The Beatles could have had TWICE as many No. 1 hits – if only they'd released these 19 singles
The Beatles ripped up the rulebook in many ways.
One of these was that, after their first album was rushed together to cash in on their first couple of hits, they decided not to put singles on albums, or to issue album tracks as singles. The reason for this was simple: they felt it was unfair on fans to have to buy the same song twice.
They didn’t stick to the rule religiously – for example, both their movie soundtrack albums (1964's A Hard Day’s Night and Help! from the following year) feature singles, as they were put out to promote the films.
But had they wanted to, they could easily have doubled their total of number one hit singles. Here, we break down which songs they could have used – it’s hard to imagine any of them not hitting the top spot.
The Beatles themselves only really controlled what was released in their native UK. Other territories could issue their songs however they chose, so for the purposes of this article, we only focus on what was (and wasn’t) a single in their home country.
1. Twist & Shout (1963)
Most people would be forgiven for thinking that ‘Twist & Shout’ was a Beatles original, but they’d be wrong. This staple of their live show was actually a cover version of the 1962 Isley Brothers hit – itself a cover of a 1961 recording by a group called The Top Notes – produced by Phil Spector.
And although The Beatles’ UK and US record labels (Parlophone and Capitol respectively) never issued ‘Twist & Shout’ as a single, Chicago’s VeeJay label had picked up the rights to some of their 1963 recordings after Capitol had initially passed on the band. And so it did come out as a single in the US on a subsidiary of VeeJay, where it was one of five Beatles songs in the top five on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1964.
Source: classical-music.com
