One of his appointments in Manhattan was with Brown Meggs, the director for Eastern Operations for Capitol Records. Meggs apparently heard something in this song that was lacking in the others presented to Capitol ("Love Me Do", "Please Please Me", "From Me To You" and "She Loves You") and he agreed for it to be released in the United States on January 13th, 1964.
Americans, however, chose not to wait for the release date. Carroll Baker, a disc jockey for WWDC radio in Washington D.C. obtained a British import single from a BOAC stewardess and became the first radio station to broadcast "I Want To Hold Your Hand" to the American airwaves. Reaction was strong and spread to Chicago and St. Louis where copies of the song were circulated. Capitol moved up their release date to December 26th, 1963 and increased the press run from 200,000 to one million copies.
It became the number one selling single in America on February 1st, 1964 (just in time for their "Ed Sullivan" performance) and remained number 1 for 7 weeks, the first single to do so in America since "Tossin and Turnin" by Bobby Lewis in 1961. The single marked a turning point in, not only the Beatles' careers, but also pop music itself. Next to "Rock Around The Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets, it is the most significant record in rock history.
"I Want To Hold Your Hand" replaced Bobby Vinton's "There! I've Said It Again". "She Loves You" replaced "I Want To Hold Your Hand" in the charts on March 21st, 1964.
