First Reaction: The Beatles - I Want to Hold Your Hand

[@ricknbacker5626]

Hi Andre. By the end of 1963 The Beatles had conquered Great Britain, France and Germany. On Feb 1, 1964, I Want to Hold Your Hand hit #1 on the American radio charts, 8 days before the Beatles first performed live on Americas top Sunday Night TV program, The Ed Sullivan Show. 73 million Americans tuned in. I was nearly 5 years old and watched the Beatles (with my 2 hysterical older sisters and unimpressed father and older brother, my Mom was too exhausted to care :-) It is impossible to overstate the impact I Want to Hold Your Hand had on the American public.(not to mention Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys) Over the next few months, the culture of the entire free world changed forever, and I Want To Hold Your Hand was the flashpoint. Take care RNB

[@rjisasavage]

@@ricknbacker5626 thank you for the history. That makes sense!

[@ricknbacker5626]

@@rjisasavage My pleasure Andre. It was as if right up to that Beatles TV performance on Feb 9, 1964, the world existed in Black and White only. The day after The Beatles Ed Sullivan performance the world appeared, for the first time, to be in full panoramic color. it was that monumental of an event. 60+ years later, I remember it like it was yesterday. RNB

[@HeidiDenoble]

This and She Loves You were the first two songs that introduced Americans to the Beatles. It may not be their best but it has a special place for those of us who were around then.

[@rjisasavage]

@@HeidiDenoble that makes sense

[@MrAwkwardturtle13]

The fuckin MAN love this guy and his vids

[@rjisasavage]

@@MrAwkwardturtle13 love you bro!

[@johntree6425]

They started out as schoolboy friends in Liverpool uk, honed their chemistry playing marathon sets of covers and self penned tunes in German clubs, then back in Liverpool, emerged as as a MASSIVELY popular boy band/pop band in short time by 1963, and by 1965/6 they had switched gears and were turning the music industry on its head with a bewildering series of innovations. Creating genres like most people ate peanuts. They are credited with being instrumental in sparking Rock, Psychedelia, Folk Rock, Heavy Metal, concept albums, tape loops, musical feedback… as well as writing some of the most memorable and best selling tunes of the 20th century. Not bad for those kids from post WWII Liverpool.

[@rjisasavage]

They’re absolutely amazing! I love their albums. Need to visit the earlier stuff

[@jainstevens131]

They were not "schoolboy friends". Paul and George knew each other from riding the same bus to school. They were not in classes together; Paul was older. That was about 1954. Several years later Paul met John when John was playing at a church event with his own band. John and Paul bonded over their love of music and that they'd both lost their mothers. Paul later introduced John and George. John didn't want George in his band because George was too young (age 14) but George won over John with his guitar playing. It was a few yrs later when they picked up Ringo who was a drummer with another band (Rory Storm).

[@tracybuck4829]

This is the stuff that made Beatlemania...Then later they evolved into all the groovy later stuff...But this song put them on the map.

[@marxlover100]

Disagree with you, Andre, that this was not a groundbreaking song. This was the Beatles' song first being played in America and it was so different from anything we had heard before. It captured a nation by storm. You need to do some research.

[@rjisasavage]

That’s completely fine for me to get it wrong. Maybe I need to dig into it more

[@crustaceanPeanut]

I also think the other earlier Beatles albums (Please Please Me, With The Beatles, A Hard Day’s Night, Beatles For Sale, Help!) are a completely different beast than their later stuff, but still equally worth checking out to know where they came from.

[@chriswitting371]

This song is very ground breaking for its time. Just listen to any of the hit songs of that year and then you will get how great this song ls.

[@1967PONTIACGTO]

for extra fun, on these early songs, watch the Beatles perform them live, because the girls used to go wild... for a good example, watch them perform "She Loves You" at the ABC Cinema in Manchester UK in 1963... it was called Beatlemania for a reason

[@rjisasavage]

@@1967PONTIACGTO I’ll have to! Did that stop happening in later years?

[@debjorgo]

@@rjisasavage Yeah, when they stopped performing live in '66.

[@rjisasavage]

@@debjorgo that makes sense. I need to do more research

[@jimgreen2080]

This song and She Loves You instantly established the Beatles, their look, their format (small self-contained ensemble) and their sound (big guitars, at least for 1963-1964) as commercially The Next Big Thing. Cue the British Invasion and American response, and nothing in the popular music world was ever the same again. No wonder it's a big deal to those who know about this, including those (like me) who experienced it in real time.

[@dixiedarr700]

This was their first song to break through in America in December, 1963, one month after the JFK assassination. We went wild!

[@janaparoubkova5895]

Já písničky Beatles miluji,jak jejich rannou tak pozdější tvorbu,ano pozdější tvorba byla ještě lepší,ale jejich začátky jsou také úžasné❤❤✌️ Moje nejoblíbenější písnička od Beatles je Don't Let Me Down, zpívali ji, když dělali poslední koncert na střeše, určitě by se Vám líbila,je fantastická ❤😀

[@Katt-._.7.]

