In 2016, pianist and composer Nate Hance created a Beatles medley so unique that fans are begging Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to watch the clip and share their thoughts.
Titled, “Every Beatles #1 Hit in 4 Minutes,” Nate Hance’s medley does exactly what it says on the tin. But, whilst amassing more than 784,000 views, this rendition is leaving countless fans utterly gobsmacked, not only over Nate’s ingenious talent as an arranger, but after realizing the sky-high number of #1s The Beatles actually scored throughout their short career.
Music Man readers can watch the medley unfold in the viral video above…
Rather than run through the hits in chronological order, Nate achieves the impossible as he arranges each snippet song to melt seamlessly into the next, aligning rhythms, keys, melodies, and more with their closest match in the Beatles songbook.
The brass band intro of “All You Need Is Love” transforms into the lead riff of “Love Me Do,” before a verse of “A Hard Day’s Night” bleeds into the chorus of “Eleanor Rigby” – fragments from opposite ends of The Beatles’ career made to sound as if they were one full, coherent piece.
It might be enough of a musical headache for some songwriters to splice just this small handful of songs together. But Nate unleashes the true extent of his talent, merging The Beatles’ entire repertoire of 27 #1 hits into a four-minute piece with transitions so spotless that it’s actively blowing viewers’ minds.
From “Help!” to “The Long and Winding Road,” from “Can’t Buy Me Love” to “Hey Jude” and “Yellow Submarine,” Nate carves a clean path through the patchwork of songs, and it’s leaving listeners overwhelmed with pop-rock nostalgia.
As one viewer wrote, “This is too good. An eargasm for a Beatles fan,” others realized, “This really demonstrates The Beatles’ specific sound” and “Hearing their songs on piano really makes you realize they were much more than just a rock band.”
Another top commenter even petitioned, “Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr should watch this” to the tune of more than 3,800 likes, while another spoke for hundreds when they noticed, “It’s just incredible how many hits they made in such a short period of time. Legends.”
Classic pop fans might be stunned to discover that The Beatles scored more #1 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 than in their native UK Singles charts. To this day, The Beatles are credited with having more #1s than any other artist in US history, yet on the UK charts, they were outscored by US musician Elvis Presley who claimed 21 UK #1s over The Beatles’ 18. The grass is always greener…
Nate Hance’s astonishing four-minute Beatles medley has fans pleading for Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr to weigh in — and it’s easy to see why. If you want to hear the arrangement and explore more of Hance’s work, find useful links below this paragraph.