On March 21, 1964, The Beatles scored their second consecutive No. 1 single on the Billboard Hot 100 with “She Loves You.” The pop-rock classic with the infectious “yeah, yeah, yeah” chorus replaced the Fab Four’s breakthrough hit, “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” which had spent seven straight weeks at the top of the chart.
“She Loves You” held the No. 1 spot on the Hot 100 for two weeks, and then was replaced by yet another Beatles tune, “Can’t Buy Me Love,” which topped the chart for five straight weeks.
Co-written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon, “She Loves You” was already huge hit in the U.K. long before its success on this side of the pond. Released on August 23, 1963, in the U.K., the song spent six non-consecutive weeks at No. 1 there between September and early December. “She Loves You” was the best-selling single in the U.K. for 1963, and remains The Beatles’ most successful single in their home country.
The song actually was first released as a single in the U.S. on September 16, 1963, on Swan Records. This was a couple months before the Fab Four signed a stateside deal with the Capitol label.
It finally entered the Hot 100 in January 1964, and really took off when The Beatles performed the tune on their famous Ed Sullivan Show appearance on February 9. “She Loves You” sat at No. 2 behind “I Want to Hold Your Hand” for four weeks before taking over the No. 1 spot.
“She Loves You” Also Was a Hit in Canada
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Interestingly, in Canada, “She Loves You” was a No. 1 hit for three weeks in late January and early February of 1964. It was replaced at the top of that chart by a two-sided Beatles single featuring “I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “I Saw Her Standing There,” which was No. 1 for six weeks in February and March 1964.
“She Loves You” wasn’t released on a Beatles studio album in the U.K. In the U.S., it made its album debut on The Beatles’ Second Album, which was released on April 10, 1964. The record spent five straight weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart, taking over the Fab Four’s previous album, Meet The Beatles, which had an 11-week run at atop the tally.
Over the years, “She Loves You” has been featured on a variety of popular Beatles compilations. They include The Beatles 1962-1966, a.k.a. “The Red Album” (1973); Past Masters (1988); and 1 (2000).
Performance History of “She Loves You”
“She Loves You” was one of the songs The Beatles performed in concert most frequently, although according to Setlist.fm, the last time the band played it was in September 1964. None of the Beatles members have performed the song live since then.
About the 2023 Mix of “She Loves You”
A new stereo mix of “She Loves You” is featured on the expanded reissue of The Beatles 1962-1966 compilation, which released in November 2023. The mix was produced by Giles Martin utilizing the same audio technology used to create the new Beatles song “Now and Then.”
