Welcome to another post on my blog. Today, we started a new topic in the Music Through Time unit, 'Beatlemania'. We looked at the social revolution between the 1950s and 1970s where the youths of that time protested restraint and lack of freedom. Also, we saw videos of the songs of The Beatles and the mental and madness of young women of The Beatles, this was called 'Beatlemania' - a term during the 1960s to describe the fan wildness and madness behaviour towards The Beatles during their early years of success.
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| The Beatles | Genius at work: (from left) Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, John Lennon and George Harrison in 1964 (Getty) Credit: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/beatles-best-albums-ranked-abbey-road-anniversary-paul-mccartney-john-lennon-a9108756.html |
The music I chose was 'I Want To Hold Your Hand', written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney in Jane Asher's basement. She was an actress and girlfriend of Paul McCartney.
The song "I Want to Hold Your Hand" was improved by the time the Beatles came to the studio on 17 October 1963 to record it.
The song was played on a Washington D.C. radio station (before released in America) by a DJ who got the record from a female flight attendant. It was a huge hit with his listeners. Capitol Records threatened to seek a court order banning airplay of "I Want to Hold Your Hand", which was already being spread to a couple of DJs in Chicago and St. Louis until the Beatles appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show. That threat was ignored, and the Capitol came to a conclusion that they released the song two weeks ahead of schedule on 26 December 1963.
The song was a hit on both sides of the Atlantic, in America, it sold more copies in the first ten days than any other Beatles single sold in the UK. In the first three days, the song had sold a quarter of a million copies.
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" was different from music from the 1940s and everything changed; long hair, weird dance moves, sexualised lyrics, and drug use.
The music in the 1940s was dull and simple, not talking about romance and love. It was simple songs.
Here is the lyrics to the song, "I Want to Hold Your Hand";
Oh yeah, I'll 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
