The Beatles – “I Want To Hold Your Hand” Live

I Can’t Hide, I Can’t Hide!

“I Want to Hold Your Hand” was written by both Paul McCartney and John Lennon. The band used a four-track equipment during recording (since prior to this, they only used two tracks) and for advanced orders alone in the UK, it has sold more than one million copies. It topped the UK Charts for five weeks and it was also their first number one hit in the US and for seven weeks at that!

“We wrote a lot of stuff together, one-on-one, eyeball to eyeball. Like in I Want To Hold Your Hand, I remember when we got the chord that made the song. We were in Jane Asher’s house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time. And we had, ‘Oh you-u-u… got that something…’ And Paul hits this chord and I turn to him and say, ‘That’s it!’ I said, ‘Do that again!'” — John Lennon

It was basically penned with the American listeners in mind. It took 17 takes to complete the song. This was also one of two tracks which the band recorded in German. Although some critics didn’t give positive reviews, Bob Dylan was very impressed with their innovation. It was given the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1998.

“‘Eyeball to eyeball’ is a very good description of it. That’s exactly how it was. ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ was very co-written. It was our big number one; the one that would eventually break us in America.” — Paul McCartney

After the release of this classic, the world was never the same!