1964 was an incredibly eventful year for The Beatles. The Fab Four became a hit-making, cultural sensation in the U.S. as the Beatlemania craze swept across the land. The British band from Liverpool put an exclamation point on their amazing year by scoring their sixth No. 1 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 on December 26 with "I Feel Fine."
"I Feel Fine" was released as a single on November 23 in the U.S. and November 27 in the U.K. In the band's homeland, the song topped the singles chart on December 10 and spent five weeks at No. 1. In the States, "I Feel Fine" enjoyed a three-week run on the top spot. It replaced, and then was replaced, at No. 1 by The Supremes' "Come See About Me."
[RELATED: On This Day: The Beatles Release Their First U.S. No. 1, "I Want To Hold Your Hand," After a Teenage Girl and Disc Jockey Help Ignite Beatlemania in America]
"I Feel Fine" also was included on The Beatles' sixth U.S. studio album, Beatles '65, released on December 15, 1964.
The song is credited to John Lennon and Paul McCartney, but Lennon was the principal writer. One of the catchy rock tune's noteworthy aspects is it begins with an interlude of guitar feedback. This is believed to be one of the first times that feedback was used in a popular song.
In an interview with McCartney circa 1994, he explained that The Beatles were in the recording studio when Lennon leaned his semi-acoustic Gibson guitar against an amplifier, causing it to feed back. The band loved the sound and asked producer George Martin if they could incorporate it into the track.
The Beatles scored their first No. 1 hit on the Hot 100 with "I Want to Hold Your Hand," which topped the chart on February 1. Eight days later, the Fab Four made their historic appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, and the band's popularity caught fire after that.
"I Want to Hold Your Hand" was No. 1 for seven weeks, and was replaced by "She Loves You," which held the top slot for two weeks. Yet another Beatles single, "Can't Buy Me Love," took over No. 1 on the Hot 100, this time for five weeks.
The Beatles' fourth Hot 100 chart-topper was "Love Me Do," which had a weeklong run at No. 1 that began on May 30. The band's fifth single to top the Hot 100 in 1964 was "A Hard Day's Night," which spent the first two weeks of August at No. 1.
Sixty years on, no other artist has had more No. 1 hits on the Hot 100 in one calendar year.
On November 22, a box set featuring vinyl mono reissues of the band's early U.S. albums, most of which first came out in 1964, was released.
The Beatles: 1964 U.S. Albums in Mono features seven albums pressed on 180-gram vinyl. All of the albums, which feature mono audio, had been out of print on vinyl since 1995.
A week after the release of the box set, a new documentary titled Beatles '64 premiered on Disney+. The film focused on the band's historic first visit to the U.S. in February 1964, including the group's landmark appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
The film, which was co-produced by Martin Scorsese, features archival footage of and interviews with The Beatles, as well as new conversations with McCartney and Ringo Starr.
The doc also looks at the camaraderie of the band members as they dealt with the hysteria and media attention they experienced during the whirlwind two-week journey.