#1

1. I Want to Hold Your Hand - The Beatles

Stats:

• #1 for 7 Weeks in 1964 (February - March)
• Replaced: There! I Said It Again - Bobby Vinton
• Replaced by: She Loves You - The Beatles
• Sample Headline from its Reign: Muhammad Ali is first crowned heavyweight champion of the world.
• #2 Hits It Prevented from Reaching #1: You Don't Own Me - Lesley Gore
• Top 200 #1 Hits 1955-2000 Rank: #1

A song so titanic that it basically changed the entire trajectory of pop music history.  The opening is pure bliss and glee and stands as a complete change from the creeping blahness of the early 60s.  Instead, we get a charge of guitars and a thump of drums and simple profession to want to hold our hand.  They held our hands as they changed the pop music scene from singles to albums, from Sullivan to Woodstock, from harmony to psychedelia, from youth to middle age.  There has never been another Beatles, there couldn't be.  But in 1964, four boys from Liverpool managed to hold down the top 5 positions on the chart and this song was the one that really got us all excited again about a pop music that had grown larded with too much sweetness and not enough attitude.  But even this one, is a little too nice... but that's what made it so universal.  And that's what really changed the course of pop music as much as Bill Haley and Elvis. So there you have it: #1.

Coming up: The list.

Comments

[Ken]

Great pick! Brings back memories of collecting Beatles trading cards (I wonder what they'd be worth today) and my father's insistence that "five years from now nobody will remember who these guys were". Hard to overemphasize the impact of that first rush of hits from these guys.

And thanks again for this list. It's been fun and your hard work is appreciated (even if I think you missed a few).

[Mark Cunningham]

...... I Want to Hold Your Hand was "a little too nice" ? I tend to agree.
....... Where the Fabs wanted to hold your hand, the 'bad boy' Stones said "Let's spend the Night Together".
.......... too bad those nice boys from Liverpool let their hair & beards grow out, they were sooo sweet !
.... obla dee, obla dah ;-)

[gahrie]

Just as rap needed Rapper's Delight and Walk This Way as an introduction, rock needed the Beatles.....

[grannie elbow]

I think this is properly number one. I would have liked to see Elvis get a little higher, but all in all, except for my dislike of rap and hip hop this has been a great ride. Thanks for the great memories.

[gooch mango]

That week in April 1964 paved the way for Rock n Roll to move from a singles medium to the album oriented industry it became. It was a revelation to both consumers and labels that a band could produce so many hit songs in such a short period of time... and that the folks would buy them. I think the music industry and FM radio would be unrecognizable today if not for that week.