I Want To Hold Your Hand by The Beatles – ****

First released: 1964

The song that broke America in. Differing reports state that this was planned, while other reports said that it was just a fluke. I wasn't there, so I don't know. The only thing I do know is that it was a tremendous hit. Where I first heard it was on the David Frost documentary about The Beatles and they played a snippet of the song from "The Beatles" cartoon show where they sing and play to an octopus (shades of "Octopus's Garden"?). I thought that was a pretty catchy tune, but they lyrics seemed kind of simple-minded until I found out years later what "hold your hand" really meant! It was only a single in the UK, but a single and on the album "Meet the Beatles" in the US. Later on, it was on "A Collection of Beatles Oldies", "1962-1966", "20 Greatest Hits" and 'Past Masters, Volume One" in 1988. Strangely, it wasn't performed live much after 1964. It's also on 2000's "1". A live version from 1963 appears on "Anthology 1" in 1995. It is also used for 2006's "Love".