With a million orders for “I Want To Hold Your Hand” in the UK, the single shot to #1 in December 1963 knocking The Beatles’ own “She Loves You” from the top spot.

This was to be the first official single for The Beatles on Capitol records and was backed by an extraordinary marketing campaign. With “I Saw Her Standing There” replacing “This Boy” for the other side, the single was rush-released in the USA in January 1964, climbing to #1 on the Hot 100 by February 1st. Remaining on the chart for 15 weeks, it went on to sell more than 12 million copies worldwide, and with that, an unstoppable force was unleashed and Beatlemania had truly arrived.

This RSD Black Friday reissue single was cut from the original US version of the master tapes –- the same masters as used for the albums in the 1964 box set -- by Kevin Reeves in Nashville, using an all-analog cutting process and on the same 1970 lathe that was in Capitol and has been used on many classic album cuts over the years.