When you have access to the complete discography it can be hard to appreciate the earlier work as much. It’s important to put the songs in the context of the time, which you already acknowledged. And I agree with you; when we have access to the Abbey Road medley of course the ‘63 songs aren’t gonna be our favourites (or at least I don’t think they should be 😅). But in their day they were bangers. So yeah, I think your reaction is completely fair!

[@rjisasavage]

@@Katt-._.7. thank you so much! I definitely think if I would’ve done it in order I would have a different feeling but still great!

[@philowens7680]

This was the first of their twenty number one hits in the USA. Their live performance of this on the Ed Sullivan show in February 1964 is excellent, except for the low volume setting on the mixer channel for John's microphone. You should watch that video to see and hear the girls in the studio audience go nuts! Here's a link kzbin.info/www/bejne/oJbRiJevobmnsNUsi=b6itciiLEA0HMRqR

[@rjisasavage]

Watching, should I react or just watch in my own time

[@philowens7680]

@@rjisasavage Either way. The Ed Sullivan audience reaction might convince you that this music style was NOT common at the time. It was ground breaking.

[@debjorgo]

Some of their early songs still sound contemporary. I Saw Here Standing There, I Should Have Known Better, I'm a Loser, In My Life, All My Loving, And I Love Her, Don't Bother Me, Things We Said Today.... With I Want To Hold Your Hand, the Beatles were trying to appeal to the American audience, which may be the reason you hear it like a '60s, Beach Boys' type song.

[@rjisasavage]

@@debjorgo that makes a lot of sense

[@nickperkins8477]

I feel like I Want To Hold Your Hand is The Beatles in prototypical Boy Band Style. To my ears, it has never sounded phenomenal. But, I was born in 1978, in a post Beatles Music World. I am not criticizing the impact it had on 1963 and 1964 audiences. For that era, it was likely earth-shattering.

[@ESyshej-gf2eg]

Personally, I much prefer their later music, especially their psychedelic era which is their peak for me. For the sake of experiencing their evolution as band and as artists I would encourage you to check out their early albums as well, which aren’t my favourite but definitely worth a listen. My favourite tracks from that time would be And I love her, Don’t bother me, No reply, I’ll follow the sun, All I’ve got to do, Baby it’s you, Till there was you, A taste of honey, and Please Mr postman which is a cover as some others but I think probably their best.

[@rjisasavage]

@@ESyshej-gf2eg love their later stuff!

[@carlosalbertosolares1236]

This was groundbreaking for the time, it was not common at the time as you suggested

[@rjisasavage]

@@carlosalbertosolares1236 really?

[@braudabo]

@@rjisasavage This was a new version of rock'n'roll, an European version. This becomes particularly noticeable, when one compare this track, and even more so She loves you, with the chart songs of the time (1963/1964). The differences are very concise. In addition, they presented themselves in an unpretentious, pleasantly irreverent and cheeky way.

[@SacredxCreature]

Gonna be honest my guy don’t agree about it being a pop tune you would have heard anytime at that time, in your own time react to every billboard hot 100 single from 1958 to 2023 video, on god once the Beatles come on the scene fr it’s over an actual breath of fresh air it was not a common sound, the Beatles are all about their hidden gems like hey bulldog, and with you not even hearing half their discography at this point you are limiting yourself greatly and have missed dozens of them, it really only took them a year from that to push for the innovation your talking about on a lot of their songs my guy fr, everything before them was very dated ball room sweets that mean nothing really with songwriters writing for people like Elvis since he never wrote his own music which people like max martin do now for people like Taylor swift where you have 15 producers and 3 writers for one song. Of course there were outliers like chuck berry, little Richard, fats domino, but remember the Beatles were kids none of them were even 30 by the time it was over self taught no real music theory in the general term, and George just turned 20 while recording their first album, they perfected their sound and style and stage presence from there days playing clubs for the 3 or so years before even naming themselves the Beatles or even when ringo join in 62, the idea of a band who wrote their own songs and toured to stadiums was not household yet. I loved your other reactions but the Beatles early work is nothing to push down compared to help and beyond, especially a hard days night with songs like and I love her or if I fell which you will find to be on par or even better than most of what’s on stuff like let it be, or the white album, yes they got better and better but that doesn’t diminish how much of a insane breath of fresh air their sound was, they made bands start writing their own music and innovating in the studio much earlier than most people would have without them, they worked with the bare minimum and didn’t have the liberties of later records, stuck on 4 track, no close mic drumming, keeping everything record label clean nothing too loud or too technical but once they got a name for themselves they stopped that and pushed farther and for more and got it and haven’t been topped since to me, yes songs like their first ever single love me do sound dated but that song was written by Paul when we was still young teen, not 7 years later he wrote yesterday, please check out a hard days nights, help, and magical mystery tours albums which are pretty much all Beatles originals lol but other 3 early albums have about half the record being covers which a lot at great, but for sale was rocky album because of the pressure on them as the biggest band in the world and exhausted their OG material and ran out of the better songs to cover still good but the worst of the best the only misstep but got right back on track, if you knew the insane schedule they were on you’d be surprised if they got 2 albums out in 3 years not 7 by 66 just 3 years into their discography. They had an insane work ethic that hasn’t been matched. There are some real bangers on their first album you’ll like, ask me why, there’s a place, twist and shout, it’s hard to appreciate it more when you start with there best work but it will grow on you if you give it a listen they didn’t go from meh to great they hit it out of the park immediately just not as hard as later albums did. Also crazy to me you haven’t heard their singles too btw that aren't on their main albums since most of them are their number 1s like more than half, past masters has every single they put out and vol 2 is way better with later singles but both are great check it out you like what you like abbey road is great but you are missing out and will not regret it. 🙏🏽

