The Beatles single “Hey Jude”, the band’s longest-running #1 hit, turns 50 on Sunday. Paul McCartney wrote it for John’s son Julian Lennon, about dealing with John’s affair with Yoko Ono and separation from Jules’s mother Cynthia. But Paul’s advice is broad enough that every fan can read their own meaning into it. (John, being John, felt that the song was actually for him.)

Here’s what we read into it, and relevant Lifehacker posts on how to make it better.

If you're searching for lyrics for a song on Google, you'll now get instant results right at the top of the results page. All you need to do is type in " lyrics."

Dear Lifehacker, I was adding some new songs to my iPod, and was wondering if there was an easier way to add song lyrics to all my songs (so that i can sing along on my iPod later) rather than the traditional copy and paste method. Any options on Windows or Mac?

Once known as song identification iPhone app Midomi, SoundHound goes beyond identifying that tune and comes with an inbuilt music player, with the ability to look up lyrics on the fly.

Windows:If you're an iTunes user with a bunch of helper programs to show what's playing, grab lyrics, export playlists, organise files and sync with your USB device, you might be able to do it all at once with free utility iTuner.

Mac only: If you're going to warble along with your favourite song, make sure you get the words right. Get Lyrical is a free app that automatically displays the lyrics of whatever song is playing in iTunes.

Ever have a catchy tune stuck in your head but have no clue what the name of the song is, never mind who sings it? Enter web site LyricRat, who searches lyrics, finds the song and then some.

iPhone/Android/BlackBerry: TuneWiki does pretty much everything your phone's built-in music player does, then does much more. The notable feature is real-time lyrics display, but TuneWiki also geo-locates songs playing near you, shares favourites on social networks, and handles radio admirably.

Windows only: SkiniTunes solves some of the deficiencies of iTunes' mini player, adding album covers, lyrics, instant ratings, and a few other nice features. The $US5 pro edition, however, locks down the global hotkeys.

Windows only: iTunes Lyrics Importer makes sure the lyrics for your iTunes-managed music collection are updated and free from gaps. iTunes Lyrics Importer polls Lyricwiki's extensive database to make sure you have an accurate and well stocked catalog of lyrics for your favourite songs. The application is simple to use, and the initial run will fill in any missing lyrics in your existing collection. From there on, any time you add new music (or whenever you remember to update), run iTunes Lyrics Importer to rescan your collection and update the new songs. You can specify whether you want it to automatically update the lyrics, or ask for your approval and allow for edits—a handy feature if you have obscure or foreign language songs and incorrect guesses are likely. iTunes Lyrics Importer is freeware, Windows only. Thanks Mark!

iTunes Lyrics Importer

Windows/Mac/Linux: Free application AutoLyrix automatically fetches and displays album artwork and lyrics for the currently playing track in your music player of choice. AutoLyrix is an open-source alternative to previously mentioned EvilLyrics, and like EvilLyrics, it not only downloads lyrics but also advances lyrics karaoke-style with the music when possible. AutoLyrix could use some polish to the interface (though it does transparency and has a few other options), but functionally it's been working really well. The app works with virtually every popular media player, including iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player, foobar2000, Last.fm, MediaMonkey, and more. AutoLyrix is a free download for all platforms, requires .NET 2.0 on Windows and Mono on OS X and Linux.

AutoLyrix

Mac OS X only: As its name suggests, free application DesktopLyrics automatically embeds lyrics on your desktop to the song you're currently listening to in iTunes. It's a simple app that does exactly what it says, but what it doesn't do is actually download lyrics—meaning that if you don't have the lyrics already embedded in the song's metadata, DesktopLyrics won't display anything. Luckily previously mentioned GimmeSomeTune automatically does just that (along with album art and other great features), so working in tandem these two apps make for a killer music desktop. DesktopLyrics is freeware, Mac OS X only. Windows users, check out previously mentioned MiniLyrics.

Mac OS X only: Free iTunes add-on GimmeSomeTune automatically fetches missing album artwork, lyrics, and automatically embeds them in your music library. GimmeSomeTune runs in the background, and in addition to the metadata tools, it also supports scrobbling your music to Last.fm, universal hotkeys, iChat status updates, and even Apple Remote control. Apart from all that, GimmeSomeTune is also an excellent iTunes desktop remote, complete with a fully customisable song notification window. The donationware GimmeSomeTune is a must-have for the iTunes lover, Mac OS X only.

GimmeSomeTune