The Beatles » Tracks » Hello, Goodbye

The Beatles – Hello, Goodbye (3:27)

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About This Track

“Hello, Goodbye” is a song written by Lennon/McCartney and first recorded by the English rock band The Beatles. The song was released as a single in November 1967, and topped the charts in both the United States and Britain.

Writing

Though the songwriting credit is Lennon/McCartney, it was written only by Paul McCartney.

Alistair Taylor, who worked for the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, had asked McCartney how he wrote his songs, and McCartney took him into his dining room to give him a demonstration on his harmonium. He asked Taylor to shout the opposite of whatever he sang as he played the instrument—black and white, yes and no, stop and go, hello and goodbye. Taylor later said, “I wonder whether Paul really made up that song as he went along or whether it was running through his head already.”

Recording

Under the working title “Hello Hello”, the Beatles recorded the backing track on 2 October 1967, and added vocals and a guitar overdub on the 19th. After further overdubs of bass guitar and viola, recording was completed on the 2nd November, and mixing on 6th.

The final lines of the song, where the entire band sings “Hela, hey-ba hello-a” came spontaneously in the studio. McCartney said “I remember the end bit where there’s the pause and it goes ‘Heba, heba hello’. We had those words and we had this whole thing recorded but it didn’t sound quite right, and I remember asking Geoff Emerick if we could really whack up the echo on the tom-toms. And we put this echo full up on the tom-toms and it just came alive.”
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Albums featuring this track

  • 1967-1970 (disc 1)
    The Beatles Play
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  • Anthology 2 (disc 2)
    The Beatles Play
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  • # 1
    The Beatles Play
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  • Abbey Road Video Show (Strawberry)
    The Beatles Play
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  • FoxDoeBull

    isayno

    January 2012

  • irfanh23

    Probably their worst song.

    December 2011

  • mdt

    The comma in the title is inconsistent between releases. The original Parlophone (U.K.) single release has a comma (as does the single in most other countries), but the Capitol (U.S.) single has no comma. The vinyl Magical Mystery Tour compilation (11-song version created by Capitol, not the 6-song Parlophone E.P.) and the later MMT CD releases (including the remasters) spell this with no comma, but the song on Anthology 2 and the "1" singles compilation both use a comma. Since the original U.K. release used a comma (and that has been carried over to non-MMT CD releases) I think that's more official, with the Capitol single and the MMT compilation without a comma being an error by a Capitol employee.

    August 2011

  • davidbowiegirl

    Great song.

    July 2011

  • paul30801

    Love this song! By the way guys if any of u want a free iphone 4 check out this site FREEIPHONE4-METROLYRICS.INFO Actually works! Just got mine the other day haha

    May 2011

  • JPsartre

    "Hello Goodbye" with out a comma

    March 2011

  • jacobnorris

    1:23 eargasm

    November 2010

  • AlbinoChicken

    @megajosh2 theres another 1mill+ plays on "Hello Goodbye" with out a comma :]

    August 2010

  • heaventree22

    wow, mccartney mundanity

    June 2010

  • AmbienVampire

    hooks galore :)

    June 2010

  • cuuukrinis

    such wonderful melody deserves much better lyrics

    May 2010

  • megajosh2

    I'm surprised by how little this track is listened to, especially considering how damn popular it is...

    April 2010

  • allicat-

    This song is way too catchy. And, jeez, now I can't stop thinking about this song in relation to rape :|

    January 2010

  • aineb

    cds http://www.lastfm.pl/music/The+Beatles/Hello%2C+Goodbye

    December 2009

  • Santi140

    I don't know why You say goodbye, I say hello < 3

    December 2009

  • Ackibear

    This song is made of love and happy.

    November 2009

  • kallekk

    fantastic song!

    September 2009

  • obladi-oblada

    iblamethegovt WTF XD

    June 2009

  • lisalulu08

    <333

    June 2009

  • iblamethegovt

    this song is about rape. not so happy now, IS IT?

    May 2009
See all 68 shouts

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