Beatles Number One in UK (merged topics)

[Lupine Assassin]

Now and then, number one in the UK. Now it's real. 54 years later, they have a number 1 in the singles chart again. Up 42 places in one week.

It's so weird, are the US charts all that different from the UK? Taylor Swift is dominant on both, maybe The Beatles gotta finish "Grow Old With Me" and land at JFK, maybe that'll get them a US top ten

The Beatles are #1 on the Billboard "digital song sales" chart.

But on the Billboard global 200, they are only at 152. And they're not even in the US Hot 100.

A Beatles song bubbling under the hot 100 is total sacrilege, even at this late stage. I gave up on modern radio ages ago when music got too corporate and cookie-cutter, now every other song is some talentless lout trying to sound like a robot.

[bri286]

Was it 17 or 18?

If you think back to early 1963 the Beatles were No.1 on the BBC with Please Please Me (which I believe was based on Record Mirror) and there was the same congratulations about their first No.1!! I remember it well. If I remember correctly the only chart they were not No.1 on was the NME.

Then suddenly years later only the NME chart was official so they were demoted to No.2. Similar thing happened to the Twist and Shout EP which I remember reaching No.4 in the singles chart.

Anyone else have recollections?

As far as I remember, PPM was no. 1 on the most well-known and best-publicized charts of the day, but only made no. 2 on the Record Retailer chart, a trade mag with fewer returns shops so considered less accurate than the others. PPM was widely celebrated as the Fabs' first chart topper.

Unfortunately, RR was the chart chosen when it was decided some years later that only one chart could be considered "official", so PPM lost out despite having clearly been the best seller at the time. Now and Then redresses the balance at long last.

[beckman99]

As far as I remember, PPM was no. 1 on the most well-known and best-publicized charts of the day, but only made no. 2 on the Record Retailer chart, a trade mag with fewer returns shops so considered less accurate than the others. PPM was widely celebrated as the Fabs' first chart topper

I read that in a biography 40 years ago too. ppm definitely their first nr one and ignored on their "1" album.

in all this praise as the longest time between two nr 1 songs they get compaired with kate bush and elvis. both comparisons don´t stand the test imo as both songs "running up that hill" and "it´s now or never" are old tracks. beatles did it with a more or less new song.

[Patrick Healy]

Here's a fun playlist I made:
It's a playlist I've made comparing the top 10 when "From Me to You" hit number 1 to yesterday's top 10. I've laid it out with the 1963 #10, 2023 #10, 1963 #9, 2023 #9...
1963 #1, 2023 #1. I think the listen is most rewarding if you hear it in full in order, so you can fully appreciate the contrast! Enjoy comparing how the charts are, Now and Then!

