I Want to Hold Your Hand

"I Want to Hold Your Hand"

US picture sleeve
Single by The Beatles
from the album Meet the Beatles!
B-side
Released
  • 29 November 1963 (1963-11-29) (UK)
  • 26 December 1963 (1963-12-26) (US)
Format 7"
Recorded
Genre
Length 2:24
Label
Writer(s) Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s) George Martin
Certification Gold (RIAA)
The Beatles UK singles chronology
"She Loves You"
(1963)		 "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
(1963)		 "Can't Buy Me Love"
(1964)
The Beatles US singles chronology
"She Loves You"
(1963)		 "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
(1963)		 "Twist and Shout"
(1964)
Alternative cover
1992 CD issue
Music sample
"I Want to Hold Your Hand"

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles. Written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and recorded in October 1963, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track equipment.

With advance orders exceeding one million copies in the United Kingdom, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" would have gone straight to the top of the British record charts on its day of release (29 November 1963) had it not been blocked by the group's first million seller "She Loves You", their previous UK single, which was having a resurgence of popularity following intense media coverage of the group. Taking two weeks to dislodge its predecessor, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" stayed at number one for five weeks and remained in the UK top fifty for twenty-one weeks in total.[4]

It was also the group's first American number one, entering the Billboard Hot 100 chart on 18 January 1964 at number forty-five and starting the British invasion of the American music industry. By 1 February it held the number-one spot, and stayed there for seven weeks before being replaced by "She Loves You", a reverse scenario of what had occurred in Britain. It remained on the US charts for a total of fifteen weeks.[5] "I Want to Hold Your Hand" became the Beatles' best-selling single worldwide.[6] In 2013, Billboard magazine named it the 44th biggest hit of "all-time" on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.[7]

Background and composition

Capitol Records rejection of the group’s recordings in the USA was now Brian Epstein’s main concern and encouraged Lennon and McCartney to write a song to appeal specifically to the American market.[8] George Martin, however, had no such explicit recollections, believing that Capitol were left with no alternative but to release "I Want To Hold Your Hand" due to increasing demand for the group’s product. [9]

McCartney had recently moved into 57 Wimpole Street, London, where he was lodging as a guest of Dr Richard and Margaret Asher, and whose daughter, actress Jane Asher, had become McCartney’s girlfriend after their meeting earlier in the year. This location briefly became Lennon and McCartney's new writing base, taking over from McCartney’s Forthlin Road home in Liverpool.[10] Margaret Asher taught the oboe in the "small, rather stuffy music room" in the basement[10] where Lennon and McCartney sat at the piano and composed 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'. In September 1980, Lennon told Playboy magazine:

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.[11]

In 1994, McCartney agreed with Lennon's description of the circumstances surrounding the composition of "I Want to Hold Your Hand", saying:

'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. It was our big number one; the one that would eventually break us in America.[12]

Musical structure

The song is in the key of G major and opens on "I'll tell you" with a D-B, B-D melody note drop and rise over a I (G) chord.[13] Controversy exists over the landmark chord that Lennon stated McCartney hit on the piano while they were composing the song. Marshall considers it is the minor vi (Em) chord (the third chord in the I-V7-vi (G-D7-Em) progression).[14] Everett is of the same opinion.[15] Pedler claims, however, that more surprising is the melody note drop from B to F# against a III7 (B7) chord on "understand".[16] Music theorists are divided over whether this chord is a iii (Bm), a B major, or a B7 or even a B5 power chord with no major or minor defining third.[13]

Lyrically bland, random phrases were most likely called out and if they fitted the overall sound would stay. This, according to Ian MacDonald, was how Lennon and McCartney worked in partnership at that time. The song’s title is probably a variation of “I Wanna Be Your Man” which they had only just recently recorded at Abbey Road Studios.[17]

In the studio

The Beatles started recording "I Want to Hold Your Hand" at EMI Studios in Studio 2 on 17 October 1963 in seventeen takes. This song, along with the single's flip side, "This Boy", was the first Beatles song to be recorded with four-track technology. The two songs were recorded on the same day, and each needed seventeen takes to complete.[18] Mono and stereo mixing was done by George Martin on 21 October 1963;[19] further stereo mixes were done on 8 June 1965, for compilations released by EMI affiliates in Australia and the Netherlands,[20] and on 7 November 1966.[21]

