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I Want to Hold Your Hand

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“I Want to Hold Your Hand”
“I Want to Hold Your Hand” cover
Single by The Beatles
B-side "This Boy" (UK)
"I Saw Her Standing There"(US)
Released 29 November 1963 (UK)
13 January 1964 (US)
Format 7"
Recorded Abbey Road Studios
17 October 1963
Genre Rock
Length 2:24
Label Parlophone R5084 (UK)
Capitol 5112 (US)
Writer(s) Lennon/McCartney
Producer George Martin
The Beatles singles chronology
"She Loves You" / "I'll Get You" (1963) "I Want to Hold Your Hand" / "This Boy"(UK 1963)
"I Saw Her Standing There" (US 1964)
"Can't Buy Me Love"/ "You Can't Do That"(1964)
Alternative covers
US 1964 issue
Let's see, we were told we had to get down to it. So we found this house when we were walking along one day. We knew we had to really get this song going, so we got down in the basement of this disused house and there was an old piano. It wasn't really disused, it was rooms to let. We found this old piano and started banging away. There was a little old organ too. So we were having this informal jam and we started banging away. Suddenly a little bit came to us, the catch line. So we started working on it from there. We got our pens and paper out and just wrote down the lyrics. Eventually, we had some sort of a song, so we played it for our recording manager and he seemed to like it. We recorded it the next day.

—Paul McCartney, 1964

We wrote alot 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, 1980

'Eyeball to eyeball' is a very good description of it. That's exactly how it was. 'I Want To Hold Your Hand' was very co-written.

—Paul McCartney, 1994


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