The first musical act to replace themselves at number one in the charts
Getting to number one in the charts is an impossible dream for most artists, and if they reach the pinnacle of mainstream success, it’s important to savour every second. However, since records began, a handful of musical acts have been fortunate enough to knock their own song from the top spot.
To date, this phenomenon has only occurred on ten occasions and is becoming increasingly more common. Recent artists added to this esteemed list include Justin Bieber, Ed Sheeran and Ariana Grande. However, before 2015, it had only happened three times, and only one of those trio managed this achievement while still alive.
Like countless chart records, the act that achieved this remarkable feat first was The Beatles. During their heyday, they were immovable objects from the hit parade, but there is only one episode of the ‘Fab Four’ removing themselves from number one.
While it was never their goal to achieve such dominance, charting was important to the band. After their first single, ‘Love Me Do’, managed to sneak into the top 40, they were elated and thought life would never improve.
“We’d had a top 30 entry with ‘Love Me Do’, and we really thought we were on top of the world,” Lennon said of their first chart achievement during an interview in 1963. “Then came ‘Please Please Me’ – and wham! We tried to make it as simple as possible. Some of the stuff we’ve written in the past has been a bit way-out, but we aimed this one straight at the hit parade.”
Following the release of the number two single ‘Please Please Me’, The Beatles began a remarkable takeover of the UK chart with their next song ‘From Me To You’ reaching the zenith position. A few months later, they released ‘She Loves You’, which climbed to the top before being knocked off by fellow Liverpudlians Gerry and The Pacemakers.
However, rather than slowly slipping down the charts, ‘She Loves You’ enjoyed an unexpected second life and rose back to number one. By this point, The Beatles had already been gearing up to release their next single, despite already being at the top spot, and decided to share ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ anyway. The latter track displaced ‘She Loves You’ from number one and went on to spend a mammoth five weeks in pole position.
Fittingly, Lennon was the next artist to record this achievement, but unfortunately, it didn’t happen until after his death when there was revived interest in his solo music. In early 1981, ‘Imagine’ was replaced at the top of the tree by ‘Woman’, which appeared on his final album, Double Fantasy, released just weeks before his death.
Listen to ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’ below.
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