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[Brynjar]

The song is in 16th place in The Rolling Stone Magazines 500 Greatest Songs Of All Time - above In My Life, A Day in the Life, Let it Be etc.

I know this was the song that broke America for them and I know such lists are not to be taken too seriously but this is not the first time I see this song so high on lists from popular magazines/websites from America.

What could be the reason for this as there are certainly better songs in the Beatles-catalog?

[Klang]

Well, I would say you're answering your own question there. It was their breakout song in America and that probably is a hard thing to topple in people's memories.

It's a good song. There may arguably be better ones, but that one is iconic.

My take on it.

 

[Kaleidoscope_Eyes]

I agree with Klang. It bears more meaning to the Americans then just the meaning of the song itself and its musicality

"Iconic" is the right word Klang

[Maccafan95]

"Iconic" is indeed the right word to describe it. I mean, its the one my grandmother remembers the most 

[Hombre_de_ningun_lugar]

I don't care what Americans think about "I Want To Hold Your Hand", it's a great song by itself. I loved it since the first time I heard it. I also heard that John thought pretty high about the tune, and even wanted to do a new recording with the Beatles, but they preferred to record new songs.

[Brynjar]

Well, I would say you're answering your own question there. It was their breakout song in America and that probably is a hard thing to topple in people's memories.

It's a good song. There may arguably be better ones, but that one is iconic.

My take on it.

 

I get what you´re saying but this list is Greatest Songs of All Time - not Songs That Changed The World. 

[Hombre_de_ningun_lugar]

I get what you´re saying but this list is Greatest Songs of All Time - not Songs That Changed The World. 

And how do you decide the greatness of a song? Changing the world gives a song a lot of greatness actually.

[sregis]

i'd be careful to place too much weight on necessarity linking subjective rankings from a magazine that happens to be american w/ the collective opinions of that country.  i mean, it topped the brit charts as well, no?  is it better than "she loves you"?  for me, it's virtually the same song with the same impact.  these lists are always interesting to me because there's always a combination of technically musical and historical analysis placed on it- as it should be.  so some of the earlier stuff is naturally going to weight higher because of the cultural import it represented in that context.  perhaps the purest opinion is that of a new generation simply presented w/ the catalog and nothing else.

[Klang]

perhaps the purest opinion is that of a new generation simply presented w/ the catalog and nothing else.

I think that historical context has its place when judging 'greatness' - whatever on earth that actually is.

 

[sregis]

I think that historical context has its place when judging 'greatness' - whatever on earth that actually is.

 

absolutely

[Brynjar]

Yeah maybe I´m misunderstanding the whole thing as english is not my first language. 

[In My Life]

Brynjar, If you listen to what topped the charts in the US at the time this song came along you can really get a sense of how different it was and how it changed everything.

[Brynjar]

Make no mistake - I do like the song. I do think it´s geat. I was just surprised to see RS place it higher than those songs I mentioned as I consider them to be better, but as Klang said, maybe RS is taking historical context into account. I can't argue with that. 

[TomMo]

Yep, I'm with Klang on this one, but "She Loves You" is a close second for the same reason. For those in the U.K., Beatlemania was gradual, brick by brick. In the U.S., we got hit by the whole wall, and IWTHYH was painted all over that wall. For American Beatle-People, that song blew us away.