Meaning of the song I Want to Hold Your Hand – The Beatles

With the composition I Want to Hold Your Hand (“I want to hold your hand”), a wave of “Beatlemania” began in the United States. Now this may not seem like such a significant achievement, but before The Beatles, no British group could make a splash on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

In addition, the Liverpool Four never hid their admiration for American music, so one can only guess how important this success was for them. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and start the article about the song with the history of its creation.

The history of creation and the meaning of the song I Want to Hold Your Hand

The composition was originally conceived for an American audience. The first releases of The Beatles in the USA failed, and Brian Epstein convinced his wards that they needed to compose a song that corresponded to overseas tastes. Paul dated actress Jane Asher, and the co-authors often worked together in the basement of her parents’ house, where there was a piano. It was there that I Want to Hold Your Hand was born, which McCartney and Lennon composed with thoughts about a new audience for them.

According to Lennon, the B major chord was the source of inspiration:

I remember when we had the chord that made the whole song. We had “oh, you-uu…got that something”. And Paul took that chord, and I turned to him and said, “That’s it! Come on again!”

All We Are Saying, David Sheff

It is hardly worth dwelling on the discussion of the main idea of the song I Want to Hold Your Hand. John admitted that they didn’t pay much attention to lyrics in the early stages of writing. The lack of deep meaning in the words of this composition is proof of this.

The studio version was recorded on October 17, 1963 at Studio Two on Abbey Road. By that time, the group had rehearsed it well, so they completed the task in one day.

Releases and achievements

In the UK, the single I Want to Hold Your Hand was released on November 29, 1963. A couple of weeks later, it was on the first line of the official chart, displacing another song by The Beatles, She Loves You.

In the US, the release was scheduled for mid-January, when the band was scheduled to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show. To promote the single, Epstein knocked out an unprecedented amount of forty thousand dollars from Capital Studios. However, the record had to be released much earlier, because the song fell into the hands of local radio DJs. A well-known story is that fourteen-year-old Beatle fan Marsha Albert called the WWDC station and asked to play some of the band’s songs. DJ Carroll James wrote the single I Want to Hold Your Hand from the UK, aired the song and made it a hit ahead of time.

Capital threatened to sue the radio station, but limited itself to postponing the release date of the record. Thus, in the United States, it went on sale on December 26, 1963. Two hundred and fifty thousand copies were sold in three days, and on February 1, the song topped the Billboard Hot 100. It remained at the top of the chart for seven weeks, giving way to She Loves You, which it replaced at number one in the UK.

I Want to Hold Your Hand became one of the tracks on the album Meet the Beatles!, which appeared in American music stores on January 20, 1964. Later, the song was included several times in various compilations and collector’s editions.

The song was nominated for a Grammy but did not win an award. She was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1998. It is also in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Tracks of All Time, and other authoritative rankings.

Clip I Want to Hold Your Hand

Let’s watch the online music video for the song.

Interesting Facts

According to Hunter Davis, I Want to Hold Your Hand was conceived as a gospel parody.
It was the first song by The Beatles that they recorded on four tracks.
The stereo version of the single was intended for sale in the US. To the rest of the world, the record was offered in mono.
In New York alone, ten thousand copies of the single were sold in an hour.
The Beatles celebrated the success of the record at the restaurant of the George V Hotel. That same evening, their joyful faces were captured by a photographer in the famous photograph of the musicians fighting with pillows.
The Beatles also recorded a song in German called Komm Gib Mir Deine Hand.

I Want to Hold Your Hand Lyrics

Oh yeah, I’ll tell you something
I think you’ll understand
When I’ll say that something
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

Oh please, say to me
You’ll let me be your man
And please, say to me
You’ll let me hold your hand.
Now let me hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

And when I touch you I feel happy inside
It’s such a feeling that my love
I can’t hide, I can’t hide, I can’t hide