On the Billboard Hot 100 dated Jan. 18, 1964, Steve & Eydie, the duo of Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gormé, and The Beach Boys made room for a new act in between them. The former rose from No. 52 to No. 44 with their track “I Can’t Stop Talking About You” and the latter fell 38-46 with “Be True to Your School.”
At No. 45? “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” its debut marking the first Hot 100 hit for The Beatles. The single by the quartet — George Harrison, John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr — would quickly become the group’s first No. 1, beginning a seven-week stay atop the chart dated Feb. 1, 1964.
Just over six years later, The Beatles had racked up a record total 20 Hot 100 No. 1s. With 71 entries, including 34 top 10s, the most among groups, through the chart dated Nov. 4, 2023, the Fab Four’s impact on the Hot 100 has been so huge that the band reigns as the top-performing act in the survey’s history.
Meanwhile, over 59 years since their debut, The Beatles have released what’s billed as their last single together, “Now and Then.” The song, which premiered in full Nov. 2, 2023, completes what Lennon began as a demo tape, Harrison, McCartney and Starr worked on in the mid-1990s, and McCartney and Starr, with the aid of new technology, turned into the latest intriguing chapter in Beatlemania.
Of all their songs, which stand as The Beatles’ biggest Hot 100 hits? Browse their 50 best-performing singles below.
The Beatles’ 50 Biggest Billboard Hits recap is based on actual performance on the weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart. Songs are ranked based on an inverse point system, with weeks at No. 1 earning the greatest value and weeks at No. 100 earning the least. To ensure equitable representation of the biggest hits from each era, certain time frames are weighted to account for the difference between turnover rates from those years.
