♫ I Want To Hold Your Hand ♫ (Redux)

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, music, music history, Social commentary

When I last played this one on February 9, 2019, it was 55 years ago that day that a young British rock group made their U.S. debut on the Ed Sullivan Show.  The name of the group, of course, was The Beatles.  This song is not, never has been, one of my favourites of theirs, but it was much loved at the time by most every other girl my age (13 back then) in the U.S.  I was, obviously, an anomaly!  Still, it’s rather a fun video and I figured it was about time I played some Beatles … it’s been a while!

From History.com …

Although it was difficult to hear the performance over the screams of teenage girls in the studio audience, an estimated 73 million U.S. television viewers, or about 40 percent of the U.S. population, tuned in to watch. Sullivan immediately booked the Beatles for two more appearances that month.

The group made their first public concert appearance in the United States on February 11 at the Coliseum in Washington, D.C., and 20,000 fans attended. The next day, they gave two back-to-back performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and police were forced to close off the streets around the venerable music hall because of fan hysteria. On February 22, the Beatles returned to England.

Now, I must confess to being a bit strange when I was young … shut up Joe, don’t even say it … and I was not all that impressed with The Beatles that first time I saw them on Ed Sullivan.  Nor was I impressed by the girls ripping off their clothes, screaming and fainting.  Eventually I came to appreciate The Beatles and their music, but unlike some others, it was definitely not love at first sight.

I am including two clips tonight.  The first is a clip from the November 18, 1963 edition of the Huntley-Brinkley Report by Edwin Newman.  The video no longer exists, but this audio-only copy was discovered in 2013, and I think you’ll enjoy it … I did!  The second is a video of one of the songs they performed on 09 February 1964.

I Want to Hold Your Hand
The Beatles

Oh yeah I tell you somethin’
I think you’ll understand
When I say that somethin’
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

Oh please say to me
You’ll let me be your man
And please say to me
You’ll let me hold your hand
Now, let me hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

And when I touch you
I feel happy inside
It’s such a feelin’ that my love
I can’t hide
I can’t hide
I can’t hide

Yeah, you got that somethin’
I think you’ll understand
When I say that somethin’
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

And when I touch you
I feel happy inside
It’s such a feelin’ that my love
I can’t hide
I can’t hide
I can’t hide

Yeah, you got that somethin’
I think you’ll understand
When I feel that somethin’
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand
I want to hold your hand

Songwriters: John Lennon / Paul Mccartney
I Want to Hold Your Hand lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Discover more from Filosofa's Word

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

34 thoughts on “♫ I Want To Hold Your Hand ♫ (Redux)”

  1. Pingback: ♫ I Saw Her Standing There ♫ | Filosofa's Word

  2. I was there, glued to the TV. I remember it like it was yesterday. I bring in my record player and Beatles record albums to school to play for my preschoolers. They love it! Their favorite song? I Saw Her Standing There.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. Beatles forever, I remember when I think John said they were more popular than God and the youth in America started to burn their records. They were occasionally referred to by religious nuts as playing satanic music but nowhere near as much as the Rolling Stones.

    Liked by 1 person

  6. A hair runs through it. I was twelve and wanted a crew cut like the older Zimmer boys across the street. My Dad insisted that I have a regular boys cut and that was that. The Ed Sullivan appearance reversed the dynamic instantly. My head don’t get cold.

    Liked by 2 people

  7. Jill, our whole family tuned into see Ed Sullivan weekly, but definitely we were paying attention on this night. You are right it was not one of their best songs, but it did garner attention. Their legacy goes beyond their 27 number one songs, it is a large body of solid work.

    Ron Howard did a documentary of The Beatles’ road shows. I think this is where I saw Ringo say he could not hear the other guys playing, so as drummer instead of leading the beat, he followed the other three body movements. The documentary noted the stadiums they played at had terrible sound systems for music which led to the problem Ringo noted.

    Keith

    Liked by 3 people

    • Ahhhh … memories. My parents always watched Ed Sullivan, else I likely wouldn’t have seen this one back in the day. I haven’t seen Ron Howard’s documentary … I should find it and watch it!

      Like

  8. I had just turned 9 when their first single – Love Me Do – came out and was just beginning to get into music. In those days we had very little pop music on the radio and even less on tv. The Beatles burst through that and opened the doors to a revolution. I’ve loved almost every record they have made, have them all in my collection, and still play them often. Those early ones may have been simple but they were new and exciting. I don’t think rock and pop music would have been the same without them.

    Liked by 3 people

  9. Oh my gosh…. That was a wonderful treat. Born in late 1950, living in Switzerland, we had one radio, no tv, one Swiss radio station – and I remember that during my apprenticeship I got ‚infected‘ with ‚new and different‘ music via kind gifts of fellow apprentices who were doing longer formations in manual jobs and who had some money to spare. That‘s how I got my first singles, and I had to ask very nicely if my dad would allow me to play this strange and wild music. Percy Sledge, Procol Harum, Otis Redding, the Beatles and Rolling Stones ——- there was no end to my excitement and no beginning of my parents despair with their oldest daughter.
    Of course, I hardly understood anything of their singing altogether and only later on, when I was older and lived abroad, I was truly free to not only ‚hear‘ those bands and singers, but also to understand their lyrics, which seemed mostly ‚beyond believable‘ to this young innocent soul.

    Liked by 3 people

    • I had to listen to Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald as a young child, night after night after night. Imagine my relief when “Love Me Do” hit the airwaves. But just so you know what I lived through, here is a short sample. I turned it off after 20 seconds, so feel free.

      Liked by 4 people

      • Oooooh….. now I‘m officially dead – this was even more dreadful than the Swiss folklore music I was forced to listen to in my youth…. Thanks a lot for the laugh – I lasted 28 secs because I wanted to hear the woman sing too! But it garnered 1.7mio upvotes. So you and me we cannot appreciate something epic others ‚get‘. 🙂

        Liked by 2 people

      • Oooooh….. now I‘m officially dead – this was even more dreadful than the Swiss folklore music I was forced to listen to in my youth…. Thanks a lot for the laugh – I lasted 28 secs because I wanted to hear the woman sing too! But it garnered 1.7mio upvotes. So you and me we cannot appreciate something epic others ‚get‘. 🙂

        Liked by 1 person

        • Oh no!!! Let me get my daughter … she knows CPR! I’m amazed you made it through 28 seconds!

          I thought this was you in the last comment, but I wasn’t sure … glad you repeated it so I knew for sure!

          Like

    • Oh yes … we shared similar taste in music back in the day, despite being half a globe apart! My parents bought me my own record player to keep in my room, so I wouldn’t poison them with my ‘horrid’ music! I didn’t understand the lyrics, either, but in my case it was because I was near deaf (still am). I’m really glad this one brought back such fun memories, my friend!!!

      Liked by 1 person

  10. Pingback: ♫ I Want To Hold Your Hand ♫ (Redux) | Ned Hamson's Second Line View of the News

Comments are closed.