Behind the song: ''Hey Jude'' by The Beatles

"John and his wife Cynthia had divorced, and I felt a bit sorry for their son Julian, who was now a child of a divorce. I was driving out to see the son and Cynthia one day and I started this idea, 'Hey Jules, don't make it bad, it's gonna be OK.' It was like a reassurance song. I eventually changed ‘Jules’ to ‘Jude’ like one of the characters in Oklahoma!  - Paul McCartney

​

‘Hey Jude’ is a damn good set of lyrics and I made no contribution to that. 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.’ 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. - John Lennon

​

​"Paul and I used to hang out quite a bit - more than Dad and I did... I've never really wanted to know the truth of how Dad was and how he was with me. There was some very negative stuff - like when he said that I'd come out of a whisky bottle on a Saturday night. That's tough to deal with. You think, where's the love in that? It surprises me whenever I hear the song. It's strange to think someone has written a song about you. It still touches me." - Julian Lennon

​