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" was one of two Beatles songs (along with "She Loves You" as "Sie liebt dich") to be later recorded in German, entitled "Komm, gib mir deine Hand". Both songs were translated by Luxembourger musician Camillo Felgen, under the pseudonym of "Jean Nicolas". Odeon, the German arm of EMI (the parent company of the Beatles' record label, Parlophone) was convinced that the Beatles' records would not sell in Germany unless they were sung in German. The Beatles detested the idea, and when they were due to record the German version on 27 January 1964 at EMI's Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris (where the Beatles were performing 18 days of concerts at the Olympia Theatre) they chose to boycott the session. Their record producer, George Martin, having waited some hours for them to show up, was outraged and insisted that they give it a try. Two days later, the Beatles recorded "Komm, gib mir deine Hand", one of the few times in their career that they recorded outside London. However, Martin later conceded: "They were right, actually, it wasn’t necessary for them to record in German, but they weren’t graceless, they did a good job".[18]

"Komm, gib mir deine Hand" was released as a German single in March 1964. In July, the song appeared in full stereo in the United States on the Beatles' Capitol LP Something New. (That album was released in CD form for the first time in 2004, on The Capitol Albums, Volume 1, and then rereleased in 2014, individually and in the boxed set The US Albums.) "Komm, gib mir deine Hand" also appeared on the compilations Past Masters and Mono Masters.

The German-language track was a big hit in Germany at the time, but today, like all the other German-lyrics versions of English-language pop songs that were popular in that country during the 1950s and 1960s, it is generally considered as a cultural curiosity from a by-gone era at best. The English versions are much better known in Germany today; the Beatles' Red and Blue albums of the 1970s already featured the English hits on the German pressings.

Promotion and release

In the United Kingdom, "She Loves You" (released in August) had shot back to the number-one position in November following blanket media coverage of the Beatles (described as Beatlemania). Mark Lewisohn later wrote: “'She Loves You' had already sold an industry-boggling three quarters of a million before these fresh converts were pushing it into seven figures. And at this very moment, just four weeks before Christmas, with everyone connected to the music and relevant retail industries already lying prone in paroxysms of unimaginable delight, EMI pulled the trigger and released 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'. And then it was bloody pandemonium".[22]

On 29 November 1963, Parlophone Records released "I Want to Hold Your Hand" in the UK, with "This Boy" joining it on the single's B-side. Demand had been building for quite a while, as evidenced by the one million advance orders for the single. When it was finally released, the response was phenomenal. A week after it entered the British charts, on 14 December 1963, it knocked "She Loves You" off the top spot, the first instance of an act taking over from itself at number one in British history, and it clung to the top spot for five weeks. It stayed in the charts for another fifteen weeks and made a one-week return to the charts on 16 May 1964. Beatlemania was peaking at that time; during the same period, the Beatles set a record by occupying the top two positions on both the album and single charts in the UK.

EMI and Brian Epstein finally convinced American label Capitol Records, a subsidiary of EMI, that the Beatles could make an impact in the US, leading to the release of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" with "I Saw Her Standing There" on the B-side as a single on 26 December 1963. Capitol had previously resisted issuing Beatle recordings in the US. This resulted in the relatively modest Vee-Jay and Swan labels releasing the group's earlier Parlophone counterparts in the US. Seizing the opportunity, Epstein demanded US$40,000 from Capitol to promote the single (the most the Beatles had ever previously spent on an advertising campaign was US$5,000). The single had actually been intended for release in mid-January 1964, coinciding with the planned appearance of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show. However, a 14-year-old fan of the Beatles, Marsha Albert, was determined to get hold of the single earlier.[23] Later she said:

“ It wasn't so much what I had seen, it's what I had heard. They had a scene where they played a clip of 'She Loves You' and I thought it was a great song ... I wrote that I thought the Beatles would be really popular here, and if [deejay Carroll James] could get one of their records, that would really be great.[24] ”

