| "From Me to You" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 US picture sleeve | ||||
| Single bythe Beatles | ||||
| A-side | "From Me to You" (UK release and US 1st release) "Please Please Me" (US 2nd release) | |||
| B-side | "Thank You Girl" (UK & US 1st release) | |||
| Released |
| |||
| Recorded | 5 March 1963 | |||
| Studio | EMI, London | |||
| Genre | Merseybeat[1] | |||
| Length | 1:56 | |||
| Label |
| |||
| Songwriter | Lennon–McCartney | |||
| Producer | George Martin | |||
| The Beatles singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
"From Me to You" is a song by the English rock bandthe Beatles that was released in April 1963 as their third single. It was written byJohn Lennon andPaul McCartney. The song was the Beatles' first number 1 hit on what became theofficial UK singles chart but the second, after "Please Please Me", on most of the other singles charts published in the UK at the time. "From Me to You" failed to make an impact in the United States at the time of its initial release. Instead, a 1963 cover version released byDel Shannon resulted in the song's becoming the firstLennon–McCartney track to enter the US pop charts. The Beatles' original was re-released in the US in January 1964 as theB-side to "Please Please Me", and reached number 41.
Lennon and McCartney began writing "From Me to You" while on acoach heading toShrewsbury as part of the Beatles' tour withHelen Shapiro. The title was inspired by the name of the letters section of theNew Musical Express, which they had been reading: "From You to Us".[2] McCartney noted that their early songs tended to include the words "I", "me" or "you" in them, as a way of making them "very direct and personal" to the band's fans.[3]
In his 1980 interview withPlayboy, Lennon recalled writing the song:
We were writing it in a car I think, and I think the first line was mine. I mean I know it was mine. [Hums melody of first line.] And then after that we took it from there. It was far bluesier than that when we wrote it. The notes—today you could rearrange it pretty funky.[4]
Before that interview, Lennon had stated, "We nearly didn't record it because we thought it was too bluesy at first, but when we'd finished it and George Martin had scored it with harmonica, it was alright."[citation needed]
McCartney also talked aboutrearranging the song in 1964:
"From Me to You"—it could be done as an old ragtime tune—especially the middle eight—and so we're not writing the tunes in any particular idiom. In five years' time we may arrange the tunes differently. But we'll probably write the same old rubbish![5]
Singer-songwriterRoger Greenaway recounted a story:[further explanation needed]
John and Paul were sitting at the back of the coach andKenny Lynch, who at this time fancied himself as a songwriter, sauntered up to the back of the coach and Kenny Lynch ... decided he would help them write a song. After a period of about half-an-hour had elapsed and nothing seemed to be coming from the back, Kenny rushed to the front and shouted, 'Well, that's it. I am not going to write any more of that bloody rubbish with those idiots. They don't know music from their backsides. That's it! No more help from me!'[6]
Regardless, the song was regarded by the Beatles as innovative and catchy enough to be released as a single. This was one Lennon–McCartney song that the duo truly co-wrote; McCartney described it as "very much co-written".[3]
"From Me to You" comprises five verses and two bridges. The form is Intro V V B V V B V Coda. The first half of the fourth verse is instrumental. The last half of each verse is a mini-refrain, while the lyrics of the bridges are identical. The verses each consist of a rather short eight measures played inC major. In the bridge, the song modulates to the subdominant (IV) key:F major. The tonic-subdominant modulation is almost a cliché, but Lennon & McCartney avoid the cliché by going another route from I to IV than the standard I–I7–IV. At the bridge's climax, the chord changes are accompanied by "woo!" Another characterising element in the bridge is theaugmented chord – a Gaug – that ends the bridge and leads back to home key (C major).[7] Lennon plays prominentharmonica solos during the beginning, middle and end of the song, as he did with "Love Me Do".
McCartney said of the song:
The thing I liked about "From Me to You" was it had a very complete middle. It went to a surprising place. The opening chord of the middle section of that song heralded a new batch for me. That was a pivotal song. Our songwriting lifted a little with that song.[5]
The idea of singing the song's opening lick—the "da da da da da dum dum da" part—was suggested byGeorge Martin, the Beatles' producer. The group thought it unusual but put their trust in Martin. "In a way, this made [the Beatles] aware of George's enormous musical sense," EMI producer Ron Richards later said.[8]
In the song, the singer offers his love to the object of his affections—he has "everything that you want". Although the song is based on singular first-person pronouns, it lacks a lead singer.
