“I Want to Hold Your Hand” by The Beatles

"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is where America caught the fever. John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote it, the Beatles cut it on 17 October 1963 as their first record made on four-track equipment, and Britain had it by late November; in the States it turned up on Meet The Beatles! early in 1964. It became their first American number one, blew the door open for the whole British Invasion, and went on to sell more than 12 million copies worldwide, their biggest single anywhere.

No wonder. Lennon and McCartney trade the vocal like two kids shouting over each other in the back of the van, Lennon's and George Harrison's guitars chop and jangle, Ringo Starr bashes it along, and all four clap in time. George Martin produced, with Norman Smith engineering and Geoff Emerick assisting.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.