When the Beatles Held the Entire Top 5 on Billboard’s Hot 100
On April 4, 1964, the Beatles managed a feat that no other band had ever come close to: holding the Nos. 1-5 spots on the Billboard Hot 100.
In its second week on the charts, "Can’t Buy Me Love" shot up from No. 27 to the top. The other four songs, in order, were "Twist and Shout," "She Loves You," "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "Please Please Me."
On top of that, they had seven other songs in the Top 100: "I Saw Her Standing There" (No. 31), "From Me to You" (No. 41), "Do You Want to Know A Secret" (No. 46), "All My Loving" (No. 58), "You Can’t Do That" (No. 65), "Roll Over Beethoven" (No. 68) and "Thank You Girl" (No. 79).
The chart that week also included two novelty records about the Beatles, according to Beatles Bible: "We Love You Beatles" by the Carefrees (No. 42) and "A Letter to the Beatles" by the Four Preps (No. 85). The next week’s chart saw the debut of two other Beatles tunes, "There's a Place" (No. 74) and "Love Me Do" (No. 81), giving them 14 of the Top 100 songs in America.
There were a couple of reasons why the market was flooded like this. The Beatles hit America a little more than a year after they broke in England. Capitol responded by issuing as much of their back catalog — along with singles from A Hard Day’s Night — as possible.
In addition, there was an ongoing legal dispute with Vee-Jay Records as to who owned the rights to the songs on Please Please Me. Knowing that they had a limited amount of time to make as much money as possible, Vee-Jay put out as many singles as they could afford. Two of the Top Five songs, and five of the Top 100 songs, were released either on Vee-Jay or their subsidiary, Tollie.
The Fab Four's chart feat lasted more than 50 years, but the advent of streaming helped that streak come to an end. In September 2021, rapper Drake scored nine of the Billboard Hot 100's Top 10 songs. He was bested by Taylor Swift in 2022, who became the first artist to hold every slot in the Top 10.
Beatles Albums Ranked
Gallery Credit: Michael Gallucci