I Wanna Hold Your Hand
| "I Want to Hold Your Hand" | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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US picture sleeve
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| Single by The Beatles | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| from the album Meet the Beatles! | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| B-side |
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| Format | 7" | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Length | 2:24 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Writer(s) | Lennon–McCartney | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Producer(s) | George Martin | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Beatles UK singles chronology | |||||||||||||||||||||||
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"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 50 for 21 weeks in total.
It was also the group's first American number one, entering the Billboard Hot 100 chart on 18 January 1964 at number 45 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 Billboard chart for 15 weeks. "I Want to Hold Your Hand" became the Beatles' best-selling single worldwide. In 2013, Billboard magazine named it the 44th biggest hit of "all-time" on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.
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.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.
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. Margaret Asher taught the oboe in the "small, rather stuffy music room" in the basement where Lennon and McCartney sat at the piano and composed 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'. In September 1980, Lennon told Playboy magazine:
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