One day in 1968, Paul McCartney was driving his Aston Martin DB6 to visit John Lennon's son, Julian, when a song came into his head. There was a reel-to-reel tape recorder installed in the car's dashboard for moments just like this, so he turned it on and started recording.

This would have been the very first recording of the song that became "Hey, Jude." That Aston Martin is still around, and the carmaker let me take it out for a drive.

This nearly 50-year-old "Goodwood Green" sedan was in very fine shape. The smooth wooden steering wheel felt good in my hands. The shifter slipped easily from gear.

One thing that was missing from the car was that historic tape recorder, which was removed and stored away "for its own protection," said the folks at Aston Martin. In its place is the glove compartment the car originally would have had when McCartney bought it for about £4,000. That's $7,000 at modern exchange rates, a fairly large sum for a car in 1966.