By January 1963, the Beatles, now more polished and in suits (per Brian), went back to touring in England. They played larger & larger venues. By February, their second single “Please Please Me” (originaly intended as a “B - side”) to their first release had gone to Number One! It was time for an album,and in February the Beatles came in to the now famous Abbey Road Studios to record. John recalled "We had colds, and we were concerned how it would affect the record". Unrehearsed, they started at eleven AM. By eleven PM they had finished recording an entire album. And the hits followed. Ringo: “After Number One where else is there to go? Number One was it. After that every bloody thing we did was Number One... we had a dozen in a row that went to Number One...”. Beatlemania had set in England, and was fast spreading to Europe.
The final frontier was the US. Again, US record companies we not at all interested, declining repeated offers each time the Beatles had yet another “Number One” in Britain. An executive at Capital Records is quoted as saying “Sorry, we know our market better than you do, and we don’t think they’re any good”. Finally in January of '64, after 5 Number One hits in the English charts, and articles about British Beatlemania had appeared in Time & Life Magazine, Capital Records “had” to agree to release one of their songs. “I Want To Hold Your Hand” it was, and it went straight to Number One. The following month, the Beatles flew to New York to appear on the Ed Sullivan Show. “Millions” of kids were at the airport to greet them, and literally millions saw them on TV that night. The dam had broken - for the next SIX MONTHS straight, Beatle hits held Number One, Two, Three, Four & Five on the charts! The "overnight sensation" had begun - just seven years from the beginning. For the next seven years, until the Beatles finally broke up, every album they released was a hit. With each new album they grew and developed, and influenced the music of their time with songs that were mostly about love, peace and understanding.
“It was never an overnight success.” Paul McCartney