The Beatles performed "Hey Jude" on the UK television program Frost on Sunday on September 8th of 1968.
"Hey Jude" had been released as a single in late August (8/26 in the US & 8/30 in the UK) not long before this performance. It had just reached #1 on the UK charts the day before. It stayed at #1 in the UK for 2 weeks. It was #1 in the US for 9 weeks, the longest stay at #1 in the US for any Beatles single.
At over 7 minutes long, "Hey Jude" was an extremely long song for it's time. In fact it was the longest #1 song in the UK until 1993 when it was surpassed in length (but certainly not in any other way) by Meat Loaf's "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That.)"
The B-Side to the single was the fast version of "Revolution." Neither "Hey Jude" nor the fast version of "Revolution" were included on any Beatles albums (until later "Greatest Hits" and singles compilations.)
"Hey Jude" was ranked #8 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the top 500 songs of all time. It has also been included in countless other "best of" lists. It's currently the 5th most listened to Beatles song on Last.FM, where the Beatles are also the most listened to artist at this time, over 37 years since they broke up.
"Hey Jude" was written and sung by Paul McCartney. It was written for John Lennon's son, Julian Lennon, because of the divorce that his parents were going through at the time. The song was originally called "Hey Jules" and was later changed to "Hey Jude" because the sound worked better for the song.
Watch this September 8, 1968 performance of "Hey Jude" by The Beatles:
It was 39 years ago today that the Beatles animated film Yellow Submarine premiered on July 17th of 1968 in London.
The movie featured some new songs (such as "It's All Too Much") but the soundtrack was mostly made up of past Beatles hits like the title track "Yellow Submarine," "Eleanor Rigby," and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."
The album released with the same name as the film featured 6 Beatles songs (4 of which were new releases) along with 7 instrumentals written by their producer, George Martin.
A "Songtrack" also titled Yellow Submarine was released in 1999 to coincide with the re-release of the film. This songs on this version were remixed and instead of just 6 songs it had 15 songs with no instrumentals. This "Songtrack" is a pretty good introduction to the Beatles psychedelic period.
A clip from the movie with the song "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band"
Australian pop star Kylie Monigue was born on May 28th of 1968. She has sold over 65 million records worldwide.
She had a worldwide smash hit in 1987 with "The Loco-Motion" which went to #3 in the US (her highest charting US single), #2 in the UK, and #1 in Austrlia & Europe.
She's gone on to have much more success in Australia and in Europe but less so in the United States where her only other top 10 hit was "Can't Get You out of My Head" which got to #7 in 2001 in the US (#1 in the Australian, UK, and European singles charts.)
Monigue has had 9 #1 singles in Australia and 8 in the UK.
See (& hear) the video for "Can't Get You Out Of My Head"
The Flaming Lips covered "Can't Get You Out Of My Head" - hear their version in this video (the video was not made by the Lips):
The original Smashing Pumpkins bassist D'arcy Wretzky-Brown turns 39 years old today.
She left the band in 1999 and was replaced by another female bassist, Melissa Auf der Maur. Auf der Maur was previously a member of the Courtney Love lead band Hole.
Wretzky was the bassist during the Smashing Pumpkins biggest successes throughout the 90s.
"one hit wonders" The Lemon Pipers hit the top of the charts in the United States with "Green Tambourine" (the song was No. 7 in the UK) on February 3rd, 1968
See The Video For The Song:
The Lemon Pipers formed in Cincinnati, OH in 1967 and disbanded in 1969. But in 1968 they were #1 on the charts!
Members Included: Singer - Ivan Browne Guitarist - William Bartlett Keyboardist - R.G. Nave Bassist - Steve Walmsley Drummer - William Albaugh
"Green Tambourine" was written by the songwriting team Paul Leka and Shelley Pinz. This song was apparently recorded by The Lemon Pipers under the demands of their record company.
The song appeared on the album by the same name. It also features another Leka/Pinz penned songs such as "Rice Is Nice" and some apparently more "freak out" type stuff as well (written by the band) like "50 Year Void" and "Through With You." I've not heard the album myself but I am a bit curious. If you have heard this album please comment!
