Personnel:
Cliff Wilson: Guitars, Fender bass, Vocals
Hannah Wilson: Vocals
Cliff Hochberg: Drums
Why this song is on the album:
In January of 1964, I celebrated my sixth birthday. My parents had sold their starter home in Old Bridge and our family of five had moved in with my maternal grandparents in their small house in East Brunswick. My Aunt Kathy, a teenager at the time, was still living there, too. I don’t know how we all lived in that tiny space, but we did for the entire school year, as I completed kindergarten there before we moved to our long-term home in North Brunswick, the house where my father had been raised.
I don’t remember much about those days, but I remember gathering around the television to watch the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. I vaguely recall that Kathy was pretty excited. This was two weeks after my birthday, and a week after I Want to Hold Your Hand had reached number one on the Billboard chart in the United States.
This song is one of my very earliest musical memories. It, and the other Beatles hits of the day, are foundational for me. The Beatles were the soundtrack of my childhood, and this is where it started for me.
I like the paring with Hannah, as it makes me remember the days of holding her little hand when she was six years old.
Performance notes:
Nothing fancy here – just a straightforward, fun cover. It was a bitch to try approximate Harrison’s guitar fills. McCartney’s choice to play double stops (two-note “chords”) on the bass in the bridge is quite unusual. It works, I suppose, but I’m glad he didn’t make a habit of it.
I recorded most of the tracks in my Princeton studio. Hannah then recorded her part at her home in Nashville. Cliff Hochberg added the drums last, using the digital kit in my studio.
How it’s different from the Beatles’ version:
There are no major intentional differences. The Beatles were amazing players and singers, and we are, alas, just a bit less amazing.
Fun fact:
Although published as “I Want to Hold Your Hand”, it was conceived as “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” as evidenced by the original hand-written lyrics shown at right.
Although this song was the Beatles’ breakout hit in the United States, they had a couple of earlier hits in the United Kingdom, which were released later in the US.
-CCW