James was the DJ for WWDC, a radio station in Washington, DC. Eventually he decided to pursue Albert's suggestion to him and asked the station's promotion director to get British Overseas Airways Corporation to ship in a copy of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" from Britain. Albert related what happened next: "Carroll James called me up the day he got the record and said 'If you can get down here by 5 o'clock, we'll let you introduce it.'" Albert managed to get to the station in time, and introduced the record with: "Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time on the air in the United States, here are the Beatles singing 'I Want to Hold Your Hand.'"[23]

The song proved to be a huge hit, a surprise for the station since they catered mainly to a more staid audience, which would normally be expecting songs from singers such as Andy Williams or Bobby Vinton instead of rock and roll. James took to playing the song repeatedly on the station, often turning down the song in the middle to make the declaration, "This is a Carroll James exclusive",[24] to avoid theft of the song by other stations.

Capitol threatened to seek a court order banning airplay of "I Want to Hold Your Hand", which was already being spread by James to a couple of DJs in Chicago and St. Louis. James and WWDC ignored the threat, and Capitol came to the conclusion that they could well take advantage of the publicity, releasing the single two weeks ahead of schedule on 26 December.

The demand was insatiable; in the first three days alone, a quarter million copies had already been sold (10,000 copies In New York City every hour). Capitol was so overloaded by the demand, it contracted part of the job of pressing copies off to Columbia Records and RCA. By 18 January, the song had started its fifteen-week chart run, and on 1 February, the Beatles finally achieved their first number-one in America,[25] emulating the success of another British group, the Tornados with "Telstar", which was number one on the Billboard charts for three weeks over Christmas and New Year 1962/63. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" finally relinquished the number-one spot after seven weeks, passing the baton to the very song they had knocked off the top in Britain: "She Loves You". "I Want to Hold Your Hand" sold close to five million copies in the US alone.[26] The replacement of themselves at the summit of the US charts was the first time since Elvis Presley in 1956, with "Love Me Tender" beating out "Don't Be Cruel", that an act had dropped off the top of the American charts only to be replaced by another of their releases. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" also finished as the No. 1 song for 1964, according to Billboard.[27] In 2013, Billboard listed it as the forty-fourth most successful song of all-time on the Hot 100.[28]

With that, the "British Invasion" of America had been launched. Throughout 1964, British pop and rock artists enjoyed unprecedented success on the American charts.

The American single's front and back sleeves featured a photograph of the Beatles with Paul McCartney holding a cigarette. In 1984, Capitol Records airbrushed out the cigarette for the re-release of the single.

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" was also released in America on the album Meet the Beatles!, which altered the American charts by actually outselling the single. Beforehand, the American markets were more in favour of hit singles instead of whole albums; however, two months after the album's release, it had shipped 3,650,000 copies, over two hundred thousand ahead of the "I Want to Hold Your Hand" single at 3,400,000.[29]

The song was included on the 1964 Canadian release The Beatles' Long Tall Sally. The November 1966 stereo remix appeared on 1966's A Collection of Beatles Oldies, and on several later Beatles compilation albums, including 1973's 1962–1966, 1982's 20 Greatest Hits, and 2000's 1. The 2009 CD rerelease of the Beatles' catalog included the 1966 stereo remix on Past Masters and the original mono mix on Mono Masters.

Reception

The song was greeted by raving fans on both sides of the Atlantic but was dismissed by some critics as nothing more than another fad song that would not hold up to the test of time. Cynthia Lowery of the Associated Press expressed her exasperation with Beatlemania by saying of the Beatles: "Heaven knows we've heard them enough. It has been impossible to get a radio weather bulletin or time signal without running into 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'."[30]

Bob Dylan was impressed by the Beatles' innovation, saying, "They were doing things nobody was doing. Their chords were outrageous, just outrageous, and their harmonies made it all valid."[31] For a time Dylan thought the Beatles were singing "I get high" instead of "I can't hide". He was surprised when he met them and found out that none of them had actually smoked marijuana.[32]

