Recording the "White Album" took much longer than the Beatles normally spent on an album. Their label, Apple Records, was expected to make a big debut over the summer, while the album would not be ready until at least that fall. In the meantime, they recorded songs for a single, as their part of the debut. Paul McCartney visited Cynthia and Julian, at their new home. He knew they were hurt by Lennon's leaving Cynthia for Yoko Ono, and he made up a song for Julian on the way, to cheer him up. Its words went "Hey Jules, it's not so bad. Take a sad song, and make it better." This turned into "Hey Jude", which became the Beatles's biggest hit single ever, and one of the first pop songs to last longer than three minutes.