[@rjisasavage]

This is my favorite comment here. I’m happy to be wrong about something and expand my musical understanding. Thank you for the lesson, for disagreeing, and putting me up on game.

[@SacredxCreature]

@@rjisasavage The best way I can put it is the Beatles have a style not a sound you can’t box them into a genre, pretty sure you saw that with the white album how different each song was, and even if it fits the tone of the album they all could be from different bands on different albums, and I appreciate it my guy, keep up you’re videos they are great, best 3 albums for you In my opinion to react to if you don’t want the more addressing their female fans early love songs and covers of their first two albums to get their name out, definitely react to a hard days night, help, and magical mystery tour mainly all originals expect for dizzy miss lizzy on help, then go back to the rest, i just turned 24 and have listened to them and tons of other 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s 2000s ect music my whole life from my mom with rock and my dad with hip hop and R&B, but I listen to just about everything that catches my ear and no matter how old music is, any music you listen to you haven’t heard is still new music to you in the end, and to me it still goes the Beatles, queen, then everyone else. If I every had to reccomend a Beatles album for a first time listener it would be probably abbey road, revolver, rubber soul, but if you want the best experience you gotta start from the beginning, if you go from the medley to I want to hold your hand it’s night and day, but if you start from I want to hold your hand to the medley you go wow that’s the same band how is that the same group just 6 years apart… if you start from the beginning you see that transformation you see the growth that was always there from the first album it’s just harder to see because of what they were limited to some covers are meh and some OG songs don’t hit the mark just right, but these guys wanted to write and would not go to America or tour world round if they didn’t get a number 1 in America first and with this song they achieved that right after and they came on the Ed Sullivan show, some of the songs on revolver could be written in a day while John or Paul were at a hotel room, they got ideas from places and wrote them into songs very quickly and some worked on for months or even years in the back pocket, and today you don’t see that often, albums are planned, they had to get our 2 albums a year, and 4 singles, rubber soul was made in a month because of the Christmas deadline right after help the album and movie, they had litterly nearly 0 days off in the year it’s insane to me they got as much out as they did, Everything they pioneered, or helped to pioneer, we just take as a given now. Bands writing all their own songs and playing all their own instruments without just using session musicians. Using the studio to its full capabilities. Tape loops, pitched vocals, backmasking, incorporating influences from classical and Middle Eastern / Asain genres of music. Using things other than the standard guitar, bass, drums formula. Focusing on entire albums of quality songs as opposed to making an album with one hit song and 10 other songs designed to sound just like that one hit song. It's easy to forget that before them, the music industry was very different. Songs were written FOR singers by paid writers, barely any singers were allowed to write their own songs. They were given songs, paid to sing them, and musicians were paid to be the band for them. The Beatles helped to change that. In your own time watch the channel you can’t unhear this any pick any Beatles song like here comes the sun, or just look at isolated Beatles songs of the instrumental and you’ll hear things you never heard the first time around. I’m pretty sure you could tell by the white album George stopped writing George songs and wrote Beatles songs that outmatched lennons and McCartney and he was only 26 years old. For the song Michelle Lennon added the i love you parts, for and I love her George came up with the intro, they all helped each other in little impactful ways and George Martin and others helped in the Beatles inner circle too with ideas. Lastly once you go solo with post Beatles music I’m gonna give you their best and what not to waste your time on, for ringo check out his album ringo that’s all you need to do, ringo is is best album with help from all 4 Beatles on it, for Harrison all things must pass is considered the best post Beatles album and it pretty much is he cooked hard with it and other than that living in the material world, for Lennon do plastic ono band, imagine, and mind games the single, also number 9 dream the single, great songs you’ll like but most important after that check out double fanstay his last project before his death it’s to me his best work as a happier less burdened man ready to write music again ignore the yoko stuff mainly though tbh, you won’t like them much pretty much 6 out of the 7 Lennon songs are amaizng, and last for Paul it’s very hard to reccomend because he was in wings and he had his solo carrear, check out McCartney, ram, red rose speedway, band of the run, mainly though and for wings check out the album called wings greatest hits it’s his best work all in one comp album trust me, and check out the song here today it’s a tribute to John called here today, also the song say say say with micheal Jackson, good luck my guy keep up with the amazing content can’t wait to see where you go to next.

[@bendaaa69]

listen to dark side of themoon