The song was nominated for the Grammy Award for Record of the Year, but the award went to Astrud Gilberto and Stan Getz for "The Girl from Ipanema". However, in 1998, the song won the Grammy Hall of Fame Award. It has also made the list in The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll. In addition, the Recording Industry Association of America, the National Endowment for the Arts and Scholastic Press have named "I Want to Hold Your Hand" as one of the Songs of the Century. In 2004, it was ranked number 16 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".[33] In 2010, Rolling Stone placed the song at number two on the 100 Greatest Beatles Songs after "A Day in the Life".[34][35] It was ranked number two in Mojo's list on the "100 Records That Changed the World", after Little Richard's "Tutti Frutti".[36] The song was ranked number thirty-nine on Billboard's All Time Top 100[37] As of August 2015, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" is ranked as the 45th best song of all time, as well as the number three song of 1963, in an aggregation of critics' lists at acclaimedmusic.net.[38] Time included the song on its list of the All-TIME 100 Songs.[39]

The Beatles' recording of this song also appeared as the opening track in the 1997 Time-Life 6-CD boxed set, Gold And Platinum: The Ultimate Rock Collection.

Starting at the song's final week at number 1 on the American charts, the Beatles have the all-time record of seven number 1 songs in a one-year period. In order, these were "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". It was also the first of seven songs written by Lennon-McCartney to hit number 1 on the US charts in 1964; that's an all-time record for writing the most songs to hit number 1 on the US charts in the same calendar year. (see List of Billboard Hot 100 chart achievements and milestones)

Charts and certifications

Charts

Chart (1963–64) Peak
position
Australia (Kent Music Report)[40] 1
Belgium (Ultratop 50 Flanders)[41] 6
Ireland (IRMA)[42] 2
Netherlands (Single Top 100)[43] 1
Norway (VG-lista)[44] 1
UK Singles (Official Charts Company)[45] 1
US Billboard Hot 100[46] 1
US Cash Box Top 100[47] 1
West German Media Control Singles Chart[48] 1

All-time charts

Chart (1963–64) Peak
position
US Billboard Hot 100[7] 44

Certifications

Region Certification Certified units/Sales
United States (RIAA)[49] Gold 1,000,000^

*sales figures based on certification alone
^shipments figures based on certification alone

Melody and lyrics

Reminiscent of Tin Pan Alley and Brill Building techniques and an example of modified thirty-two-bar form,[50] the song is written on a two-bridge model, with only an intervening verse to connect them. The song has no real "lead" singer, as Lennon and McCartney sing in harmony with each other. Lennon's vocals are more prominent on the recording and on the live bootleg BBC version; however, when the Beatles performed the song on The Ed Sullivan Show on 9 February 1964, McCartney's vocals could be heard more clearly (although this may have been due to the audio mix, as their microphones were not turned to the same sound level).[51]

Personnel

Personnel per Ian MacDonald[52]

