The Beatles is the epitome of perfection. They have always been. Even though the band existed only for a decade, the popularity they mustered was immense. With the frenzy revolving around the Beatles, the term Beatlemania was also created which showcased the popularity of the band.
The band has made records in terms of many things like sales, streams, and performances. And the one which stands out the most is the song ‘Can’t Buy Me Love‘ which holds a magnificent record for most advance sales for a single.
Can’t Buy Me Love was released in March 1964 as the A-side of their sixth single. The Beatles were already a mega start by then, and every fan was in anticipation of the next song. The song was written by Paul McCartney and is credited to Lennon-McCartney Partnership. This song holds the Guinness World Record for most advance sales. It sold 2.7 million before it was released on 21 March 1964.
It is believed that the song was written while the group was in Paris at the Hotel George V. The song was included on the album ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ and was also featured in Richard Lester’s film of the same title. The fans really loved the song and they even speculated that the song was about prostitution but Paul, later on, addressed that it was not true. In a news conference in 1966, he said,
Personally, I think you can put any interpretation you want on anything, but when someone suggest that ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ is about a prostitute, I draw the line. That’s going too far.”
The song is one of the most successful tracks of The Beatles. The single was at the top of the chart in the UK, the US, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and Sweden. It also peaked at number 1 for five weeks on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. It remained on the chart for a whopping 10 weeks. In the UK, ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ remained on the chart for 15 weeks. The song was also in the movie ‘A Hard Day’s Night’ which was released in 1964. The movie also received a positive response from critics. In the US, the song sold over two million copies in its first week. It also had the biggest jump to the top spot from number 27.
In the studio, it took four takes to finish the song. John Lennon and George Harrison provided the backing vocals. George Martin also suggested that they begin the song with the chorus. Later described that it would have been a very obvious change that they would have done it themselves if they had listened to the tune earlier. George said,
“I thought that we really needed a tag for the song’s ending, and a tag for the beginning; a kind of intro. So I took the first two lines of the chorus and changed the ending, and said ‘Let’s just have these lines, and by altering the second phrase we can get back into the verse pretty quickly’. And they said, ‘That’s not a bad idea, we’ll do it that way’.”
The song is loved dearly and has worldwide sales of 6000000. It was the fourth number 1 and their third single to sell over a million copies. Also, it is the 35th best-selling single of all time in the UK. ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ was also included on another album ‘1’. It also did very well and the album sold 3.6 million copies on its first day.
