ON THIS DAY IN 1963, ONE OF THE BEATLE’S BIGGEST SINGLES WAS RELEASED

The band’s fifth British single, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was released to shocking advance orders exceeding 700,000, and within three days the record had sold 1 million copies, the groups second million seller after “She Loves You”, which blocked the song from reaching the top spot for two weeks.

“I Want to Hold Your Hand” was also the bands first American number one hit, arriving on the Billboard chart in mid January,1964 and had reached number one by February, where it stayed for seven weeks, before being dislodged by “She Loves You” in a bizarre reversal of the British chart.

Written by Lennon and McCartney, the song would become the bands best-selling single worldwide, selling over twelve million copies. In 2013, Billboard magazine named it the 44th biggest hit of all time and Rolling Stone listed it at number sixteen on their list of “The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.