From young skiffle obsessives in Liverpool to the biggest band the world has ever witnessed, The Beatles’ rise to global domination was swift and uncompromising. In 1961, the band were virtual unknowns playing dingy clubs in Hamburg, but by 1963, they were splashed across every magazine, newspaper, and teenage bedroom across the Western world.
That journey was, of course, boosted by the intense level of commercial success which attached itself to the iconic outfit during those early years, rewarding the songwriting mastery of John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
It should go without saying that The Beatles were among the most commercially successful artists of all time, achieving 18 number one singles in the UK and 20 in the US, not including the incredible success of their album releases. This success changed the landscape of the music industry forever, causing a multitude of record labels, executives and artists to start writing original material, rather than relying on teams of songwriters.
In turn, this practice launched multiple other now-iconic outfits; The Rolling Stones, for instance, hit the mainstream once Andrew Loog Oldham convinced them to start writing their own songs, inspired by the Fab Four.
Selling millions upon millions of records during their relatively short time together, The Beatles were a commercial powerhouse without ever chasing mainstream success. A lesser band might have experienced those early successes and attempted to recapture those same sounds, whereas The Beatles consistently pushed forward, pursuing innovation and profound songwriting. In turn, commercial success continued to befall the band, even when they reinvented their teeny-bopper image with LSD influences in the mid-1960s.
Although the band released ‘My Bonnie’ alongside Tony Sheridan back in their Hamburg days, it was their standalone debut single ‘Love Me Do’ which kicked off their blossoming musical empire.
Released in 1962, shortly after drummer Ringo Starr joined the band, the track captured the youthful optimism of those early Beatles records and became an instant hit. Peaking at 17 in the UK charts, the song was a modest success by later Beatles standards but a groundbreakingly colossal hit for a previously unknown group and their debut single.
So, what was the first Beatles number one?
‘Love Me Do’ might have established the sounds of The Beatles in the UK, but the band would have to wait a little bit longer for their first number one single in the charts. That accolade came in April 1963, when the young ‘Mop Tops’ unveiled ‘From Me To You’. Penned by John Lennon and Paul McCartney while on a tour opening for Helen Shapiro, the song follows a blues-influenced structure and reflects the love-centric ideals of many other early Beatles hits.
According to the band members themselves, the song was a definite turning point within their career; indisputable proof that they had ‘made it’. “The first time I thought we’d really made it was when I was lying in bed one morning, and I heard a milkman whistling ‘From Me to You’,” Paul McCartney later recalled. “Actually, I’m sure that I once heard a bird whistling it as well. I swear I did.”
Despite its intense success in the UK, kicking off a run of 11 consecutive number one singles for the band on their home turf, the success failed to translate to the United States. It would not be until 1964, when the band visited America for the very first time, that Beatlemania began to take hold of the States. There, it was ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ that became the band’s first-ever number one single, topping the charts in January 1964 and staying there for seven weeks. The rest, as they say, is history.
