HouseoftheHits.com
THE WEEK THAT WAS … BEATLES TOP 5 DOMINATION
Chart Photo: Courtesy of Billboard® Magazine
As April winds down, HouseoftheHits.com takes a look at a once-in-a-pop-music-lifetime Billboard Hot 100 chart feat which occurred during this month in 1964.
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The power of pop music’s weeks-old British Invasion of America – and specifically of the leaders of same, The Beatles – was no more evident than during the Billboard Hot 100 chart week of April 4-10, 1964.
Truly earning their moniker as the ‘Fab Four,’ the upstart Liverpudlians stunningly held down all five positions on the premier weekly chartmeisters’ uppermost level.
The quintet of titles included the group’s first two singles released in the U.S. by Capitol Records, namely I Want To Hold Your Hand and Can’t Buy Me Love, alongside three others from a similar number of smaller record companies: Swan, Tollie and Vee-Jay.
That trio of domestic independents had landed the issue rights to several Beatles’ singles in America – She Loves You, Twist And Shout and Please Please Me, respectively.
The confusing arrangement had been based on Capitol’s initial reluctance to release the group’s earliest recordings in the U.S. when offered to them by their UK-based parent company EMI Group Ltd., who issued all the Beatles’ product in that country on the Parlophone label.
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A pair of other Beatles’ discs charted in America just after the initial two Capitol U.S. releases. But those singles, Roll Over Beethoven and All My Loving, were introduced into this country by sister company, Capitol Records (Canada), peaking on the Hot 100 at #68 and #45, respectively.
[NOTE]
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Here for your listening enjoyment – and in exact order – is a feat which had never been even closely achieved prior to 1964.
And exceedingly likely, there will never again be circumstances in a future pop music climate which allows this chart phenomenon to be matched or exceeded.
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#1 / April 4th, 1964
CAN’T BUY ME LOVE
(Single Version)
Billboard Chart Debut: March 28th, 1964
Peak Position: Number 1 (5 weeks)
Total on Hot 100: 10 weeks
Related: #1 Songs On This Date for April 10th, 1964: CAN’T BUY ME LOVE
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#2 / April 4th, 1964
TWIST AND SHOUT
(Single Version)
Billboard Chart Debut: March 14, 1964
Peak Position: Number 2
Total on Hot 100: 11 weeks
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#3 / April 4th, 1964
SHE LOVES YOU
(Single Version)
Billboard Chart Debut: January 25th, 1964
Peak Position: Number 1 (2 Weeks)
Total on Hot 100: 15 weeks
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#4 / April 4th, 1964
I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND
(Single Version)
Billboard Chart Debut: January 18th, 1964
Peak Position: Number 1 (7 Weeks)
Total on Hot 100: 15 weeks
Related: #1 Songs On This Date for February 19, 1964: I WANT TO HOLD YOUR HAND
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#5 / April 4th, 1964
PLEASE PLEASE ME
(Single Version)
Billboard Chart Debut: February 1st, 1964
Peak Position: Number 3
Total on Hot 100: 13 weeks
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Please Please Me b/w Thank You Girl was originally issued by Vee-Jay (VJ 498) on February 20th, 1963 as the first record in the U.S. to bear the band’s name – and misspelled as by “THE BEATTLES.”
Both the promo and commercial copies of that original are still very expensive, highly coveted collectables.
With the forceful emergence of the British Invasion and The Beatles in early 1964, a corrected release of PPM was re-issued by the label – this time with From Me To You as its B-side – on January 3rd, complete with a new catalog number (VJ 581).
This re-released 1964 disc became the official Please Please Me single that was a part of Hot 100 chart history.
Note that the picture sleeve photo is ‘reverse image.’ Vee Jay really had trouble getting their act together with the Beatles recordings they owned at that time.
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Produced & Written By: Rick Murray Hunter / HouseoftheHits.com
Songs Source: The Music Vault of HouseoftheHits Inc.
Billboard® Chart Data: Joel Whitburn’s Record Research (eBook Editions)
References: The Archives of RollingStone.com
The Billboard Book Of Number One Hits (5th Edition) by Fred Bronson
All The Songs: The Story Behind Every Beatles Release (Kindle Edition) by Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon
The Beatles’ Story On Capitol Records / Part One: The Singles (Digital Edition) by Bruce Spizer
The Beatles’ Story On Capitol Records / Part Two: The Albums (Digital Edition) by Bruce Spizer
The website BeatlesBible.com
Record Sleeve & Label Graphics: Courtesy of 45cat
Special thanks to Starbucks®