George Martin said of the song, "I asked them for another song as good as 'Please Please Me', and they brought me one—'From Me to You.' ... There seemed to be a bottomless well of songs."[9]
The recording on 5 March 1963 atEMI Studios took 6 takes with 7 edit pieces and went without a hitch and on 11 AprilParlophone released "From Me to You" in the UK as a single, with "Thank You Girl" on theB-side, catalogue number R5015.[10] Nine days later, it kicked off a twenty-one week run in the British charts, reaching number one on 4 May, a position it would retain for seven weeks.
"From Me to You" featured Lennon playing harmonica in aJimmy Reed-inspired blues style he had learned fromDelbert McClinton, another American who was on the same bill with the Beatles in the early Sixties. "It's chiseled in stone now that I taught Lennon how to play harmonica," McClinton said. "John said, 'Show me something.' I was in a pretty unique position, because there just weren't a lot of people playing harmonica in popular music."[9]
"From Me to You" was the first Beatles song to reach number one in the UK and is widely considered to be their first chart-topping song, for although "Please Please Me" reached the summit on almost every chart, it was only number two onRecord Retailer's chart, generally considered to be the most authoritative for the time.[citation needed] "From Me to You" would be the first of eleven consecutive British number one singles by the Beatles.
"From Me to You" replacedGerry and the Pacemakers' "How Do You Do It", a song that had been offered to the Beatles (and even recorded by them, though it remained officially unreleased until 1995) but ultimately rejected by them in favour of "Please Please Me".[11] Gerry & The Pacemakers, who also hailed fromLiverpool, were very much rivals of the Beatles in their early days—Gerry and the Pacemakers attained the first number one ("How Do You Do It") before the Beatles, and also claimed their second and third number ones before the Beatles did, slowly losing steam afterwards asBeatlemania launched and the Beatles dominated music worldwide in 1964.
A true indication of how successful the Beatles became thanks to "From Me to You" (though it would soon be overshadowed by "She Loves You" and "I Want to Hold Your Hand") was expressed by McCartney: "The first time I thought we'd really made it, was when I was lying in bed one morning, and I heard a milkman whistling 'From Me to You'. Actually, I'm sure that I once heard a bird whistling it as well. I swear I did!"[6]
When it released "Please Please Me" in the United States,Vee-Jay Records signed a licensing agreement giving it the right of first refusal on Beatles records for five years.[12] Despite the failure of "Please Please Me" to catch on, Vee-Jay chose to release "From Me to You"; as a result, it was never turned down byCapitol, because it was never offered to them.[13] "From Me to You" was released on Vee-Jay 522, with "Thank You Girl" on the B-side, on 27 May 1963.[14] Even thoughCash Box magazine called it a "Pick of the Week" when it was released, it initially failed even more miserably than its predecessor; through the end of June, "From Me to You" sold fewer than 4,000 copies and had failed to chart anywhere.[15]
WhenDel Shannon released a cover version of "From Me to You" onBigtop Records in June, Vee-Jay tried to stimulate more interest in the original, both by placing magazine ads and by sending out additional promotional copies of the 45 stamped with the words "The Original Hit".[15] But the biggest boost to the Beatles' version came fromDick Biondi, who had played "Please Please Me" onWLS inChicago. Biondi was fired by WLS in May and relocated toKRLA 1110 inLos Angeles in June. He was able to convince his new employer to add "From Me to You" to its playlist, and it entered KRLA's "Tune-Dex" on 14 July,[15] spending six weeks on the chart and peaking at 32 on 11 August.[16]
Because of the airplay, and resulting sales, in Los Angeles, "From Me to You" made theBillboardBubbling Under the Hot 100 chart for three weeks, peaking at number 116 on 10 August, the same time the single peaked in Los Angeles.[15] It was the first time the Beatles appeared on a national chart inBillboard.[17] The late attention in Los Angeles spurred sales of the 45; in the end, the original edition of "From Me to You" sold approximately 22,000 copies, roughly three times as many as "Please Please Me" had.[15]
Vee-Jay chose to couple "From Me to You" with "Please Please Me" when it re-released the single on 3 January 1964,[18] shortly after film of the Beatles had appeared onTheJack Paar Program, theNBC televisionprime-time version of Paar's previousTonight Show.[19] Had Vee-Jay known how all-encompassingBeatlemania would become, it likely would have saved "From Me to You" for use as an A-side, the way it did with "Twist and Shout" and "Do You Want to Know a Secret". But even as a B-side, "From Me to You" entered theBillboard chart on 7 March and peaked at number 41[17] and number 6 inCanada.[20] The double-sided hit sold approximately 1.1 million copies in 1964.[21]
An instrumental arrangement, "From Me to You Fantasy" is used in the film,Help!, arranged byKen Thorne, and is track 3 of the original U.S. release of the soundtrack album. It appears during scenes of attempts to remove the ring from Ringo's finger while he sleeps in the Beatles' communal apartment.
