It has been sixty years since The Beatles achieved one of the most noteworthy accomplishments of their eight-year reign as the most successful recording act in music history.
The Fab Four held the top five songs in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 simultaneously.
If this were not enough, The Beatles also had seven other releases sitting between #31 and #79. That’s 12 songs in the Top 100. In addition to this unprecedented chart success there were also two Beatles tribute songs on the vaunted list. They were ‘We Love You Beatles’ by The Carefrees and ‘A Letter to the Beatles’ by The Four Preps. They occupied #42 and #85 respectively.
What does an act like this do for an encore?
One week later ‘There’s a Place’ and ‘Love Me Do’ made their way into the Hot 100.
Let’s enjoy a quick run through the list
#79 – Thank You Girl was the B-side of ‘From Me to You’. Interestingly, it was not issued on a Beatles LP in the United Kingdom until ‘Rarities’ was offered as a collection in 1978. In the United States ‘Thank You Girl’ was the B-Side of ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret’ and as an LP track it resided as the second song on ’The Beatles Second Album’. John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote this simple ditty as a tribute the band’s many female fans. Here is a quote from Paul McCartney.
We knew that if we wrote a song called, ‘Thank You Girl’, that a lot of the girls who wrote us fan letters would take it as a genuine ‘thank you’. So, a lot of our songs were directly addressed to the fans.”
Paul McCartney
The pair are in agreement that this was a ‘hack piece’.
In 2008, The Smithereens released a Beatles tribute album that focused on The Beatles B-sides. It was appropriately called ‘B-Sides The Beatles’. Here is their cover of ‘Thank You Girl’.
#68 – Roll Over Beethoven
#65 – ‘You Can’t Do That’ is a nasty song that at best is petty and at worse speaks to a possessive jealousy that suggests women are property. It has not stood the test of time, but it did make its way onto this list as a result of its connection to ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’. It was the B-side. So here goes.
In 1967, Harry Nilsson recorded this psychedelic version of ‘You Can’t Do That’. This was part of his ‘Pandemonium Shadow Show’. In this recording he brings anywhere from 17 to 22 Beatles tracks into the lyrical delivery. Kind of interesting, but mediocre in terms of all things Beatle related.
#58 – All My Loving
#46 – Do You Want to Know a Secret – If you really want to know a secret, it could be stated that much of what The Beatles were writing at this time was commercial tripe. This song would fall into that category. The counterbalance to this statement is the obvious point that there was an appetite for this kind of music. The evidence that The Beatles soon grew tired of this style, and stepped out of the comfort zone is apparent as the months went on. They were simply too good to be cast in the role of a sugar-coated pop act.
Having said that there are some interesting anecdotes related to ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret’. Although it is listed as a Lennon/McCartney composition, it was mostly written by John Lennon. Lennon is on record as stating that it was inspired by a song from the Walt Disney movie ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs’ called ‘I’m Wishing’. Before Snow White begins to sing, she speaks to the gathering flock of doves and ask if they want to hear a secret. She then makes them promise not to tell. John’s mother Julia used to sing this to him when he was young.
There really was a secret. It swirled around the truth that John Lennon was in love with his girlfriend, Cynthia and they planned to marry. Beatles manager was very upset by this reality because he felt that it may ruin the bands marketability. Epstein and Lennon finally struck a deal. Seeing as the couple could not afford a honeymoon and they did not have a dwelling of their own, he offered his flat to Cynthia and John for two weeks. The only ‘payment’ required would be that they promise not to tell anyone that they were married.
By the time The Beatles recorded ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret’, John Lennon recognized that the delivery better suited George Harrison’s vocal style, or maybe the group felt that if Lennon sang it, people might trace it back to the truth. Who knows.
In the end, ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret’ was the highest selling Beatles single sung by George Harrison until ‘Something’ was released on ‘Abbey Road’ in 1969.
A 1963 cover of ‘Do You Want to Know a Secret’ by Billy J. Kramer and The Dakotas went to #1 on the NME singles chart.
#41 – From Me to You
#31 – I Saw Her Standing There
#5 – Our walk through the top five begins with ‘Please Please Me’ which, in the U.K. was the second single released on the album of the same name. It followed ‘Love Me Do’. In the United States, ‘Please Please Me’ was The Beatles first single, released in February of 1963. Initially, ‘Please Please Me’ did not really resonate with the U.S audience. It was not until its re-release in January of 1964 that the song got caught up in the impending vortex of Beatlemania.
