Some of the Fab Four’s greatest work came about when the band was in utter turmoil and seemed on the verge of splitting up almost daily. And on the nonmusical front, John Lennon had recently split with wife Cynthia in favor of Yoko Ono, devastating the family.
Paul McCartney, no stranger to tragedy himself, wrote “Hey Jude” for Lennon’s son Julian, essentially as a musical hug — as if to say, “It’ll be OK, kid.” Not even two years later, the Beatles were finished as a group, but “Hey Jude,” and its legacy, live on.
