TheBeatlesOnline

John Lennon: Vocals, electric guitar
Paul McCartney: Vocals, bass guitar
George Harrison: Electric guitar, vocals
Ringo Starr: Drums
All: Handclaps

Recorded October 17 1963.

Available on:
The Beatles 1962-1966
Anthology 1 (Live version)
Past Masters Volume One
A Collection of Beatles Oldies

The Beatles was the hottest band in the UK and Europe, but still they didn’t have a record out in the USA. Brian Epstein asked Lennon and McCartney to write a song specifically aimed at the American market, and the two songwriters embarked on the task in the basement of Jane Asher’s (McCartney’s girlfriend at the time) family home. The song was written on a piano, and a friend of Jane Asher’s older brother, who was in the house at the time, later said he recalled John was playing a pedal organ.

On January 25 1964, I Want To Hold Your Hand went to number 1 on the American Billboard charts, where it stayed for seven weeks. And on Saturday February 9, the Beatles performed the song in front of 73 million tv viewers at the Ed Sullivan Show. Beatlemania had crossed the Atlantic.

The Beatles were in Paris when they heard the news that their single had reached number 1 in the US.

It was also in Paris that they recorded a German version of I Want To Hold Your Hand, Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand. The German version was recorded, together with Sie Liebt Dich (She Loves You), on January 29 1964.

I Want To Hold Your Hand went to number 1 also in the UK, in December 1963. It stayed at no 1 for five weeks.

I Want To Hold Your Hand