Sixty-two years ago today, on November 29, 1963, Parlophone Records released the single “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to record-buying audiences in the UK. The record had more than a million copies advance ordered and debuted on the British charts at number-two. (Number-one that week was another Beatles tune, “She Loves You.”) It took just two weeks for “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to advance to the #1 position on the UK charts, where it stayed for five weeks.
Here in the States, Capitol Records released “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on December 26, 1963. It entered the Billboard Hot 100 on January 18, 1964, and shot to #1 on February 1. It stayed in the number-one position for seven weeks, when it was supplanted by “She Loves You,” which was released later here in the Colonies.
Interestingly, Capitol Records had initially intended to release “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in mid-January of 1964, but their hand was forced (no pun intended) when U.S. disc jockeys got hold of the Parlophone single released earlier in the UK. With DJs across the country playing the song to an overwhelming number of listener requests, Capitol decided to move up the single’s release.
“I Want to Hold Your Hand” became the Beatles’ top-selling single worldwide, selling more than 12 million copies. It was the song that launched the British Invasion, hitting #1 all over the globe—it topped the charts in Australia, Denmark, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, the UK, West Germany, and the U.S. (on both the Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100).
Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote “I Want to Hold Your Hand” when Paul was temporarily living in his girlfriend Jane Asher’s parents’ house at 57 Wimpole Street in London. Like many of the Fab Four’s early songs, it was a true collaboration, as John later recalled:
“We wrote a lot of stuff together, one on one, eyeball to eyeball. Like in ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand,’ I remember when we got the chord that made the song. We were in Jane Asher’s house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time. And we had, ‘Oh you-u-u/ got that something …’ And Paul hits this chord and I turn to him and say, ‘That’s it!’ I said, ‘Do that again!’ In those days, we really used to absolutely write like that—both playing into each other’s noses.”
Sir Paul later confirmed his partner’s account:
“‘Eyeball to eyeball’ is a very good description of it. That’s exactly how it was. ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ was very co-written.”
As to which chord in the tune was the one Lennon referred to, most experts think it’s the Em chord in the G – D7 – Em progression. That’s I – V7 – vi for you music theorists, with the move from the dominant to the submediant being somewhat unexpected. (Normally the dominant or V chord leads back to the tonic or I chord.)
John, Paul, George, and Ringo recorded “I Want to Hold Your Hand” at Studio 2 at EMI Studios on October 17, 1963. It, along with the single’s B-side, “This Boy,” were the first Beatles songs to be recorded on a four-track machine, previous recordings made on just a two-track recorder. George Martin produced the track; it took 17 takes to get one they liked.
“I Want to Hold Your Hand” was nominated for a Grammy Award for Record of the Year, but lost to “The Girl from Ipanema”—itself a great song but no “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” The Beatles song was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
This is the single, by the way, that led off the Beatles’ record seven number-one songs in a one-year period on the U.S. Billboard chart. Those songs were, in order, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “She Loves You,” “Can’t Buy Me Love,” “Love Me Do,” “A Hard Day’s Night,” “I Feel Fine,” and “Eight Days a Week.” That was what Beatlemania was about, folks.
And here’s today’s daily bonus video of the day, another classic moment. It’s the Beatles in their debut appearance on the February 9, 1964, episode of The Ed Sullivan Show, performing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” for screaming American audiences for the very first time. That Sunday night changed the shape of popular music and culture forever—if you were alive back then you were probably one of the 73 million Americans watching. (I was just six years old and I remember it!)
