On this day in 1968, The Beatles’ single “Hey Jude” hits the top of the charts. The song had debuted two weeks earlier at No. 10, the highest spot ever achieved by a new release up to that time. Over seven minutes long, it was the longest song ever to hit No. 1, a record it holds to this day.

Paul McCartney wrote the song about the same time that John Lennon was divorcing his wife Cynthia. McCartney once claimed the song started out as “Hey, Jules,” and was meant to console John and Cynthia’s son, Julian. Some listeners hear the song as a prophetic lament for the approaching end of the Beatles themselves, who split up in early 1970.

Lennon and McCartney began playing music together in 1956 and by 1960 had formed the Beatles with George Harrison. The band toured German beerhouses in 1961 and debuted later that year at the Cavern Club in Liverpool, where they gave more than 300 performances during the next two years. Drummer Ringo Starr joined the group in 1962. They scored several U.K. hits in 1963, launching the Beatlemania frenzy that hit the United States in 1964. In a little more than 10 years, the group transformed rock and roll, scoring 20 No. 1 hits on the Billboard pop charts, more than any group in history. The group’s records spent a total of 59 weeks topping the charts between 1964 and 1970.

Lennon divorced his first wife and married artist Yoko Ono in 1969. With Ono, he released the album Two Virgins in 1968. He became more involved in progressive political causes and in pursuing projects with Ono and decided to leave the Beatles. In 1970, McCartney announced that the Beatles had broken up. Lennon released his first solo album, Imagine, in 1971, and the album rose to No. 1 on the charts. Harrison, Starr, and McCartney all later released their own solo albums. McCartney’s next band, Wings, released numerous successful albums in the 1970s.

In 1980, Lennon was murdered in New York City by a deranged fan. He was 40 years old. George Harrison died of lung cancer, at the age of 58, in 2001.

(With thanks to History.com)