As much as ‘Please Please Me’ is a John Lennon composition that was written in an effort to emulate Roy Orbison, it was George Martin who recognized its value if it was recorded at a faster tempo with a call and response delivery. Here is Paul McCartney speaking to Martin’s vision in the liner notes of ‘Anthology’.
We sang it and George Martin said, ‘Can we change the tempo?’ We said, ‘What’s that?’ He said, ‘Make it a bit faster. Let me try it.’ And he did. We thought, ‘Oh, that’s all right, yes.’ Actually, we were a bit embarrassed that he had found a better tempo than we had.”
Paul McCartney
Running through a lengthy list of cover versions of ‘Please Please Me’ I was, well pleased, to see that Blondie had recorded her interpretation of this Beatles track. This was a bonus track on the Japanese release of a 2011 album called ‘Panic of Girls’. The studio version is worth listening to but I gravitated to this live offering from BBC Radio 2 in July of 2011.
#4 – I Want to Hold Your Hand – It is appropriate that ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ and ‘She Loves You’ are back-to-back on this list because in many ways the two songs go hand in hand. They represent Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s emerging talent as song writers, and they served to put a stamp on the process that served them so well through the remainder of the decade. Here is John Lennon discussing how he and Paul McCartney had begun to collaborate.
We wrote a lot of stuff together, one on one, eyeball to eyeball. Like in ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand,’ I remember when we got the chord that made the song. We were in Jane Asher’s house, downstairs in the cellar playing on the piano at the same time. And we had, ‘Oh you-u-u/ got that something …’ And Paul hits this chord and I turn to him and say, ‘That’s it!’ I said, ‘Do that again!’ In those days, we really used to absolutely write like that—both playing into each other’s noses.”
John Lennon
Interestingly, this memory comes from the pair working together in the music room of Jane Asher’s Liverpool home. Of course, Jane was Paul’s girlfriend at the time, and her brother Peter Asher went on to a respectable music career.
In terms of popularity, in the U.K., ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ was only prevented from hitting #1 based solely on the strength of pre-order sales by ‘She Loves You’. Over one million people had laid down their money before even hearing a note. This was a testament to the intense media coverage The Beatles were receiving in the British press. It took two weeks for ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ to supplant ‘She Loves You’ and it managed to remain at the top for five weeks. It also went on to become the first United States #1 for The Beatles.
To this day, ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ remains the Beatles best-selling single worldwide with sales of over 12 million copies.
For the cover version of ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ I am going to an old Ted Tocks favourite from the COVID days. Here is the family act known as Colt Clark and the Quarantine Kids. This is just a lot of fun, that demonstrates that the music of The Beatles will carry on for generations to come.
#3 – She Loves You – The hits just keep on coming. Sitting at #3 on the top 5 in April of 1964 was ‘She Loves You’, which can initially be traced all the way back to August of 1963 in the U.K. Where ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ is The Beatles top selling song ever, ‘She Loves You is The Beatles top selling song in the U.K. As a single ‘She Loves You’ followed ‘From Me to You’.
John Lennon and Paul McCartney were taking in their surroundings when they wrote ‘She Loves You’. They were on a cavalcade tour along with Roy Orbison and Gerry and the Pacemakers. The song writing began on the tour bus and continued in a Newcastle hotel room before they put the finishing touches on it in Paul McCartney’s family home in Liverpool. Speaking to this sequence of influence and environment, Paul stated that a song called ‘Forget Him’ by Bobby Rydell inspired the ultimate call and response format that gives ‘She Loves You’ its memorable hook.
As often happens, you think of one song when you write another … I’d planned an ‘answering song’ where a couple of us would sing ‘she loves you’ and the other ones would answer ‘yeah yeah’. We decided that was a crummy idea but at least we then had the idea of a song called ‘She Loves You’. So we sat in the hotel bedroom for a few hours and wrote it John and I, sitting on twin beds with guitars.”
Paul McCartney
With ‘She Loves You’ The Beatles drew on all the hooks. As mentioned above, they employed the call and response style. Then, according to John Lennon the focus turned to Elvis Presley and his song ‘All Shook Up’ which phrases like ‘yeah’, ‘uh huh’ and ‘yeah yeah’. Top it all off with the ever popular falsetto ‘woooos’ and you get the ingredients for a hit. To emphasize this point, look back at #41 and ‘From Me To You’ which is known as The Beatles first ‘wooo’ song.
Perhaps the funniest anecdote related to ‘She Loves You’ was recalled by Paul McCartney who takes us back to the living room of his childhood home. He and John Lennon had just finished the original version, and being proud of what they had created they took it to Paul’s father, Jim.
