Who was better - The Beatles or The Beach Boys? The Beatles certainly had more hits than The Beach Boys and their catalogue is unrivaled by any band before or since; but The Beach Boys music has endured the years well and if anything become even more popular with Pet Sounds often recognised as even greater than Sgt. Pepper's.
To honour the two greatest bands of all time and welcome in the summer, starting today I will countdown my top 20 Beatles/Beach Boys songs.
At No.20 is Can't Buy Me Love by The Beatles...
"Can't Buy Me Love" is the title of a song composed by Paul McCartney (credited to Lennon/McCartney) and released by The Beatles on the A side of their sixth British single, "Can't Buy Me Love/You Can't Do That."
"Can't Buy Me Love" was recorded on 29 January 1964 at EMI's Pathe Marconi Studios in Paris, France, where The Beatles were performing 18 days of concerts at the Olympia Theatre. At this time, EMI's West Germany branch, Odeon, insisted that The Beatles would not sell records in any significant numbers in Germany unless they were actually sung in the German language.
Can't Buy Me Love became The Beatles fourth UK number-one single and their third single to sell over a million copies in the UK.
In the US, The Beatles established four records on the Billboard Hot 100 with "Can't Buy Me Love" at number one:
- Until Billboard began using SoundScan for their charts, it had the biggest jump to number one: (number twenty-seven to number one; no other single ever did this).
- It gave The Beatles three consecutive number-one songs ("I Want to Hold Your Hand" was replaced at number one by "She Loves You" which was in turn replaced by "Can't Buy Me Love").
- When "Can't Buy Me Love" went to number one (4 April 1964), the entire top five of the Hot 100 was by The Beatles, the next positions being filled by "Twist and Shout", "She Loves You", "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Please Please Me," respectively. No other act has held the top five spots simultaneously.
- During its second week at number one (11 April 1964), The Beatles had fourteen songs on the Hot 100 at the same time.
Rolling Stone ranked "Can't Buy Me Love" at #289 on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
Labels: James G, The Summer of Love Countdown
Brilliant countdown! Nice one