Hey Jude climaxes with one of pop's most legendary hooks." Julian Lennon discovered that "Hey Jude" had been written for him almost 20 years after McCartney composed the song. He recalled of his and McCartney's relationship: "Paul and I used to hang about quite a bit – more than Dad and I did. We had a great friendship going and there seems to be far more pictures of me and Paul playing together at that age than there are pictures of me and my dad." In 1996, Julian paid £25,000 for the recording notes to "Hey Jude" at an auction. He spent
Hey Jude number 12 on its list of "The 101 Greatest Beatles Songs" (between "Eleanor Rigby" and "Come Together"). On a similar list compiled four years later, "Rolling Stone" ranked the song at number seven. In 2015, the ITV program "The Nation's Favourite Beatles Number One" ranked "Hey Jude" in first place. In 2018, the music staff of "Time Out London" ranked it at number 49 on their list of the best Beatles songs. Writing in the magazine, Nick Levine said: "Don't allow yourself to overlook this song because of its sheer ubiquity ... 'Hey Jude' is a huge-hearted, super-emotional epic that