Want to see where the Beatles wrote a hit song?

It doesn't look like much but behind those bars and glass was Margaret Asher's music room.  And it was there that Paul McCartney and John Lennon wrote "I Want To Hold Your Hand."

This is the Asher home.  Following Beatlemania, McCartney was invited by Margaret Asher to take up residence in a small room at the very top of the house.  McCartney lived with the Asher family for a number of years (he was dating Jane Asher at the time) until he purchased his own home in St. John Wood.

I still remember the first time I heard "I Want To Hold Your Hand."  It was a Saturday morning in Dec. 1963 and my family and I were in the car and on our way to the grocery store - which my Mom did every Saturday morning.  Suddenly, on KTKT 990 radio in Tucson, the DJ announced that at the top and bottom of every hour the station would be playing a Beatles song.  Then, I heard those chugging guitars and the energy in those voices as the sang, "O yeah, I...tell you something, I think you'll understand...."

My dear, sweet wife and I saw the Asher home during a Beatles walking trip in London a couple of years ago.  We visited a whole bunch of Beatles sites and ended up at the Abbey Road studios, walking across the crosswalk.  And, yes, I walked across barefooted, a la McCartney.

It was 50 years ago this week that Paul and John wrote 'I Want To Hold Your Hand."  They were hoping for a top 40 hit.  They got a whole lot more.