Queen’s Brian May Called The Beatles’ ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ the Best Teen Pop Song Ever

Queen’s Brian May said The Beatles‘ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” is the greatest teen pop song ever. He cited the track as one of the reasons why John Lennon will always be cool. Despite this, there are better teen pop songs out there, both by the Fab Four and other artists.

Queen’s Brian May felt The Beatles’ ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ was 1 of John Lennon’s gems

During a 2020 interview with Loudersound, May said John was the most talented member of The Beatles. “Lennon, from a frankly less-than-glamorous teenager with a bit of a chip on his shoulder, developed into the coolest guy on Earth,” May opined.

“He was cool enough to write the greatest teen pop song ever (in my humble etc.) ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand;’ to embrace psychedelia and make it musically valid; to leave The Beatles when he felt it had all become a shallow game he didn’t want to play anymore; and then to put his whole being into promoting peace in his solo work, producing almost certainly the greatest, most daring and personally revealing solo albums ever made, including songs such as ‘Jealous Guy,’ the soul-bearing ‘God,’ and the immortal anthem for mankind, ‘Imagine,'” he added.

In addition, May emphasized how cool John was. “Lennon, for all of us post-revolution (whatever that was) musos, was, is, and always will be … it,” he said. “I rest my case.”

Several other Beatles songs overshadowed that 1

John was the bee’s knees. However, May’s take on “I Want to Hold Your Hand” feels off. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” is a classic, but it’s probably not the best teen pop song ever made. A number of other early Beatles songs like “I Feel Fine,” “Love Me Do,” “I Saw Her Standing There,” and “Can’t Buy Me Love” are superior examples of the genre.

In addition, later teen pop hits like Britney Spears’ “… Baby One More Time” and the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” are better than “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” That might be blasphemy to classic rock fans, but it’s true. There’s a reason why the Spears’ and Backstreet Boys’ tunes get more airplay today than “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” Furthermore, modern radio stations tend to play “I Want to Hold Your Hand” less often than other Fab Four songs.

How ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ impacted the American charts and other singers

Regardless, The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was a huge hit. The tune reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for a whopping seven weeks. The song remained on the chart for a total of 15 weeks. Perhaps the most notable fact about “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was that it became the band’s original No. 1 single in the United States.

The tune also inspired several covers by stars. The Supremes, Al Green, and The Crickets all put their own spin on “I Want to Hold Your Hand.”

“I Want to Hold Your Hand” is great but May overrated it.