In 1966, the Beatles famously stopped touring, despite being arguably the biggest musical act in the entire world with millions of fans who wanted nothing more than to see the Fab Four perform live.
The decision to quit touring was made for a multitude of reasons, as the members of the Beatles explained in subsequent years, but one thing was abundantly clear: the band felt far more comfortable in a studio setting than anywhere else. That was where the magic happened.
“We feel that only through recordings do people listen to us, so that is the most important form of communication,” Paul McCartney said to Hit Parader in May of 1967. “Now we take time because we haven’t any pressing engagements like tours to limit us. All we want is to make one track better than the last. We make all ‘A’ sides and never go into the studio thinking ‘This will be our next single.’ We just make tracks, then listen to them and decide from what we have what will be a single, what will go on to an LP.”
This attitude worked out in the Beatles favor, to put it mildly, both in their native U.K. and across the big pond in the U.S. At the time of this writing, the Beatles have the most No. 1 hits on the American Billboard chart, with 20 songs having reached the coveted position.
We’ve decided to rank them, taking into consideration their craftsmanship and impact as a hit single, particularly as it pertained to American audiences.
20. “The Long and Winding Road / “For You Blue”
If anything, the announcement of the Beatles’ breakup in April of 1970 only further propelled the success of their final album, Let It Be, which was released in the U.S. on May 18 of that year. A week prior to that, “The Long and Winding Road” was released as a single with the B-side “For You Blue.” Both songs performed well enough on the radio that Billboard charted them together, resulting in the Beatles 20th and final No. 1 hit in the U.S.
19. “Hello, Goodbye”
“Hello, Goodbye” is notable for being the Beatles’ first release following the death of manager Brian Epstein. It was, admittedly, not John Lennon‘s favorite, to put it kindly. “That’s another McCartney. Smells a mile away, doesn’t it?” he later recalled. “An attempt to write a single. It wasn’t a great piece; the best bit was the end, which we all ad-libbed in the studio, where I played the piano.” The attempt worked anyway, spending three weeks at the No. 1 spot.
18. “Can’t Buy Me Love”
“Can’t Buy Me Love” spent five weeks at No. 1, but there’s something even more impressive we must mention. At the time this song landed at the top spot in April of 1964, the Beatles held all top five entries on the Billboard Hot 100 — “Can’t Buy Me Love” at No. 1, followed by “Twist and Shout,” “She Loves You,” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Please Please Me.” This is a record that would not be broken until 2021 when rapper Drake accomplished the feat.
17. “Paperback Writer”
Interestingly, “Paperback Writer” entered the U.K. charts at No. 2, trailing Frank Sinatra‘s “Strangers in the Night” for a week before it moved up to No. 1. But in America, it landed promptly at No. 1 from the very beginning, replacing the Rolling Stones’ “Paint It, Black.” It stayed there for two weeks before being taken over by the aforementioned Sinatra song.
16. “We Can Work It Out”
“We Can Work It Out” was the Beatles’ 11th No. 1 hit in the U.S., something they managed to accomplish in less than two years since landing their first song on the chart. As Record World put it back then, the single “will fascinate teens with its change of pace 4/4-3/4 timing and potent lyric.”
15. “Penny Lane”
“Penny Lane” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” were released as a double A-side single in February of 1967, but only one of them went to No. 1. “Brian [Epstein] was desperate to recover popularity, and so we wanted to make sure that we had a marvelous seller,” producer George Martin recalled in Anthology (via beatlesbible.com). “He came to me and said, ‘I must have a really great single. What have you got?’ I said, ‘Well, I’ve got three tracks – and two of them are the best tracks they’ve ever made. We could put the two together and make a smashing single.'” To be fair, it did only spend a week in the top position before being knocked out by the Turtles’ “Happy Together.”
14. “Ticket to Ride”
“Ticket to Ride,” with a B-side of “Yes It Is,” was the Beatles’ first single release of 1965. It subsequently spent a whole week at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100. “‘Ticket to Ride’ was slightly a new sound at the time,” Lennon recalled in Anthology. “It was pretty f—–g heavy for then, if you go and look in the charts for what other music people were making.”
13. “Get Back”
“‘Get Back’ is the Beatles’ new single,” press advertisements from 1969 read. “It’s the first Beatles record which is as live as live can be, in this electronic age. There’s no electronic whatchamacallit. ‘Get Back’ is pure spring-time rock number. On the other side there’s an equally live number called ‘Don’t Let Me Down.’ … In ‘Get Back’ and ‘Don’t Let Me Down,’ you’ll find the Beatles, as nature intended.”
