Billboard’s #1 single of the 1960’s, and a nine-week chart-topper from the Beatles that once again broke all the rules. Nobody had a US #1 single that ran seven-plus minutes. (“MacArthur Park” was a UK #1 but #2 in the States.) Nobody repeated the same phrase for the entire four-minute second half of a record. No prior track had such a long, gradual fade-out. From the White Album sessions, it didn’t appear on an American LP until 1970; the British had to wait until 1973. Paul wrote the song to show empathy towards 5-year-old Julian Lennon while John and Cynthia were getting divorced. There were a few oddities during the recording. George was barely on the track. Ringo stepped out to the loo, but Paul didn’t notice and started the take that was eventually used. Starr tip-toed back into the studio and hit his cue perfectly. Listen closely around the 2:56 mark after the “Oh!” - in the background you may hear the nastiest obscenity of them all after someone mis-hit a chord. BTW “nah” was heard a total of 216 times at the end. As a promotion, Paul went by the recently closed Apple Boutique (google that; the place bled money £££) and wrote “Jude” in the window. Complaints poured in the next day from London’s Jewish community. McCartney really didn’t know that in 1930’s Germany, the Nazis wrote “Jude” on storefronts to identify them as Jewish owned. Yikes.
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