- Published on 1962 – 1965
- Author: Lennon/McCartney
- Track 2 on “Past Masters Volume 1”
What the Beatles said about “From Me To You”
PAUL 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. (jokingly) But we’ll probably write the same old rubbish!!”
JOHN 1980: “We were writing it in a car, I think… and I think the first line was mine. I mean, I know it was mine. (humms melody) And then after that we just took it from there. We were just writing the next single. It was far bluesier than that when we wrote it. The notes, today.. you could rearrange it pretty funky.”
PAUL circa-1994: “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. It was very much co-written.”
Info about “From Me To You”
“From Me To You” was released in April 1963 as their third single. It was written by Paul McCartney and John Lennon. The song was the Beatles’ first number 1 hit on what became the official 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 by Del Shannon resulted in the song becoming the first Lennon–McCartney tune to enter the US pop charts. The Beatles’ original was rereleased in the US in January 1964 as the b-side to “Please Please Me“, and reached number 41.
Personnel
- John Lennon – vocal, rhythm guitar, harmonica
- Paul McCartney – vocal, bass guitar
- George Harrison – lead guitar
- Ringo Starr – drums