12. “I Feel Fine”
It was in February of 1964 that the Beatles first came to visit America, arriving in New York City to throngs of adoring fans. That excitement basically didn’t let up for months, so by the time “I Feel Fine” was released as a single in November, it was no surprise that it went to No. 1 and stayed there for three weeks. It was also the band’s sixth single to reach that spot in the same calendar year, an all-time record at that point.
11. “Help!”
“Help!” is a great song, but a distressing one, too. At the time it was written in 1965, the Beatles were by no means slowing down in terms of success and fame. “When ‘Help!’ came out, I was actually crying out for help,” Lennon would later say. “Most people think it’s just a fast rock ‘n’ roll song. I didn’t realize it at the time; I just wrote the song because I was commissioned to write it for the movie. But later, I knew I really was crying out for help.” That pain landed the band another No. 1 hit.
10. “A Hard Day’s Night”
Here’s a second movie title track, and yet another record-breaking moment. “A Hard Day’s Night” went to No. 1 in both the U.S. and U.K., as did the album of the same name. Up until then, no other artist had ever managed to hold the top spot on both the album and singles charts in those two countries simultaneously.
9. “All You Need Is Love”
Back in 1967, Rolling Stone described “All You Need Is Love” as “the sing-song anthem for the Summer of Love.” Indeed, by this point in the Beatles’ career, their international influence was undeniable, and the song went to No. 1 in multiple other countries outside the U.S. and U.K.
8. “Eight Days a Week”
The way “Eight Days a Week” doesn’t so much start as it rolls in like a red carpet? We’re into it, but Lennon wasn’t a fan, even if the song was a hit. “‘Eight Days a Week’ was never a good song,” he said. “We struggled to record it and struggled to make it into a song. It was [McCartney’s] initial effort, but I think we both worked on it. I’m not sure. But it was lousy anyway.”
7. “Yesterday”
“Yesterday” isn’t exactly hit single material. It’s the right length, sure, but the subject material isn’t exactly the sexiest. The Beatles knew this and purposefully did not release it as a single in the U.K. But they did not have as much jurisdiction with their American record label, who did release it as a single in September of 1965. Nevertheless, the song spent four weeks in the No. 1 spot.
6. “Let It Be”
“Let It Be” holds the strange honor of being the last single the Beatles released prior to announcing their breakup. “As ever with the Beatles,” Derek Johnson wrote in NME, “this is a record to stop you dead in your tracks and compel you to listen attentively.” It earned McCartney specifically heaps of praise for his songwriting, and it didn’t hurt to have the No. 1 spot for a while.
5. “Love Me Do”
Sometimes simplicity is key, plus a little bit of mouth organ. But back in October of 1962 when the song was released as a single in the U.K., the Beatles had not yet become the global superpower that they ultimately would. It grabbed the No. 17 spot there, which was frankly a surprise to their producer George Martin, but it was a promising enough result that they released it as a U.S. single the following April and secured the No. 1 spot in America.
4. “Come Together” / “Something”
We’ve got another double a-side hit here, this time in the form of “Come Together” and “Something.” If you thought the other songs on this list had staying power on the charts, allow us to enlighten you: these two singles spent 16 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in America. That’s a little over three and a half months, which, in the fast-paced music industry, is quite the feat.
3. “I Want to Hold Your Hand”
“I Want to Hold Your Hand” was the Beatles’ very first No. 1 hit in America. “One night we arrived back at the hotel from the Olympia [in Paris] when a telegram came through to Brian [Epstein] from Capitol Records of America,” McCartney remembered in Anthology. “He came running in to the room saying, ‘Hey, look. You are number one in America! ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ had gone to number one. Well, I can’t describe our response. … And that was it, we didn’t come down for a week.” “I Want to Hold Your Hand” spent seven weeks at the No. 1 spot. It was finally knocked out, ironically, by the next song on this list…
2. “She Loves You”
On Nov. 22, 1963 — the day President John F. Kennedy was murdered in Dallas — CBS Morning News ran a special on Beatlemania in the U.K. that featured “She Loves You.” It was that clip that helped inch the single up the charts, followed by more help from the Beatles’ appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show in early 1964. It finally reached the top in March of 1964 and remained there for two weeks.
1. “Hey Jude”
Even people who know very little about the Beatles are familiar with “Hey Jude.” When it came out as a single in 1968, it held the No. 1 spot for nine weeks, tying the record at the time for a single with the most consecutive weeks at No. 1. (The record had been set in 1960 by Percy Faith’s “Theme From a Summer Place.)
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Gallery Credit: UCR Staff