Cover versions and use in pop culture

Parodies and sampling

References

Notes

  1. ↑ Neely, Tim (28 February 2011). Warman's Beatles Field Guide: Values and Identification. Krause Publications. pp. 16–. ISBN 1-4402-2824-8.
  2. ↑ Shmoop, p. 6.
  3. ↑ Greene, Doyle (10 March 2014). The Rock Cover Song: Culture, History, Politics. McFarland. pp. 51–. ISBN 978-0-7864-7809-5.
  4. ↑ Gambaccini 1991, pp. 27.
  5. ↑ Harry 1985, pp. 66.
  6. ↑ Harry 2000, p. 561.
  7. 1 2 Bronson, Fred (2 August 2012). "Hot 100 55th Anniversary: The All-Time Top 100 Songs". Billboard. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  8. ↑ MacDonald 1998, pp. 88.
  9. ↑ "George Martin introduces "I Want To Hold Your Hand" video". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2 November 2012.
  10. 1 2 Miles 1997, pp. 107.
  11. ↑ The Beatles Interview Database 2004.
  12. ↑ Miles 1997, pp. 108.
  13. 1 2 Pedler, Dominic (2003). The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. London: Omnibus Press. p. 111. ISBN 978-0-7119-8167-6.
  14. ↑ Wolf Marshall. Guitar One. 1966 Vol 6, p16
  15. ↑ Everett, Walter (2001). The Beatles as Musicians: The Quarry Men Through Rubber Soul. Oxford University Press. p. 110.
  16. ↑ Pedler, Dominic (2003). The Songwriting Secrets of the Beatles. London: Omnibus Press. pp. 110–111. ISBN 978-0-7119-8167-6.
  17. ↑ MacDonald, Ian (1998). Revolution in the Head. London: Pimlico. p. 91. ISBN 0-7126-6697-4.
  18. 1 2 Lewisohn 1988, p. 38.
  19. ↑ Lewisohn 1996, p. 125.
  20. ↑ Lewisohn 1996, p. 194.
  21. ↑ Lewisohn 1996, p. 231.
  22. ↑ EMAP Metro Limited 2002, p. 48.
  23. 1 2 de Vries 2004.
  24. 1 2 Harrington 2006, p. C01.
  25. ↑ Gilliland 1969, Show 28.
  26. ↑ Tepper, Ron. "Alan Livingston, Capitol's Former President When The Beatles Came Calling, Recalls The 'British Invasion'" Billboard 4 May 1974: M-18
  27. ↑ http://www.bobborst.com/popculture/songoftheyear/
  28. ↑ Bronson, Fred (2 August 2012). "Hot 100 55th Anniversary: The All-Time Top 100 Songs". Billboard. Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  29. ↑ Maher, Jack. "Beatles Are Enshrined in Mme. Tussaud's Waxworks" Billboard 28 March 1964: 8
  30. ↑ The Ottawa Journal 1964.
  31. ↑ Scaduto 1973, pp. 203–4.
  32. ↑ Segal 2005.
  33. ↑ Rolling Stone 2004.
  34. ↑ Rolling Stone 2010.
  35. ↑ "2: I Want to Hold Your Hand". 100 Greatest Beatles Songs. Rolling Stone. Retrieved 21 May 2013.
  36. ↑ Rocklist.net 2007.
  37. ↑ Billboard 2008.
  38. ↑ Acclaimed Music.
  39. ↑ Wolk, Douglas (24 October 2011). "100 Greatest Popular Songs: TIME List of Best Music". Time. Retrieved 29 December 2011.
  40. ↑ Kent, David (2005). Australian Chart Book (1940–1969). Turramurra: Australian Chart Book. ISBN 0-646-44439-5.
  41. ↑ "Ultratop.be – The Beatles – I Want to Hold Your Hand" (in Dutch). Ultratop 50. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  42. ↑ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – I Wanna Hold Your Hand". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  43. ↑ "Dutchcharts.nl – The Beatles – I Want to Hold Your Hand" (in Dutch). Single Top 100. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  44. ↑ "Norwegiancharts.com – The Beatles – I Want to Hold Your Hand". VG-lista. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  45. ↑ "Archive Chart: 1963-12-18" UK Singles Chart. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  46. ↑ "The Beatles – Chart history" Billboard Hot 100 for The Beatles. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  47. ↑ Hoffmann, Frank (1983). The Cash Box Singles Charts, 1950-1981. Metuchen, NJ & London: The Scarecrow Press, Inc. pp. 32–34.
  48. ↑ "Offizielle Deutsche Charts" (Enter "Beatles" in the search box) (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 16 May 2016.
  49. ↑ "American single certifications – The Beatles – I Want to Hold Your Hand". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 15 May 2016. If necessary, click Advanced, then click Format, then select Single, then click SEARCH
  50. ↑ Covach 2005, p. 70.
  51. ↑ The Beatles 2000, pp. 119.
  52. ↑ MacDonald 1998, pp. 87.
  53. ↑ "The Beatles' 'I Want to Hold Your Hand,' Then Al Green's". New York Times. Retrieved 11 March 2014.
  54. ↑ "Manny Manuel: Awards". Allmusic. Retrieved 4 April 2013.
  55. ↑ "Los Premios Latino de BMI". Billboard. Prometheus Global Media: 85. 13 September 1997. Retrieved 29 June 2015.

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Meet the Beatles!
Preceded by
"She Loves You" by The Beatles		 UK number-one single
12 December 1963 (five weeks) 		Succeeded by
"Glad All Over" by The Dave Clark Five
Preceded by
"There! I've Said It Again" by Bobby Vinton		 Billboard Hot 100 number-one single
1 February 1964 (seven weeks) 		Succeeded by
"She Loves You" by The Beatles
Preceded by
"Return to Sender" by Elvis Presley		 UK Christmas Number One single
1963 		Succeeded by
"I Feel Fine" by The Beatles
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