The Beatles turned the music world on its head after the iconic British band gave its historic performance on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1962. At the time, the Fab Four had just scored its first No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with “I Want To Hold Your Hand.”
The infectious rock-and-roll song wound up spending seven weeks at the top of the singles chart, only to be replaced at No. 1 on March 21, 1964, by another unforgettably catchy tune by the boys from Liverpool, “She Loves You.”
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“She Loves You” actually was released before “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in both the United Kingdom and the United States. In the U.K., “She Loves You” was released in August of 1963 and topped the singles chart the following month. It wound up spending six non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 there, becoming the country’s best-selling single ever at the time.
“I Want To Hold Your Hand” got its U.K. release in November and spent the last five weeks of 1963 at the top of the U.K. tally.
In the U.S., “She Loves You” and “I Want To Hold Your Hand” were released in September and December of 1963, respectively. The latter song, though, became The Beatles’ breakthrough hit in the U.S. Interestingly, the last four weeks that “I Want To Hold Your Hand” topped the Hot 100, “She Loves You” sat at No. 2.
“She Loves You” then took over the No. 1 spot on the chart for two weeks. It was bumped from the pinnacle of the Hot 100 by yet another Beatles tune, “Can’t Buy Me Love.”
About the Writing of “She Loves You”
John Lennon and Paul McCartney started writing “She Loves You” after a concert The Beatles played in Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, with Roy Orbison and Gerry And The Pacemakers. In his 2021 book The Lyrics: 1956 To The Present, McCartney recalled first working on the song with Lennon in their hotel room in Newcastle, then finishing at his father’s house on Forthlin Road in Liverpool.
As Paul remembered, “My father, who had been in the next room, smoking his pipe and watching TV, complained about our singing ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’ and wondered if we shouldn’t sing ‘yes, yes, yes.’ He was concerned about too many Americanisms creeping into UK English. If we’d have done that, I’m not sure it would have become our biggest-selling single in the UK.”
McCartney also explained that “She Loves You” was initially inspired by the Bobby Rydell song “Forget Him.” He noted that that tune “was based on the call-and-response structure,” but pointed out that The Beatles ended up not using the concept when they recorded “She Loves You.”
More About “She Loves You”
“She Loves You” was one of five songs The Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan Show on February 9, 1964. The others were “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “All My Loving,” “Till There Was You,” and “I Saw Her Standing There.”
During the second week that “She Loves You” was No. 1, The Beatles had the top four singles on the Hot 100. “I Want To Hold Your Hand” was at No. 2, “Twist And Shout” at No. 3, and “Please, Please Me” at No. 4.
The next week, The Beatles again made chart history by holding the top-five spots on the Hot 100. “Can’t Buy Me Love” was at No. 1, “Twist And Shout” was No. 2, “She Loves You” was No. 3, “I Want To Hold Your Hand” was No. 4, and “Please, Please Me” was No. 5.
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