Trident Studios, Soho, Where the Beatles Recorded Hey Jude

The Beatles recorded Hey Jude at Trident Studios, 17 St Anne's Court in Soho, London, on 31 July and 1 August 1968. They left Abbey Road for two days because Trident had an eight-track tape machine. The building still stands but is no longer a studio. Its one plaque is for David Bowie, and nothing marks the Beatles.

Why the Beatles left Abbey Road for two days

Brothers Norman and Barry Sheffield opened Trident in St Anne's Court in 1968. The studio had an eight-track tape recorder at a time when EMI's studios at Abbey Road were still recording on four tracks. More tracks meant more room to build a song up in layers, and the Beatles wanted that for Hey Jude.

They rehearsed the song at Abbey Road Studios on 29 and 30 July 1968, then moved to Trident on 31 July to record it. That session produced four takes, and the first became the master. Paul McCartney played Trident's house piano, a C. Bechstein grand built in 1898, and Barry Sheffield engineered. On 1 August they added overdubs, including a 36-piece orchestra for the long ending. Hey Jude became the first Beatles song recorded on eight-track.

The tapes still had a problem. Played back at EMI they sounded murky, and the engineers had to fix that before the final mixes were done at Abbey Road in early August.

More Beatles work at St Anne's Court

The group came back for several songs that ended up on the White Album, including Dear Prudence, Martha My Dear, Savoy Truffle and Honey Pie. Apple artists used the studio too. McCartney produced Mary Hopkin's Those Were the Days there, and James Taylor recorded his first album for Apple at Trident. After the split, George Harrison worked on All Things Must Pass at Trident, and Ringo Starr recorded It Don't Come Easy there.

The Bowie plaque and what the building is now

The studio at St Anne's Court closed in 1981. The building now holds offices, and one account says a film company uses it for spoken-word recording. Either way, nobody makes music there and visitors can't go in.

The blue plaque on the front was unveiled on 15 June 2017 by Billy Bragg and the artist George Underwood as part of BBC Music Day. It honours David Bowie, who made Hunky Dory and Ziggy Stardust at Trident. The plaque does not mention the Beatles, and there is no other marker for Hey Jude anywhere on the building.

Soho has two more Beatles stops within a short walk: the London Palladium on Argyll Street and the Imagine statue on Carnaby Street.