The Day the Beatles Ruled Supreme

April 4, 1964, seems a long time ago, but (no pun intended) it was only YESTERDAY!
If you stay as busy as I do (and I often wonder why), you probably let 4/4/14 slip by without realizing 50 years ago on that day, something very, very special occurred. The Beatles landed the “top five singles” on Billboard. It had never been done previously or since. The King himself, or anyone else for that matter, never accomplished such a feat!
For those of us with shorter memories for music trivia, the lineup for the top five on that historical day sounded something like this….No.1 Can’t Buy Me Love  No. 2 Twist and Shout No. 3 She Loves You  No. 4 I Want to Hold Your Hand  and last but not least, No. 5 Please Please Me. My favorite Beatles’ song ever was No. 3!
The song was written for a single by Lennon and McCartney in 1963. The duo wrote the hit tune sitting on twin beds in a hotel room somewhere with guitars in hand. This was the very first time that the songwriting credit was recorded as Lennon-McCartney. Prior to “She Loves You” it was in reverse order. The B side of the song was “I’ll Get You”.
This ended up being their best-selling single of all time in the United Kingdom with 1.9 million copies sold. No wonder I liked it! Rolling Stone ranked it No. 64 of the 500 greatest songs ever! In August 2009 the BBC Radio 2 officially declared it as the Beatles best-selling single in UK history. The song played two minutes and 18 seconds.
Paul McCartney said the song started as somewhat of a response to the Bobby Rydell hit “Forget Him” another personal favorite of mine. The song was recorded 7/1/63; released 8/23/63; and went to No. 1 on the English charts on September 14. It stayed on the charts for 31 consecutive weeks and ironically returned to No. 1 on November 30th, which seldom happens.
Swan Records released the song on 9/16/63 in the US but it failed to chart on Billboard. Then fast forward to January 1964 when the British Invasion hits with full force. “She Loves You” then re-emerges or re-ignites and enters Billboard on 1/25/64 for a 15 week run!
John and Paul performed the vocals with John also playing rhythm guitar and Paul on bass. I had to dig through five album covers to find where these five singles landed (photos  included). A close friend of mine, Paul Arrington, who is several years younger asked me recently what it was like being a teenager in the midst of the greatest era of music in the history of the world. To me it was nothing short of wonderful. Growing up in Nashville even magnified the sensation. My mother had found a part time job for me in 1963 at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium which allowed me the privilege to visit with  many of the famous groups backstage. Unfortunately, the Beatles did not include the Music City on their U.S. tours in that period. Nevertheless, I still enjoyed the 45’s and LP’s.
Beatlemania was a one time occurrence. I doubt the world could have endured two!
Credits…..en.wikipedia.org/wiki/She_Loves_You www.billboard.com/articles…/april-4-1964-the-Beatles-make-hot-100-history Personal music collection of Steve Vassallo

Steve Vassallo is a HottyToddy.com contributor. Steve writes on Ole Miss athletics, Oxford business, politics and other subjects. He is an Ole Miss grad and former radio announcer for the basketball team. Currently, Steve is a highly successful leader in the real estate business who lives in Oxford with his wife Rosie. You can contact Steve at sovassallo@gmail.com or call him at 985-852-7745.