Beatles – "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (1963)

And please, say to me

You’ll let me hold your hand

Today is the 58th anniversary of the release of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” in the United States. 

Capitol Records had intended to release the record several weeks later to coincide with the Beatles’ first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which was scheduled for mid-January 1964.

But the best laid schemes of mice and men – not to mention record companies – gang aft a-gley.  

*     *     *     *     *

On November 18, 1963, NBC became the first American TV to air footage of the Beatles performing.  The piece was narrated by the great television journalist Edwin Newman, whose voiceover included this brilliant line that fans of William Shakespeare will appreciate: “The sound [the Beatles] make is called ‘the Mersey Sound’ because Liverpool is on the Mersey River.  The quality of Mersey is somewhat strained.”  (You can click here to listen to the audio of that piece.)

 

Four days later, the CBS Morning News broadcast a brief segment about the Beatles and the phenomenon known as “Beatlemania.”  The segment was supposed to be repeated on Walter Cronkite’s evening news program that night – that show attracted a much larger audience than CBS’s morning news program – but November 22, 1963 was the date that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.  So that piece was understandably preempted and didn’t air on the Cronkite news show until December 10.

Marsha Albert, a 15-year-old who lived in a Washington, DC suburb, saw the story about the Beatles on December 10 and immediately wrote to WWDC-AM disc jockey Carroll James, asking “Why can’t we have music like this in America?”

James managed to get a copy of the British 45 of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” from a British flight attendant, and invited Marsha Albert into his studio to introduce the record when he first played it on December 17.

DJ Carroll James with the Beatles

Listeners in the Washington loved the song.  WWDC played it repeatedly, and James shared it with DJs in Chicago and St. Louis.  Capitol Records threatened to go to court to stop the record from being played before the planned release date, but finally wised up and decided to go with the flow, moving up the release of the single to December 26 – not a date when you would usually release a record.

The record sold 250,000 copies in three days, and quickly climbed to the #1 spot on the Billboard “Hot 100,” where it remained for seven weeks.

“I Want to Hold Your Hold” was the first of seven Beatles singles to reach #1 in 1964 – no one other recording artist has had so many #1 hits in a single year.

*     *     *     *     *

I don’t think there’s been any cultural phenomenon in my lifetime that was comparable in scope and impact to “Beatlemania.”

Was there anyone living in the United States  – man, woman, or child – who was not aware of the Beatles in early 1964?  I don’t think any other musician, athlete, or politician who came along later attracted the attention of so many Americans.

Click here to listen to today’s featured record.

Ed Sullivan and the Beatles

Click here to watch the Beatles performing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964.  It’s a surprisingly shaky performance – the record is much better.