The Beatles' "Hey Jude" was written directly for John Lennon's son, Julian, by Paul McCartney during the process of John's divorce from Julian's mother. The vocals includes two recordings of Paul, each moving from low E to high F, and a third recording scatting. The song is unusually long at approximately 7 minutes. The first 3 minutes are devoted to the lyrical skills of Paul McCartney, accompanied by George Harrison on harmony vocals and lead guitar, John Lennon on harmony vocals and rhythm guitar, and Ringo Starr on drums and the tambourine.
The arrangement of the song beings with a piano solo with vocal, then joined by an acoustic rhythm guitar, tambourine, and back-up vocals in the second verse. Afterwards, drums and bass bridge into the song to the final verse.
The first half of the song is the most “song-like”, including a basic ensemble of a singer and the band. It is defined by a simple, sing-along chorus. The harmony is in a diatonic "C-D-E-F-G-A-B" scale, and the melody makes use of appoggiaturas.
The second half of the song presents repetitions of the same phrase "Na... na-na na-na-na-na / na-na-na-na/ Hey Jude” in the chorus over and over again through the end of the song. Paul McCartney half-sings and half-scats the lyrics:
"Ju-Judy Judy Judy Judy Judy OW, WAHOW!"
"Ow hoo, na na na"
"JUDE Jude JUDE Jude Joooo..."
"Na na na na na, yeah yeah yeah"
"Yeah you know you can make it, yeah Jude, you not gotta break it"
"Don't make it bad Jude"
"Take a sad song and make it better"
"Oh Jude, Jude, Hey Jude, WHAAAAOOOOW"
"Ooo, Juuuude"
"Yeah"
"Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey-ee-yay-yay-yay"
"Hey, hey, hey"
"Now Jude Jude Jude Jude Jude Jude, yeah yeah yeah yeah"
"Woh yeah yeah"
"Ah nanananananana cause I wanna"
"Nanananana ... nanalala ow ow ow"
"Oh God"
"The pain won't come back Jude"
"Yeah, eh hehe heh"
"Make it Jude"
"YEAHYEAHYEAH YEAH! YEAH! YEAH! HA HA HA HA HA...."
"Goodeveningladiesandgentlemen mymymymy my my mahhhh"
"oooo"
"Woooh"
These ad-libbed vocal lines are considerably different from the traditional first half of the song, which includes verses rather than the lines of improvised scat which have no visible pattern. The rest of the song slowly fades out to eventual silence over the span of the last two minutes while repeating the phrase: "Na... na-na na-na-na-na / na-na-na-na/ Hey Jude”.
These lines of improvised scat represent the era that the Beatles played in. The '70s, being a sort of organized chaos, saw the rise of hippies and with them, a new form of music found in the Beatles, and other artists such as Jimmy Hendrix. They shifted the U.S. global dominance of rock and roll towards UK soloists and group performers with independent works.
