I Want to Hold Your Hand

Album at Rhino.com

Written by: John Lennon, Paul McCartney
Produced by: George Martin
Released: Dec. '63 on Capitol
Charts: 15 weeks
Top spot: No. 1

In 1963, the Beatles issued an ultimatum. "We said to [manager] Brian Epstein, 'We're not going to America till we've got a Number One record,' " Paul McCartney said. So he and John Lennon went to the home of the parents of Jane Asher, McCartney's girlfriend, where they -- "one on one, eyeball to eyeball," as Lennon said -- wrote "I Want to Hold Your Hand," a complex series of mood and chord changes packed into a lighting bolt of infatuation. The energy of their collaboration ran through the band's performance, taped October 17th, 1963. On February 7th, 1964, the Beatles landed in New York the way they wanted: top of the pops.

Appears on: 1 (Apple/Capitol)

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