How This Song Made America Fall In Love With The Beatles

60 years ago this week, The Beatles topped the U.S. chart for the first time with 'I Want To Hold Your Hand'. The song unlocked another level of fame, not just in America but in so many other countries around the world. In this video we look at how this single was made and using contemporary media find out how the British and American public reacted to it. We also discover how The Beatles fared in Paris just before that historic arrival on February 7th 1964.

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Thank you!

[michaelrochester]

I still think “it won’t be long” should’ve been a single. It is one of my favorite Beatles songs from the early time.

[prettyshinyspaghetti]

I'm actually super fascinated when I hear lukewarm or even negative contemporary reactions of the Beatles. We're so used to always seeing high praise about everything they ever did, but these other views actually humanize them. It adds a much more realistic view of something that became a huge phenomenon

[neiltheblaze]

American here. The first time I heard "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (age 11) I was knocked for a loop. I was a big guitar fan - but the guitar guys weren't really having hits anymore - since Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly died, probably. A lot of crooners, a lot of one-hit doo-wop groups, a lot of novelty records - mostly boring. When I heard "Hand" on the radio for the first time, I'd never heard guitars ring out like that on a big hit record on the radio before. It blew me away. You're right about the mix on the single release - it jumps off the turntable. That single sounded hot at the time. And "I Saw Her Standing There" on the b-side (though, my local radio treated it like a double-A side - without any complaints from me) made this the hottest rock and roll single I'd ever heard. I practically wore out the record trying to decipher the guitar parts. The lyrics were kind of whatever Tin-Pan Alley stuff, but the sound of the combined instruments seemed like one voice. The way they wove it all together was amazing to me. You get a good example of Lennon's unique sense of off-rhythm on this one. He has the quirkiest sense of rhythm in rock and roll. Completely unique.

[Billthemusicman]

Wow! as a first gen fan from that night in February on the Sullivan show, I want to hold your hand holds a special place unlike really any other Beatles tune. At only 9 years old, I am certainly one of the youngest 1st gen fans, but my love for them just continued to grow through the 60s and on to today. Thank you for carrying the torch for these four guys that changed so many of our lives. Your channel is unlike any other, and this video with its wonderful content and history proves it. Thank you!

[BaileyGrott]

Thank-you Andrew!!

My Beatles experience began in 1964 (6 years old!) when I watched them on Ed Sullivan as a kid singing: "She Loves You . . yeah, yeah, yeah !!!" standing on a basement steamer trunk with badminton racquets with my siblings.

I even got a Capitol EP for my birthday called "4 by the Bratles" with Roll Over Beetoven/This Boy, etc. which I still have . . . . .great old memories !! Greetings from Dan, Indiana USA

[Stumptonian]

I remember my mother calling us to the living room "Those Beatles are on Jack Paar!" My cousin in England had sent us newspaper clippings about them with words like Fab! and Gear! written on them. I was 10 and my life was about to change, music-wise. Especially after February 9th .... P.S. this was in a suburb of Vancouver, Canada.

[buddygreco]

Once again tremendous work Andrew. I'll never forget my excitement when my older sister played that 45 for the first time. My whole world changed...and obviously for the better...One item that blew me away was the newspaper article which mentioned my Dad Buddy Greco having talked about the Beatles...I wasn't ready for that and a big smile crossed my face. Dad and George ended up having a lifelong friendship...Thank you Andrew! This brightened my day!!

[misternewoutlook]

The very first Beatles song I can remember. Still a favorite. I recall reading how shocked Brian Wilson was and other US artists too. The Beatles took over. They weren't just stars anymore. They were superstars.

[danjones]

This is the very first song I remember hearing on the radio. I was four in 1964. It had a big impact on me. Almost sixty years later and i still remember the feeling.

[FiveLiver]

I't a pity that The Beatles never attained the levels of success and fame as Joey Dee and the Starlighters.

[WanderfulHealingTedP]

February 9, 1964, Auntie Lora and Uncle John came to visit us after spending the day in NYC. They said that the crowd in Times Square near the Ed Sullivan Theatre was the craziest thing they had ever seen. They stayed to watch the Sullivan show with us. I was 9 and will never forget that Sunday night.

[cradio]

These videos are always so well done, it’s crazy — they’re each high quality mini-documentaries rather than simple “YouTube videos.” You can really tell how much work goes just to the research, writing, filming and editing… just great work all around! I never miss one!

[idaslpdhr]

'I want to hold your hand' was amazing, I used to listen to it on a small transistor radio on Radio Luxembourg under the sheets after bedtime and wait for it every hour on the hour

[moondogaudiojones]

Andrew you’ve done it again! I’m sitting here quite choked up and beaming a smile from ear to ear…this episode went by quickly I might add…and enjoyed every second of it.
I will never forget when I bought that first single. Our family didn’t even have a record player in the house, but neighbors did. So yeah, this was the enlightenment of a pre-teen brain of things to come.
Great episode! Thanks

[strikerorwell]

I spoke with a few Swedish Rock Stars in the 90s who were playing in Hamburg Germany at the Star Club and hung out with the Beatles and got to know them. They were the reason the Beatles came to Sweden first when they went abroad and not only played a couple of gigs but a whole tour in Sweden with their Swedish pals "Jerry Williams and the Violents" as the introducing band.

[magneto]

I remember the 45 for I Want to Hold Your Hand floating around my house not long after I learned how to talk. Like many Americans, they became the soundtrack to my whole childhood and beyond! Whatever house I visited, Meet the Beatles was in their record collection. Mine was among the 73 million homes to tune in to The Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. Great memories! And as always, another fantastic upload!

[richardleclear]

Andrew, more great content! Of course, since I am American, I have never heard or read much of the UK music pubs reactions and interviews regarding this period in Beatles history. It was great to hear! My earliest childhood memory was of sitting on a swing in Spring of '64 singing I Want To Hold Your Hand, at which time I was the ripe old age of 5! Cheers mate, great memories!

[denniswood]

Wow! This wonderful presentation really brings one back to late 1963 & early 1964, when "I want to Hold Your Hand" first entered the charts in the UK & then the USA and all over the world. I love Marsha Albert's introduction of the song on Carroll James Washington DC radio show.

[rodrigosilvamartins]

Great content, Andrew, thanks a lot! Brought me back sweet memories. My mom moved from São Paulo (Brazil) to New York in late January 1964 only to be caught up in the middle of Beatlemania's fuzz. This is one of my favorite stories she used to tell me when I was a kid starting to fall in love with The Beatles: "Imagine being a 20 year old Brazilian girl who had just arrived in the United States of the 1960s who until then barely spoke English, and all you saw around were American teens running frantically after a certain British pop group. All I knew about music was Samba and Bossa Nova." She became a fan the next day, and returned to Brazil three years before bringing in the bag several Beatles records (I still have three of them, all in very poor condition: United Artists stereo "A Hard Day’s Night", Capitol stereo "Beatles ’65", and Capitol stereo "Yesterday… And Today"), and a Shea Stadium ticket stub from August 15, 1965, when that certain British pop group performed there the first rock concert in a stadium. Not many Brazilians had the same opportunity at that time.

[HarryBalz-mxss]

Thanks a million Andrew. You really knocked this one out of the park! I’ve viewed a number of your videos but this one takes the cake. When you spoke of the way that this song makes you FEEL when listening to it, well that’s it, isn’t it! YEAH, YEAH, YEAH! ❤