Chart success doesn’t necessarily determine the worth of either songs or the artists who recorded them. But there are some feats pertaining to the lists of the most popular or best-selling songs that can’t be denied. As they do with so many aspects of history, The Beatles stand tall in this department. This is especially true when it comes to a fateful week in 1964. That’s when The Beatles held down the Top 5 positions on the United States pop chart.
Videos by American Songwriter
Unheard Hits
It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when The Beatles’ invasion of America seemed an unlikely turn of events. Top-selling British musicians had been trying for many years to make headway across the ocean to no avail. The Fab Four easily could have fallen into that trap.
The Beatles’ first chart success in Great Britain came when their debut single “Love Me Do” scored a modest position in 1962. That was followed by “Please Please Me”, a major hit, and “She Loves You”, an absolute dynamo. Throughout 1963, the group set off a sensation in their home country and lived at the top of the charts.
In America, however, their efforts went unrewarded. The main problem sprang from the fact that Capitol Records, which held the rights to their records in the US, simply wouldn’t release the songs. As a result, Beatles’ manager Brian Epstein was forced to make side deals with smaller labels to release them in America.
The Floodgates Open
The smaller US labels that grabbed the rights to The Beatles’ early songs lacked the money to make a big promotional push. They also didn’t have connections to top radio stations. As a result, all the 1963 Beatles’ singles failed to chart in America. They were like trees falling in the woods. Nobody heard them.
Who knows how long this might have persisted were it not for a confluence of events? In November 1963, a brief news report on the group’s takeover of Great Britain was shown on American television. A teenager watching that report called a local DJ and asked if she could hear Beatles music.
That DJ imported the band’s latest single, “I Want To Hold Your Hand”, and started playing it. Soon, the song started saturating other markets. Capitol Records could no longer deny The Beatles. They hustled out their own release of “I Want To Hold Your Hand”.
The Fab Four and the Top Five
In February 1964, The Beatles arrived for their first shows in America in the same week that “I Want To Hold Your Hand” went to no. 1 on the US charts. Their performance on The Ed Sullivan Show instigated Beatlemania in America. Demand for their music exploded.
As a result, the labels that held the rights to those 1963 songs quickly re-released them. On top of that, a new single, “A Hard Day’s Night,” the title track to their first film, also arrived. It was a perfect storm of events to create an unprecedented chart sensation.
The Billboard pop charts for the first week of April 1964 revealed the scenario. “Can’t Buy Me Love” held the top spot, while “I Want To Hold Your Hand” had sunk to no. 4. They were joined by the re-releases of “Twist And Shout” (no. 2), “She Loves You” (no. 3), and “Please Please Me” (no. 5). The Beatles held a monopoly on the Top 5, a feat that still stands alone when it comes to American chart dominance.
Photo by Sharok Hatami/Shutterstock
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.