The Fab Five: On This Date in 1964, The Beatles Ranked Nos. 1-5 on the Hot 100

"Just about everyone is tired of the Beatles."

So read the first line of a story on page 1 of the Billboard magazine dated April 4, 1964. That was the week that the Beatles made history as the only act ever to simultaneously occupy the Billboard Hot 100 chart's entire top five positions.

So … why was Billboard printing such seeming blasphemy?

"Disk jockeys are tired of playing the hit group," the story continued. (Cleverly headlined "Chart Crawls With Beatles," the item was written by Jack Maher and Tom Noonan, the latter of whom launched the Hot 100 in 1958.) "The writers of trade and consumer publication articles are tired of writing about them and the manufacturers of product other than the Beatles are tired of hearing about them."

Billboard, of course, noted one key exception. "Everyone's tired of the Beatles – except the listening and buying public."

With a 27-1 second-week blast to the top for "Can't Buy Me Love," the Fab Four locked up the Hot 100's entire top five:

No. 1, "Can't Buy Me Love" No. 2, "Twist and Shout" No. 3, "She Loves You" No. 4, "I Want to Hold Your Hand" No. 5, "Please Please Me"

By: Gary Trust

Source: Billboard

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