“The Beatles tested limits musically. When we first heard ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand,’ it stunned us, we had to ask ourselves if it was any good, there was nothing remotely like it on the radio.”—Bob Lefsetz

I was eight years old in 1963 when the Beatles first came to American radio and record stores. Immediately I fell in love with the music of the Fab 4 — as did all of my friends. (The guys were trying to figure out how to dance without looking like dorks; the girls were swooning and arguing over which Beatle was “cuter.”) Despite the fact that my parents didn’t yet know what to make of this new music, they did buy me a Beatles wig…and probably any number of the other Beatles accessories to immediately hit the market.

Unfortunately, I don’t have any of those collectibles anymore. But I do have my first 45 record, the Beatle’s American #1 triumph, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” picture-sleeve* and all.

No doubt it was the Beatles that ignited my love for and fascination with MUSIC. And they still rock my soul to this day, all these years later.

In placing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” at #16 on their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, Rolling Stone Magazine quotes Paul McCartney issuing a prophetic ultimatum: “We said to [manager] Brian Epstein, ‘We’re not going to America till we’ve got a Number One record.”

“During a marathon three-week season of nightly Beatles shows at the Paris Olympia which had begun on January 16, 1964, Brian received a stunning telegram from his London office. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” had jumped from 43 to #1 on the charts compiled by the American music magazine Cashbox. It sold a million copies…Coming only days before the Beatles’ visit to New York to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show, this was the breakthrough Epstein [and the band!] wanted.” —The Man Who Made the Beatles: An Intimate Biography of Brian Epstein

There’s a cool OG Beatles fan site here.

Also see “Come Together.”

*The lit cigarette held by Paul on the original 1964 version of the picture sleeve was airbrushed out for the 1984 20th anniversary issue.