The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "I Saw Her Standing There" are released in the United States

US picture sleeve Capitol Records

Decemeber26, 1963 Capitol Records released I Want to Hold Your Hand and I Saw Her Standing There in the United States

We usually equate the Beatles popularity in America to their Ed Sullivan Show appearance in January 1964. But, it was really the release of these two singles which started Beatlemania in the US, and for that matter, the whole world.

Capitol Records, a subsidiary of EMI, resisted releasing any Beatles recordings in America even though the release of I want to Hold Your Hand in the UK was phenomenal staying on top of the British Charts for weeks.

Capitol was finally convinced by pressure from EMI and  Brian Epstein the Beatles manager and the stage was set for the rock and roll phenomena which was about to begin.

Brian Epstein asked and received $40,000 from Capitol, instead of the $5,000 or less, to promote the new songs in the States.

The original idea was to release the tunes to coincide with the Ed Sullivan show in January of the next year. But, greatness can never be planned as fate would require the hot new songs to be released earlier.

A young girl (age 14) named Marsha Albert, a big fan, was on a mission to get the new single earlier and doggedly pushed deejay Carroll James of WWDC in Washington, DC to play the UK singles.

Carroll gave in and managed to get a single copy from Brittian and even asking young Marsha to introduce the record with: "Ladies and gentlemen, for the first time on the air in the United States, here are the Beatles singing 'I Want to Hold Your Hand.'"

Capitol upon hearing about the underground airplay of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" threatened court action to stop it. No one blinked and Capitol decided to let fate rule the day, and of course all the free publicity since the release was a huge hit.

And the rest is history, the British invasion began and Beatlemania took over America.

 The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, 9th February 1964, performing "I Want To Hold Your Hand"