Here are some contextual notes I made on the modern tracks:
#10 Taylor Swift - Now That We Don't Talk (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault)
You've probably heard that Taylor Swift has been re-recording her first six albums so she can own them after their original masters were sold off without her permission to industry bully Scooter Braun. She's recently re-recorded 1989, an album named after and inspired by the music of her birth year. Accordingly it features a lot of synthesisers and drum machines. Now although the re-recordings themselves don't tend to do too much on the charts, she includes a few "From the Vault" tracks on each re-record. And when you're Taylor Swift, it doesn't matter that it is an outtake -- it's a new song and it will do well on the charts.
#9 Chase & Status and Bou - Baddadan
Chase & Status are legends of drum & bass music (essentially 174bpm doof-doof-doof music if you like, but much the same as the previous Buddy Holly track in terms of being known as "dance music"), and Bou is surely one of the best new producers of the 2020s, I can still remember when he was stuck on niche compilations. This track really shows the influence of TikTok on the charts because when drum & bass was last popular around the early 2010s it was quite sanitised and soft. By comparison I could easily imagine this at a nightclub.
It's hard to overstate how different it is from the "dance music" back then, however, so I can't really blame anyone for not liking this!
#8 Noah Kahan - Stick Season
Yes there are still singer-songwriters on the chart but even here you can hear the modern production in the extravagant use of reverb!
#7 Taylor Swift - Cruel Summer
Okay so this one is a hit that can only really be explained by TikTok. It was released four years ago, and as an album track not a single, on her first album after ending her contract with the label that sold her masters off (she's done three albums and four re-recorded albums since), it hasn't been remixed or re-recorded, but it's still #7 because it's trending on TikTok. It's followed funnily enough by Andy Williams who also sings about the complications and cruelties of a difficult love!
#6 Jung Kook - Standing Next to You
Jung Kook is a member of Korean band BTS who are now on hiatus and this is his big solo single. Overseas success on this scale could surely never have happened in the 1960s! Again with the recurrence though: 60 years later we still can't get enough of songs about an unnamed "You"!
#5 Tyla - Water
A great example of Afrobeats which combines dancehall rhythms with more pop-based sections -- and of course a lot of double-entendre.
#4 Tate McRae - Greedy
TikTok fusion of hyperpop -- a genre essentially characterised by an overdose of synths until you just give into the unnaturalness of it all -- with the rhythms and signature artificial sounds (that sound on the offbeat is, or was 30 years ago, supposed to be a handclap...) of hip-hop.
#3 Taylor Swift - Is It Over Now? (Taylor's Version) (From the Vault)
And another 1989 outtake which was actually #1 last week. Again notable for not a live instrument in sight!
#2 - Raye, D-Block Europe & Passo - Prada
Look, you've got to feel sorry for Raye. Her hit Escapism was held off the top spot because she had the unluckiness to start scaling the chart just as Mariah Carey came and snatched #1. Last week she was held off by Taylor Swift, and this week by the Beatles! D-Block Europe on the other hand is more difficult to feel sympathy for -- a London drill rapper whose pet topics are generally drugs and violence. But credit to Passo for producing a rave-tempo synthesiser juggernaut with lots of autotune, really showing how far recording technology has come since the 1960s! And because TikTok had meant that songs are generally shorter so they can be clipped more easily, we're back where we started with the format limiting the length to just over 2 minutes just as the 7" single did in the 1960s!
#1 The Beatles - Now and Then
You've probably heard a lot about this song so I won't repeat all of that but listen for the a capella parts from "Because" and "Eleanor Rigby"! I should point out that in terms of the charts, it was probably helped by the numerous vinyl editions available as well as a CD single which was conveniently not announced until a few days after everyone had already got their vinyl orders in! So the question will be whether, now that everyone has a physical copy who wants one. can it keep itself up for a second week just on streaming and downloads?

[Lord Reith]

I think it's great that it got to number 1 in the UK and Germany - the two places where it all began. I'm not surprised it got to 1 in the UK because The Beatles are a national treasure and it got a good promotional boost on The One Show, but Germany surprises me a bit. Perhaps most surprising is that it has gotten to #6 in Australia, which is usually a graveyard for Beatles releases.

A week on, and I have not grown tired of the song at all. I listened to all three Threetles songs back to back last night and N&T is easily the best as an actual record. Free As A Bird - even though it is a nice song - has a poor lead vocal that just doesn't sound much like John. Real Love was ruined by John being sped up 8% which made him again unrecognisable. Now And Then has a more appealing lyrical theme and sounds like a proper record. And the tune is really beautiful in my opinion.

Anyway, it's great to think that this has once again rekindled the flame and will bring in more fans. It would not have been possible without a hit single, but a #1 single and a music video by a popular name director are a dream come true. Just great.

[Fungomatto03]

Universal Germany is where many people buy their stuff also if they are in another country

[beatlesondvd]

Real Love was ruined by John being sped up 8% which made him again unrecognisable.

Could you do a mix of the Threetles version at the actual speed of John's voice? I'd love to hear that.

[Lord Reith]

Real Love was ruined by John being sped up 8% which made him again unrecognisable.

Could you do a mix of the Threetles version at the actual speed of John's voice? I'd love to hear that.

Yeah, i did that a while back. It's called "Real Love (2023 mix)". The otehr day I did a follwup called "Real Love (2024 mix)"

[Help67]

Well, the wait is over... number 7 in the USA. You don't seem to love the Fab Four very much anymore. You only have ears for a blonde woman I don't know any songs about.
The circle closes with a number one where it all began... in England and Germany. Curious...

[Lord Reith]

7? That's a relief really. I thought for a while it wasn't going to chart at all. For a group defunct for 50+ years to reach number 1 outside of their homeland is pretty damned good. The Stones had to stay together all that time. The Beatles just took a long holiday, then came back and had another hit!