Take a Sad Song: The Emotional Currency of “Hey Jude” by James Campion

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'Take a Sad Song' by James Campion

Take a Sad Song reminds us that “Hey Jude” was an unusual sounding entry on AM radio in 1968. Obviously, The Beatles were the era’s great hitmakers, perhaps alone in their ability to take a seven-minute song to the top of charts, especially since four of those minutes was a coda that went “na, na, na, na-na-na-na, hey Jude.”

Author James Campion argues that “Hey Jude” became and remains The Beatles’ most beloved song, despite competition from the decade-long run of the band that changed the world somehow, at least superficially, through their music and image. The metrics Campion uses to determine “most beloved” Beatles’ song can be scrutinized. The chart-rankings he cites were an inexact science at best in the pre-digital age when sales and airplay numbers could be juggled with little verification. The anecdotes from fellow podcasters and musical friends are a random sample of public opinion at best. Still, there is no doubting the song’s popularity and the lasting impression it left behind.

Take a Sad Song provides a good, succinct overview of “Hey Jude’s” primary author, Paul McCartney, delving into well-supported speculation into the emotional autobiography that found its way into the song’s words and music. It’s also a reminder that McCartney, not pre-Yoko John Lennon, was The Beatles’ leading champion for all things avant-garde.

Campion’s close reading is revelatory. “Hey Jude” matched grandeur with camaraderie, acknowledged pain while privileging hope, honoring Apollonian order through its verses and refrain before bursting into Dionysian frenzy for the coda. And as Campion notes, it’s a great song for friends and strangers to sing along while gathered around a piano.