I Want To Hold Your Hand Tops The American Charts

“I Want to Hold your Hand” was written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney in the basement of Jane Asher’s parents house.  The record was recorded on October 19, 1963, along with the flip side “This Boy”.  Brian Epstein took a demo copy with him when he flew to New York on November 5, just one day after the Beatles performed for the Queen Mother at the Royal Command Performance Variety Show.

Capitol Records in America had already declined to release; “Please Please Me'”,”From Me To You” and “She Loves You”. Capitol scheduled a release date for January 13, 1964. Caroll Baker a disc jockey at radio station WWDC in Washington, D.C., obtained a british 45 from a BOAC airline stewardess and became the first American to broadcast” I Want To Hold Your Hand.”  The reaction was immediate, Capitol advanced the release date to December 26, and increased the press run from 200,000 copies to one million.

America caught their 1st glimpse of the Beatles in early January when Jack Paar featured film clips of them on his weekly variety show. The Beatles were playing at the Olympia Theatre in Paris, when Brian Epstein had received the new that ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand” had gone to number one in America. It remained on the top Billboards hot 100 for 7 weeks, the 1st single to do that since “Tossin and Turnin” by Bobby Lewis in 1961. With the possible exception of ” Rock Around The Clock” it’s the most significant single of the rock era, forever changing the landscape of music