Hey Jude (album)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Hey Jude | ||
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| Compilation album by The Beatles | ||
| Released | February 26, 1970 (US) May 11, 1979 (UK) |
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| Recorded | Abbey Road and Trident Studios 1964-9 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 32:25 | |
| Label | Apple Capitol SW 385 (US) Parlophone PCS 7184 (UK) |
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| Producer(s) | George Martin | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| The Beatles chronology | ||
| Abbey Road (1969) |
Hey Jude (1970) |
Let It Be (1970) |
Hey Jude (original title: The Beatles Again) was a 1970 collection of non-album Beatles' singles and B-sides, as well as "I Should Have Known Better" and "Can't Buy Me Love," two singles released by Capitol Records whose only previous American album appearance had been on the A Hard Day's Night soundtrack album track which had been released by United Artists Records.
The Hey Jude album offered Capitol an opportunity to create a compilation album out of songs that had not been previously released on a Capitol album in the United States. In part this was a consequence of the Beatles' unwillingness to include single releases on their contemporaneous albums, and partially it was a consequence of Capitol's habit of recompiling The Beatles' Parlophone releases for the American market. Strangely, the album failed to include "A Hard Day's Night", which had been released as a single by Capitol and was available on the United Artists soundtrack album, "I'm Down", which was the B-Side of "Help!", and "The Inner Light", which was the B-Side of "Lady Madonna". Capitol also overlooked "From Me to You", "Misery" and "There's a Place", three early Beatles songs, the first of which was released as a single by Vee Jay Records and latter two of which had been included on the long out-of-print Vee Jay album, Introducing... The Beatles.
Originally, the album was to be named The Beatles Again, as if to indicate that the record was a sequel to "The White Album," which was officially titled, The Beatles. Before the disc was released, however, the title of the album was changed to Hey Jude, after the top selling song that led off side two. Unfortunately, the name change occurred after the label was printed, and an untold number of copies of the album were sold with an Apple label sporting the title, The Beatles Again. (Neither the front nor back of the album displayed the record's title, but most copies were sold in a jacket whose spine read, Hey Jude. Furthermore, in an attempt to clear up any confusion caused by the misprinted label, initial copies of the album also displayed a sticker on the cover bearing the title, Hey Jude.) The edition of the album with the The Beatles Again label bore catalog number SO-385 on the label, but not on the jacket. The record jacket (which listed Hey Jude as the title on the spine) listed the catalog number as SW-385. The SW-385 catalog number replaced SO-385 on the label of later pressings which bore the title Hey Jude on the label.
The front and back cover pictures were taken at the last-ever Beatles photo session, in August 1969, at John Lennon's new home Tittenhurst Park. Allen Klein authorized release of the album, as a sales buffer during post-production of the delayed Let It Be.
The compilation was originally only released in the United States, although it was a popular import in the UK. Due to its popularity as an import, Parlophone finally released Hey Jude in Britain in 1979. (If a fan who owned all twelve studio British Beatles albums augmented his or her collection with Hey Jude, Magical Mystery Tour, A Collection of Beatles Oldies, and the British version of Rarities, his or her collection would include every official Beatles song, although a handful of officially released alternate takes would still be missing.) Until the release of The Beatles 1967-1970 in 1973, Hey Jude was the only way to own the extremely popular full-length "Hey Jude" single on LP, or in a stereo mix. The songs "Lady Madonna", "Don't Let Me Down", "Paperback Writer", "Rain", and "Revolution" also appeared for the first time in stereo on this album. Interestingly, on the Reel to Reel version, the A and B sides are flipped.
The CD era saw the harmonization of The Beatles' US and UK discographies, and Hey Jude is no longer available. The entirety of its track listing is available on two Beatle albums on CD, A Hard Day's Night and Past Masters, Volume Two.
[edit] Track listing
- All tracks written by Lennon-McCartney, except where noted.
[edit] Side one
- "Can't Buy Me Love" (1964) – 2:19
- "I Should Have Known Better" (1964) – 2:39
- "Paperback Writer" (1966) – 2:14
- "Rain" (1966) – 2:58
- "Lady Madonna" (1968) – 2:14
- "Revolution" (1968) – 3:21
[edit] Side two
- "Hey Jude" (1968) – 7:06
- "Old Brown Shoe" (1969) (Harrison) – 3:16
- "Don't Let Me Down" (1969) – 3:30
- "The Ballad of John and Yoko" (1969) – 2:55
