’ most enduring songs — and the behind-the-scenes magic that brought them to life.
What Is “Hey Jude” About?
AFP/Getty ImagesPaul McCartney with wife, Linda, and daughter, Mary, in 1971.
One of The Beatles’ most popular songs has a rather endearing origin story — one that centers on grief, coping, and hope.
The idea came to Paul McCartney while visiting Cynthia Lennon, who had recently split up with John, and their son Julian. As McCartney recalled:
“I thought, as a friend of the family, I would motor out to Weybridge and tell them that everything was all right: to try and cheer them up, basically, and see how they were.”
As McCartney drove, his mind started to wonder. He routinely used long drives to think up song ideas, and began to toy around with a tune centered on Julian Lennon.
“I started singing: ‘Hey Jules – don’t make it bad, take a sad song, and make it better…’ It was optimistic, a hopeful message for Julian: ‘Come on, man, your parents got divorced. I know you’re not happy, but you’ll be OK.'”
Originally, McCartney called the song “Hey Jules,” but he later changed it to “Jude” so the lyrics would flow better.
But, although McCartney has stuck with his story, John Lennon always suspected that his bandmate’s song had a double meaning. He thought that perhaps McCartney was also writing about Lennon’s relationship with Yoko Ono.
“I always heard it as a song to me,” Lennon explained. “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.”
What Was “Dear Prudence” Written About?
Flickr/dgjonesFirst pressing of Gatefold Double LP + insert prints: The White Album.
In 1968, The Beatles traveled to India to study transcendental meditation under guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. But they weren’t the only celebrities interested in finding enlightenment at the time. Many actors and musicians made their way to the ashram. Among them were Mia Farrow and her sister Prudence.
As John Lennon later said, in an attempt to “reach God quicker than anybody else,” Prudence refused to leave her room at the ashram. This refusal, Lennon said, lasted for weeks.
Prudence did so against the wishes of Maharishi, and eventually, George Harrison and Lennon were tasked with getting her out.
“They selected me and George to try and bring her out because she would trust us,” Lennon said.
Prudence — in spite, or perhaps because of, her isolation — spurred Lennon to write a song about her: “Dear Prudence.”
Lennon said that the song is “about Mia Farrow’s sister, who seemed to go slightly barmy, meditating too long, and couldn’t come out of the little hut that we were living in.”
Harrison and Lennon wrote the song while still in India, only letting Prudence know that they had done so as they were leaving. She heard it for the first time after the White Album came out.
Prudence later confirmed Lennon’s story. “Being on that course was more important to me than anything in the world. I was very focused on getting in as much meditation as possible so that I could gain enough experience to teach it myself,” she said.
“I knew that I must have stuck out because I would always rush straight back to my room after lectures and meals so that I could meditate.
“John, George, and Paul would all want to sit around jamming and having a good time and I’d be flying into my room. They were all serious about what they were doing but they just weren’t as fanatical as me.
“At the end of the course, just as they were leaving, George mentioned that they had written a song about me but I didn’t hear it until it came out on the album. I was flattered. It was a beautiful thing to have done.”
