At 50, “Hey Jude” Still Makes Everything “Better, Better, Better”

(via Smithsonian) The 50-year-old song dwells in the musical DNA of our times. It is as deeply known as a nursery rhyme and as appealing as a cup of gelato on a steamy August day.  At more than seven minutes long, “Hey Jude” remains one of the longest No. 1 singles ever. The extended coda—a repetition of “nah, nah nah nah-nah-nah nah, nah-nah-nah nah, Hey Jude”—fills the second half of the record. In all, the lyrics use the sound “nah” 240 times. In the words of John Troutman, curator of American music at the National Museum of American History, where a 45 rpm 7-inch vinyl single of the song resides in the collections, this section is both mesmerizing and ecstatic