ON THIS DAY IN 1963, ONE OF THE BEATLES BIGGEST HITS REACHED #1 ON THE UK RECORD CHARTS

Released in late November, “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, written by McCartney and Lennon, immidiately surged to #1, replacing their own song, “She Loves You”, which had held the top spot for two weeks. “I Want To Hold Your Hand” went on to take the position for a further five weeks, and stayed in the top 50 for a total of 21 weeks.

The song was also the bands first #1 hit in the US, hitting the Billboard charts in January and hitting number one by early February. “I Want To Hold Your Hand” went on to become the groups best selling song, as well as earning them a number of impressive accolades, such as being listed at #2 on the Mojo list of “100 Records That Changed the World” and #16 on Rolling Stones “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.

“I Want To Hold Your Hand” also went on to start an impressive record-setting spree from the group. It was the first of seven songs to hit #1 within the one year period of 1964, the first band to achieve such a feat. These seven songs, also including “Love Me Do” and “I Feel Fine” helped to define the immensely successful careers of The Beatle’s that was soon to come.