Composition and Structure
"Hey Jude" begins with McCartney singing lead vocals and playing the piano. The patterns McCartney plays are based on three chords: F, C and B-flat (I, V and IV); the second verse adds accompaniment by guitar and a single tambourine. The main chord progression is "flipped on its head" for the coda, as the C chord is replaced by E-flat. Author Tim Riley notes, "As Ringo offers a restrained tom-tom and cymbal fill, the piano shifts downward to add a flat seventh to the tonic chord, making the downbeat of the bridge the point of arrival ('And any time you feel the pain')." At the end of each bridge, McCartney sings a brief phrase ("Na-na-na na . . .") and plays a piano fill which leads to the next verse; the phrase McCartney sings serves to "reorient the harmony for the verse as the piano figure turns upside down into a vocal aside." Additional details, such as tambourine on the third verse and subtle harmonies that accompany the lead vocal, are added to sustain the interest of the listener throughout the four-verse, two-bridge song.
The verse-bridge structure of the song persists for approximately three minutes, after which the band leads into a four-minute-long coda. During the coda, the rest of band, backed by an orchestra that also provides backing vocals, repeat the phrase "Na-na-na na" followed by the words "Hey Jude" until the song gradually fades out. Time magazine described the coda as "a fadeout that engagingly spoofs the fadeout as a gimmick for ending pop records." Riley notes the repeated chord progression of the coda (I-♭VII-IV-I) "answers all the musical questions raised at the beginnings and ends of bridges," for "The flat seventh that pose dominant turns into bridges now has an entire chord built on it." This three-chord refrain allows McCartney "a bedding to leap about on vocally", as he ad-libs his vocal performance for the rest of the song. Riley concludes that the song "becomes a tour of Paul's vocal range: from the graceful inviting tones of the opening verse, through the mounting excitement of the song itself, to the surging raves of the coda."
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