Record sales

• During the week of April 4, 1964 The Beatles occupied the first five slots of the Billboard Hot 100, #1 - "Can't Buy Me Love," #2 - "Twist and Shout," #3 - "She Loves You," #4 - "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and #5 - "Please Please Me," the only group in rock and roll history to achieve this feat. That same week they also had another nine charting records in the Hot 100, bringing the total to fourteen for the week, another feat unlikely to ever be matched in the future.

• In 1964, the Beatles had the never-matched total of 15 American million-selling records (9 singles and 6 LPs), representing US sales of over 25 million in 1964 alone.

• "I Want To Hold Your Hand" sold nearly 5 million records in the US by 1968, making it the best selling single of the 1960s (from a Capitol Records Press release, September 9, 1968).

• When "Can’t Buy Me Love" was released in the US on March 16, 1964, it sold 940,225 copies on the first day, shattering all previous sales records. The single went on to sell over 3 million by the end of the year (Spizer, Bruce, 2000: The Beatles’ Story on Capitol Records, Part One: Beatlemania & The Singles, p. 36).

• The motion picture soundtrack "A Hard Day’s Night" sold 1 million copies in the first four days of its US release making it one of the fastest selling LPs of the 1960s (Billboard article, July 11, 1964).

• By August 1964, the Beatles had sold approximately 80 million records globally (Variety 235, August 12, 1964).

• By February 1965, their global sales had moved beyond 100 million records (Variety 237, February 3, 1965).

• Rubber Soul sold 1.2 million copies in the US during the first 9 days of its release (Billboard article, January 1, 1966).

• By August 1966, the Beatles had sold 150 million records worldwide (Variety 243, August 3, 1966).

• By May 1967, the Beatles’ global gross stood at $98 million (Variety 246, May 19, 1967).

• The "Hey Jude" single had sold over 3 million copies in America in its first 2 months of release, and 3.7 million by mid-January 1969. It eventually sold over 4 million copies and was the fourth best-selling single of the 1960s (Spizer, Bruce, 2003: The Beatles on Apple Records, p. 32).

• Although it carried a list price of $11.79, their double album The Beatles sold 1.1 million units during its first two weeks on sale; a record for any double album up to that point in time (Spizer, Bruce, 2003: The Beatles on Apple Records, p. 102).

• "Abbey Road" sold over 3 million copies in the US in a little over a month, making it one of the best-selling LPs of the 1960s despite having been on sale for only the last three months of the decade (Spizer, Bruce, 2003: The Beatles on Apple Records, p. 164).

• According to the Guinness Book of Records, the Beatles had topped worldwide sales of 300 million units by 1969.

• The "Let It Be" LP reportedly shipped 3.2 million copies in 13 days representing a gross retail value of nearly $26 million (Billboard article, June 6, 1970).

• By October 1972, the Beatles’ worldwide sales total stood at 545 million units, a world record (Billboard 84, October 21, 1972).