What was it about the Beatles that so charmed the world? For one thing, they had an endearing "boys next door" aura that appealed to just about everyone, even Mum's and Dad's. No need to feel apoplectic about the Beatles, psychologists assured parents after their first appearance on American television. Of course, they still couldn't fathom why their daughters cried when the Beatles sang or why their sons avoided barbers. But even Ed Sullivan thought they had something. And what, after all, was so revolutionary about an innocuous ditty like "I Want To Hold Your Hand"?

Although packed houses and Beatlemania greeted the group in the UK, some of the rest of the world had not yet discovered their full significance. Before their first American visit in 1964, the Beatles played the Olympia Theater in Paris for three weeks. Cameras in hand, they strolled through the city somewhat left alone by the citizens. It was Paris, however, that the wire services announced that "I Want To Hold Your Hand" had topped the American charts, a first for any British band. French fans bought out their concerts and eagerly snapped their pictures in Montmartre.