We went into the living room and said ‘Dad, listen to this. What do you think? And he said ‘That’s very nice son, but there’s enough of these Americanisms around. Couldn’t you sing ‘She loves you, yes, yes, yes!’ At which point we collapsed in a heap and said ‘No, Dad, you don’t quite get it!”
Paul McCartney
It’s all about the hook.
Cover versions of ‘She Loves You’ numbered well into the hundreds so it was difficult to decide, but I was intrigued by this version from the MonaLisa Twins, live from the Cavern Club in Liverpool.
#2 – Twist and Shout
#1 – Can’t Buy Me Love
This concludes the remarkable list that includes a dozen Beatles tracks that were on the Billboard Top 100 on this day 60 years ago, but there are two other interesting facts related to The Beatles unprecedented popularity.
Two weeks later, two more songs entered the top 100.
First, here is ‘There’s a Place’ from ‘Please Please Me’. The Beatles debut album and subsequent follow up singles and B-sides were so deep that ‘There’s a Place’ is almost a footnote. The thing is, this is actually one of the better written pieces in terms of composition. An argument could be made that of all the songs on today’s list, ‘There’s a Place’ exists as the best predictor of the introspective style that the Lennon/McCartney song writing partnership would deliver. Think ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’. Here is John Lennon’s summation of ‘There’s a Place’.
There’s a Place” was my attempt at a sort of Motown, black thing. It says the usual Lennon things: “In my mind there’s no sorrow …” It’s all in your mind.”
John Lennon
Paul’s take on the song harkened back to ‘There’s a Place for Us’ from the soundtrack to ‘Westside Story’. As the song developed, it took on a more philosophical style which definitely became John Lennon’s calling card.
‘There’s a Place’ was released as the B-side to Twist and Shout’ in March of 1964.
Enjoy this fabulous cover of ‘There’s a Place’ by the San Francisco garage rock act, the Flamin’ Groovies. This band’s third album ‘Teenage Head’ gave the Hamilton punk rock act Teenage Head their name. Just one more example of the intriguing line of influence that flows through music in just one song or group of acts. Motown, to Westside Story, to The Beatles, to the Flamin’ Groovies and ending with Teenage Head…But it definitely didn’t end there… This is just one of countless examples.
Enjoy this quality cover from their 1978 album ‘Now’ which was produced by Dave Edmunds. You can hear Edmunds’ influence all over this track.
And finally, here is ‘Love Me Do’ which has the distinction of being The Beatles debut single release back in October of 1962. One month later it peaked at #17 on the U.K. charts. ‘Love Me Do’ gave way to the series of singles that appear in this feature. In late March of 1964, ‘Love Me Do’ was released as a single in the United States. By mid-April it had made its way to #81 which began an ascent that took it to #1.
To summarize, in 1964, The Beatles had six #1 songs in the United States.
‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’
‘She Loves You’
‘Can’t Buy Me Love’
‘Love Me Do’
‘A Hard Day’s Night’
‘I Feel Fine’
By the time the ‘60s were over The Beatles had 34 top 10 hits. In all, 50 others managed to make it to the top 40.
No other band has ever been so prolific, nor as influential. Don’t take my word for it. Here is Dave Grohl’s assessment.
From one generation to the next. The Beatles will remain the most important rock band of all time.”
Dave Grohl
This is why 60 years later The Beatles are still so adored.
Ted Tocks Covers 
Have you listened to “McCartney: A Life in Lyrics” podcast? Fun to hear some of the stories behind some of the lyrics throughout his career, including the Beatles.
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Yes! It’s always fun to listen to Paul talk. He is so enthusiastic.
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These were the songs that made made the Beatles both an accessible act and also the first “Anticipation” chart topper. Their output was continuous, the radio play was constant and the rhythm hypnotic. You, (me) anxiously awaited the next week when a new song would emerge. I knew ahead of time I was going to like it (but I gotta admit “Yes It Is” took some getting used to). These songs were glorious in their presentation: Phase one, “we want a Rolls and a swimming pool, lets write a swimming pool”
Phase Two, we got the money now. We can do whatever we want, lets get introspective and create Rubber Soul, complete departure and they stuck to that going forward. Incredible productivity and quality control. George Martin!!
Heady times, never to be repeated. What a warm glow
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Your responses are always the best. Thank you! This was fun to write. It all happened before I was even born. Hard to imagine. No act today holds a candle to these guys.
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