I Want to Hold Your Hand
John Lennon and Paul McCartney sat in the basement music room of 57 Wimpole Street during late 1963. Margaret Asher taught oboe there, but the small space became their creative base after they moved from Forthlin Road in Liverpool. Jane Asher was McCartney's girlfriend at the time, and her parents hosted the session. Lennon later told Playboy magazine in September 1980 that they worked "eyeball to eyeball" on the track. McCartney agreed with this description in 1994, calling it a very co-written effort. They used random phrases that fit the sound, often discarding lyrics that did not match the melody. The title likely evolved from an earlier song called "I Wanna Be Your Man." This collaborative method defined their partnership during this period.
EMI Studios in London held Studio 2 when the group recorded the track on the 17th of October 1963. This session marked the first use of four-track recording equipment by the band. George Martin mixed both mono and stereo versions on the 21st of October 1963. Further stereo mixes appeared later for compilations released in Australia and the Netherlands in June 1965. Another remix occurred on the 7th of November 1966. The song required seventeen takes before completion. It stood alongside "This Boy" as one of two tracks using this new technology. Capitol Records airbrushed out a cigarette Paul McCartney held on the American single sleeve in 1984. The original mono mix returned to circulation on the 2009 Mono Masters release.
Parlophone Records released the single in the United Kingdom on the 29th of November 1963. Advance orders exceeded one million copies before the public could hear it. The previous hit "She Loves You" blocked its entry to number one initially. Media coverage had revived interest in that older track, creating a unique situation. It took two weeks for the new song to dislodge its predecessor from the top spot. Once there, it remained at number one for five consecutive weeks. The track became the Christmas number one of 1963. It stayed within the UK top 50 for twenty-one weeks total. A brief return to the charts happened on the 16th of May 1964. During this period, the group occupied both the album and single chart positions simultaneously.
Capitol Records finally agreed to release the record in America after pressure from Brian Epstein. They demanded US$40,000 for promotion, far exceeding their usual spending limit. A fourteen-year-old fan named Marsha Albert pushed for an early radio debut. Carroll James, a DJ at WWDC in Washington DC, played the record on the 26th of December 1963. He announced it as a Carroll James exclusive to prevent other stations from stealing the copy. Capitol released the single two weeks ahead of schedule due to the resulting publicity. Sales reached a quarter of a million copies in just three days. By the 18th of January 1964, the song entered the Billboard Hot 100 at number 45. It topped the chart by the 1st of February and held that position for seven weeks. Five million copies sold in the United States alone.
Cynthia Lowery of the Associated Press expressed frustration with Beatlemania in her reviews. David Newman wrote for Esquire magazine, calling the track terrible and indistinguishable from other loud groups. Cash Box described it as an infectious twist-like thumper that could spread like wildfire. Ian MacDonald noted in his book Revolution in the Head that the song electrified American pop music. Bob Dylan stated that their chords were outrageous yet valid. Brian Wilson recalled feeling threatened after hearing the record. He said it got The Beach Boys off their asses in the studio. The group won second place at the Ivor Novello Awards behind "She Loves You." They received a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year in 1964 but lost to Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz.
The Recording Industry Association of America named the single one of the Songs of the Century. The National Endowment for the Arts also recognized its importance. Scholastic Press included it on similar lists of significant works. In 1998, the song entered the Grammy Hall of Fame. It appeared on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. Rolling Stone ranked it number two among the band's greatest songs in 2010. Mojo placed it second on their list of records that changed the world. Billboard listed it as the thirty-ninth most successful song of all time on the Hot 100. Time magazine added it to their All-TIME 100 Songs collection. The track sold eighteen million copies globally by some estimates. It remains the eighteenth best-selling single in UK history.
Arthur Fiedler & the Boston Pops Orchestra recorded an instrumental version in 1964. A Yugoslav band called Bijele Strijele released a Serbo-Croatian adaptation titled "Ljubav nas čeka." Soul singer Al Green covered the song in 1969. Moving Sidewalks produced a version later covered by The Melvins in 2018. Sparks recorded a pop rock rendition in 1976 with producers Rupert Holmes and Jeffrey Lesser. Dollar achieved a UK Top 10 hit with their cover in 1980. Lakeside turned it into a funk ballad that reached the R&B charts in 1982. Manny Manuel sang a Spanish version called "Dame tu mano y ven" in 1996. Robert Zemeckis used the title for his 1978 comedy film about Beatles fans. Kurt Hummel performed the song on the television show Glee in 2010.
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Common questions
When did John Lennon and Paul McCartney write I Want to Hold Your Hand?
John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the song during late 1963 in the basement music room of 57 Wimpole Street. They worked on the track eyeball to eyeball while Jane Asher hosted the session for her parents.
Who recorded I Want to Hold Your Hand at EMI Studios?
The Beatles recorded the single at EMI Studios in London on the 17th of October 1963. George Martin mixed both mono and stereo versions on the 21st of October 1963 using four-track recording equipment.
How many weeks did I Want to Hold Your Hand stay at number one in the United Kingdom?
I Want to Hold Your Hand remained at number one for five consecutive weeks after dislodging She Loves You from the top spot. It became the Christmas number one of 1963 and stayed within the UK top 50 for twenty-one weeks total.
What date did Capitol Records release I Want to Hold Your Hand in America?
Capitol Records released the record in America two weeks ahead of schedule following pressure from Brian Epstein. DJ Carroll James played the record on the 26th of December 1963, leading to a Billboard Hot 100 entry by the 18th of January 1964.
Which organizations recognized I Want to Hold Your Hand as a significant work?
The Recording Industry Association of America named the single one of the Songs of the Century while the National Endowment for the Arts also recognized its importance. The song entered the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998 and appeared on The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame list of 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.