I Want to Hold Your Hand
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles, written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. Recorded on 17 October 1963 and released on 29 November 1963 in the United Kingdom, it was the first Beatles record to be made using four-track recording equipment.
For other uses, see I Want to Hold Your Hand (disambiguation)."I Want to Hold Your Hand"
- "This Boy" (UK)
- "I Saw Her Standing There" (US)
- 29 November 1963 (UK)
- 26 December 1963 (US)
17 October 1963
EMI, London
2:24
- Parlophone (UK) · Capitol (US)
With advance orders exceeding one million copies in the UK, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" would have gone straight to the top of the British record charts on its day of release had it not been blocked by the group's first million-seller "She Loves You", their previous UK single, which was having a resurgence of popularity following intense media coverage of the group. Taking two weeks to dislodge its predecessor, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" stayed at number one for five weeks and remained in the UK top 50 for 21 weeks in total.[3]
It was also the group's first American number-one hit, entering the Billboard Hot 100 chart on 18 January 1964 at number 45 and starting the British Invasion of the American music industry. By 1 February, it topped the Hot 100 and stayed there for seven weeks before being replaced by "She Loves You". It remained on the Billboard chart for 15 weeks.[4] "I Want to Hold Your Hand" became the Beatles' best-selling single worldwide, selling more than 12 million copies.[5] In 2018, Billboard magazine named it the 48th biggest hit of all time on the Billboard Hot 100.[6] In the UK, it was the second-highest-selling single of the 1960s, behind "She Loves You".[7]
Musical structure[edit]
Reminiscent of Tin Pan Alley and Brill Building techniques and an example of modified 32-bar form,[14] "I Want to Hold Your Hand" is written on a two-bridge model, with only an intervening verse to connect them. The song has no real "lead" singer, as Lennon and McCartney sing alternately in unison and in harmony.
The song is in the key of G major and lyrically opens two beats early with "Oh yeah, I'll tell you something" with a D-B, B-D melody note drop and rise over an I (G) chord.[15] Controversy exists over the landmark chord that Lennon stated McCartney hit on the piano while they were composing the song. Wolf Marshall considers it to be the minor vi (Em) chord (the third chord in the I–V7–vi (G–D7–Em) progression).[16] Walter Everett is of the same opinion.[17] Dominic Pedler claims, however, that more surprising is the melody note drop from B to F♯ against a III7 (B7) chord on "understand".[18]
Recording[edit]
The Beatles recorded "I Want to Hold Your Hand" at EMI Studios in Studio 2 on 17 October 1963. This song, along with the single's B-side, "This Boy", was the first Beatles song to be recorded with four-track technology. The two songs were recorded on the same day, each needing seventeen takes.[19] Mono and stereo mixing was done by George Martin on 21 October 1963;[20] further stereo mixes were done on 8 June 1965, for compilations released by EMI affiliates in Australia and the Netherlands,[21] and on 7 November 1966.[22]
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" was one of two Beatles songs (along with "She Loves You" as "Sie liebt dich") to be later recorded in German, entitled "Komm, gib mir deine Hand" (literally "Come, give me your hand"). Both songs were translated by Luxembourger musician Camillo Felgen, under the pseudonym of "Jean Nicolas".
Odeon, the German arm of EMI (the parent company of the Beatles' record label, Parlophone) was convinced that the Beatles' records would not sell in Germany unless they were sung in German. The Beatles detested the idea, and when they were due to record the German version on 27 January 1964 at EMI's Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris (where the Beatles were performing 18 days of concerts at the Olympia Theatre), they chose to boycott the session. Their record producer, George Martin, having waited some hours for them to show up, was outraged and insisted that they give it a try. Two days later, the Beatles recorded "Komm, gib mir deine Hand", one of the few times in their career that they recorded outside London. However, Martin later conceded: "They were right, actually, it wasn't necessary for them to record in German, but they weren't graceless, they did a good job".[19]
"Komm, gib mir deine Hand" was released as a German single in March 1964. In July, the song appeared in full stereo in the United States on the Beatles' Capitol LP Something New. (That album was released in CD form for the first time in 2004, on The Capitol Albums, Volume 1, and then rereleased in 2014, individually and in the boxed set The US Albums.) "Komm, gib mir deine Hand" also appeared on the compilations Past Masters and Mono Masters.
Many other musicians have recorded the song. Notable examples include:
According to Ian MacDonald:[55]