Alice Cooper Said It’d Be Harder to Write The Beatles’ ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ Than Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
During an interview, Alice Cooper said one of The Beatles‘ early albums was one of the greatest albums ever. He also said it would be more difficult to write The Beatles’ “I Want to Hold Your Hand” than Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Cooper discussed why he felt The Beatles’ songs were perfect.
Why ‘Meet the Beatles!’ is Alice Cooper’s favorite Fab Four album
In 2020, Rolling Stone released a list of the 500 greatest albums ever. Cooper discussed his picks for the list. One of them was Meet the Beatles!, the Fab Four’s first American album. Cooper felt it was difficult to choose only one Beatles record because the band made more great records than anyone else.
“I picked Meet the Beatles! only because it was the first one that totally knocked me out, because I’d never heard anything like that before,” Cooper said. “We were listening to The Beach Boys and The Four Seasons, and all of a sudden here’s this band coming along with all this hair and Beatle boots and these suits, and they were singing these songs that you could hear them one time and you knew them.”
Alice Cooper said some fans might not agree with his view of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
Cooper praised the composition of “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” “I’ve always said this, and people might disagree with me, but it’s easier to write something like ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ than it is to write something like ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand,'” he said. “The simplicity of all The Beatles’ songs is what made them so perfect.”
Cooper praised the harmonies by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. He compared Lennon-McCartney to The Everly Brothers. “I’m still pretty sure they’re aliens,” Cooper added. “I don’t think they’re from this planet.”
The way the world reacted to The Beatles’ ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ and Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’
“I Want to Hold Your Hand” and “Bohemian Rhapsody” both became hits in the United States, but one was far more popular than the other. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” peaked at No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 for seven weeks. It lasted on the Billboard Hot 100 for a total of 15 weeks. The Beatles released “I Want to Hold Your Hand” on the album Meet the Beatles! Meet the Beatles! reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for 11 weeks. It stayed on the chart for 74 weeks altogether.
Meanwhile, “Bohemian Rhapsody” peaked at No. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 and remained on the chart for 44 weeks. “Bohemian Rhapsody” appeared on the album A Night at the Opera. A Night at the Opera hit No. 4 on the Billboard 200, lasting on the chart for 57 weeks. “I Want to Hold Your Hand” may or may not have been more challenging to write than “Bohemian Rhapsody.” Regardless, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was a bigger chart hit.