"From Me to You" made its first album appearance (overall) on the CanadianTwist and Shout LP in 1964. That same year, it made its US album debut on Vee-Jay'sJolly What! England's Greatest Recording Stars: The Beatles and Frank Ifield on Stage; its first appearance on a "regular" US Beatles album wouldn't come until 1973 when it appeared on thedouble LP compilation1962–1966. In 1966, "From Me to You" was first issued in the UK onA Collection of Beatles Oldies, followed by the1962–1966 compilation seven years later. The first release on CD was in 1988 when it was included in thePast Masters compilation. It was later released on the1962–1966 double CD and the single CD compilation1.
The mono version, which was issued as a single in 1963, has appeared on the 1988 issue ofPast Masters, the1962–1966 CD reissues, the1 compilation released in 2000, andMono Masters in 2009. The stereo version was included on the 1966 compilationA Collection of Beatles Oldies, the original LP issues of1962–1966 in 1973, and the 2009 reissue ofPast Masters. The intro to the stereo version (recorded on two tracks) lacks the harmonica inserted into the mono mix.
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
|
| "From Me to You" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Single byDel Shannon | ||||
| B-side | "Two Silhouettes" | |||
| Released | June 1963 (1963)[36] | |||
| Genre | Rock and roll | |||
| Length | 2:00 | |||
| Label | Bigtop | |||
| Songwriter | McCartney–Lennon | |||
| Del Shannon singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
On 18 April 1963, the Beatles were one of 15 acts to play atSwinging Sound '63, an all-star concert at theRoyal Albert Hall inLondon. They played "From Me to You" and "Twist and Shout".[37]Del Shannon was also on the bill that night.[13] After the concert, he toldJohn Lennon that he was going to record "From Me to You" because he liked the falsetto parts in the song.[13] At first, Lennon was flattered, but he quickly changed his mind, realizing that a cover version by Shannon might hurt the Beatles' chances of having a hit in the States.[13] As it turned out, Lennon was temporarily right, but neither artist's version was a big hit in America.
In early June,Bigtop Records released Shannon's version of "From Me to You" as the follow-up to "Two Kinds of Teardrops." It entered theBillboard Hot 100 on 29 June, becoming the first Lennon–McCartney composition to make the American charts.[38] It spent four weeks on the chart and peaked at number 77.[38] It was even more successful inChicago as it peaked at number 15 on theWLS "Silver Dollar Survey".[39][40]
Shannon's recording follows the Beatles' original almost verbatim, except for a slightly faster tempo andfade-out. "At that time no one had heard of the Beatles here (the US), but I knew they were great writers so I just picked up on one of their songs," Shannon said later.[41]
| Chart (1963) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australia | 21 |
| Canada (CHUMHit Parade)[42] | 13 |
| USBillboardHot 100[36] | 77 |
| USCash Box Top 100[43] | 67 |
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Bobby McFerrin covered the song in his 1986 album,Spontaneous Inventions.
In November 2008, a slowed-down cover version using only piano and vocals became the first Beatles song to be used in a British advertising campaign when it was used inJohn Lewis'Christmas marketing.[44]
On 4 March 2016, a remixed version of the song was released byYolanda Be Cool &DCUP.
Americanindie rock bandFuturebirds included the song on its 2016 EP "Portico I".
