On This Day: The Beatles Release Their First U.S. No. 1, "I Want To Hold Your Hand," After a ...
After releasing several singles in the U.S. earlier in the year—”Please Please Me” and “From Me to You” (under Vee-Jay Records) and “She Loves You” (Swan Records)—Capitol finally signed the Beatles after Ed Sullivan agreed to let the band perform on his show in February 1964. The day after Christmas, 1963, the Beatles released their first single under the label, and what would become their first No. 1 in the United States, “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” and its B-side “I Saw Her Standing There.”
By early 1964, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” went to No. 1 internationally, including in the UK and the U.S., making them an overnight sensation in America. When they heard they had topped the chart in the U.S., the Beatles were in Paris playing a three-week, 18-show residency at the Olympia Theatre before heading to the U.S.
“We were playing in Paris, an engagement at the Olympia Theatre, a famous old theater Edith Piaf played at, and we got a telegram — as you did in those days — saying, ‘Congratulations, No. 1 in U.S. charts,” recalled Paul McCartney. “We jumped on each other’s backs. It was late at night after a show, and we just partied. That was the record that allowed us to come to America.”
Source: americansongwriter.com/Tina Benitez-Eves
